SANTA CLAUS INCORPORATED OF GREATER SAN BERNARDINO

The goal of Santa Claus, Inc./Youth Enrichment Services (YES!) is to bring joy and provide essential services to children suffering from chronic poverty, homelessness and other difficult situations. Initially this joy came only during the Holidays through the SCI annual Christmas distribution; however, today SCI/YES! provides emergency homeless assistance, works directly with agencies helping foster children and provides ongoing distributions of school supplies, personal hygiene items, infant items, toys, books, blankets and pillows, shoes, clothing and coats year round. SCI/YES!'s goal is to provide for the ongoing demands as it continues to expand services to make a bigger impact on the lives of children who need help the most. A secondary goal is the importance of allowing volunteers to steer the organization and the incredible good that it does. Operating with two full time and two part time employees, Santa Claus, Inc. relies heavily on its strong volunteer force. Santa Claus, Inc. is an exemplary nonprofit that uses the strength of its volunteers to help those less fortunate. Working at Santa Claus, Inc. is a rewarding experience for its generous volunteers. Providing and encouraging a love of community service, Santa Claus, Inc./Youth Enrichment Services has a robust, constantly increasing volunteer base.

Santa Claus, Inc. provides for vastly larger numbers of children throughout the year by increasing its outreach to over 50 other nonprofits, 8 school districts, San Bernardino and Riverside County agencies, shelters, law enforcement, and others. Having served over one million children since 1952 the goal of Santa Claus, Inc./Youth Enrichment Services is to increase its giving to over 250,000 over the next five years.

Five years ago, after 60 years of giving to the community, Santa Claus, Inc. took a hard look at its operations, its inventory and what larger impact it could make throughout Inland Empire communities. After assessing its internal and external factors, the SCI Executive Director and Board of Directors took on the bold initiative to lead the organization to the forefront of service delivery and growth. With innovative and strong year-round programs, Santa Claus, Inc.'s Youth Enrichment Services(YES!) brought the organization up to an entirely different level of giving. YES! provides year round services as an extension of Santa Claus, Inc. Assisting over 100,000 children throughout the Inland Empire annually, YES! helps the youth in our most impoverished communities in ways that help enrich and improve the quality of each child's life. Youth Enrichment Services say YES we do, YES we will, YES, we can, in times of greatest need.

The reason for SCI's long standing continuity is excellent partnerships with sponsors and local and national in-kind donors. Maintaining and nurturing these partnerships is a key element in the success of SCI/YES! and its reach into the community. Truckloads of donations worth millions of dollars in new toys, clothing and shoes are delivered to SCI's warehouse throughout the year. These donations have enabled SCI/YES! to serve 100,000 children in 2015 and 2016. We are on track to serve 110,000 in 2017. A key strategy is to keep these partnerships active and to be responsive to new donors and their goals of giving.

Another key strategy is the development of responsive volunteer training modules that enable volunteers to learn new skills while at the same time enjoying working in a team environment and feeling a sense of reward in what they do, who they are helping and why they choose to do so. Many of our seasoned volunteers have been engaged at our distribution warehouse for decades. SCI/YES! has volunteer groups from schools, local businesses, large corporations, other nonprofits, and churches that help us receive and sort goods and distribute to those in need. Volunteers have been the heart and soul of SCI for over 65 years and will continue to be so in the future.

After 65 years of giving to the community, SCI has learned to identify key partnerships and how to develop them. SCI has always nurtured growing commitments and above all maintained a transparent and open communication gateway with its donors. These growing partnerships have helped SCI operate for 65 years.

With the modernization of the agency's goals and objectives, also comes the mission to seek aggressive fundraising techniques that will help SCI/YES! grow its reach within the community and expand its menu of services. With innovative and timely programs rolling out yearly, the agency is setting itself at the forefront of nonprofit development and community giving.

Donations of in kind goods continue to increase, providing SCI/YES! with the needed products to continue its growth. With the continual increase in product comes the need for quality oversight and strong inventory control. An excellent state of the art inventory control system was installed in 2017.

The need for additional funding is always there for nonprofits, especially for those growing at a fast rate. SCI./YES has recently hired a Director of Development to develop and implement new and innovative funding strategies for the organization.

SCI has reached and more than accomplished hugely impactfull changes over the last 3 to 5 years, as it has reached the highest benchmarks ever set for the organization. In 1985 its first building was built on leased County land. The total annual lease is $1 and the location has been intact for the last 30 years. Over the last 4-5 years SCI tested its reach by developing quarterly distributions to children and families. These included both new and lightly worn clothing, shoes, books and toys for the family. The demand grew and the goal was set to expand SCI's year-round efforts; thereby re-branding these vital services to Youth Enrichment Services/YES!

In 2012 the first employee in the organization's history, the Executive Director, was hired to lead the organization. A new, very focused and professional, Board of Directors was installed and the plans were set to expand SCI's public image as well as its reach and services. There is more to do, but the primary goals of securing valuable warehousing equipment and state of the art inventory control systems, the addition of a new administrative office trailer, and the development of specialized programs have been reached.

With growth comes the need for additional support. An important goal is to hire an effective core employee workforce. Currently with an Executive Director, and Executive Assistant/bookkeeper (PTE), a Director of Development, and an Inventory Control Specialist (PTE), additional staffing at SCI will provide more oversight for the organization. Additional staff slated to be added during the next phase of development over the next three years will be a Warehouse Director and a Director of Volunteers.