Santa Barbara County is one step closer to a comprehensive view of community wellbeing. With the launch of four focus areas (health, food security, housing and economic security) and a major grant from Eric and Wendy Schmidt, the Santa Barbara County Community Wellbeing Dashboard is on track for full completion by 2027.
With generous funding from the Santa Barbara Foundation, the Natalie Orfalea Foundation, the Towbes Foundation and the Schiele Family Foundation, this community-led collaborative effort began in 2024 and will ultimately include data for eight interconnected elements that provide windows into the county’s collective wellbeing.
The remaining four focus areas (education, peace and justice, sustainable ecosystems, and community connectedness) will be available in 2027, made possible with a $250,000 grant from Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
“Information is essential for action–we can’t address, or even comprehend, problems we can’t see,” said Wendy Schmidt. “The Santa Barbara County Community Wellbeing Dashboard offers a real-time snapshot of how our region is thriving and where it needs support, laying the groundwork for far-reaching, resilient solutions for the beautiful place we’re lucky to call home.”
“The Santa Barbara Foundation is thrilled that with the generous grant from Eric and Wendy Schmidt, the work we envisioned and supported beginning in 2024 to make relevant, actionable information available to all with the Santa Barbara County wellbeing dashboard will be completed next year,” said Jackie Carrera, Santa Barbara Foundation president and CEO. “Without community contributions of funding, knowledge, experience, and guidance, this project would still be just an idea. Thanks to the Schmidts, the idea will become a fully developed reality next year.”
The dashboard offers a single, accessible online location to find data and resources regarding community wellbeing in Santa Barbara County. It tracks essential metrics to equip residents, policymakers, nonprofit organizations and funders with timely data to understand community needs, identify challenges and make informed decisions.
Beyond serving as a shared data resource, the dashboard has established an ongoing network of partners committed to learning together and coordinating action. To date, 214 individual partners from 101 organizations across the nonprofit, government, funding, and business sectors have contributed to developing the dashboard’s content.
Partners on the dashboard project align around shared goals, engage in honest dialogue, and shape a framework for collective impact to realize the long-term vision for the dashboard: a community where data is understood, shared, and used collectively to improve wellbeing. At monthly collaborative workshop sessions, partners share data, expertise, and ideas, shaping the dashboard through a participatory process.
“Data is essential to understanding the health and well-being of our community — where we’re making progress, where needs are emerging, and where we must do better,” said Beth Skidmore, board chair and executive lead, Rooted Santa Barbara County. “This Dashboard brings together data, resources, and lived experience across areas of wellbeing too often viewed separately, helping us see how deeply connected they are. Rooted was proud to contribute to this effort and especially grateful for LegacyWorks’ leadership in connecting food security and health, with ‘Food is Medicine’ represented across both. Making these intersections visible gives us both a responsibility and an opportunity to invest, collaborate, and act in ways that can meaningfully improve community health.”
The initiative is facilitated by LegacyWorks, which supports partners, guides the process, and helps ensure community priorities are clearly reflected in the dashboard. Content, direction, and decisions are guided by the partners themselves, ensuring the dashboard reflects real community experience.
“LegacyWorks is incredibly grateful to be partnering with so many organizations, funders and leaders who inspire us and contribute their time, data, expertise and lived experience to this ongoing collective effort,” said Ellen Kwiatkowski, LegacyWorks’ director of the Central Coast regional initiative.
Community members, agencies and organizations are invited to participate in upcoming dashboard development. Interested parties may learn more or inquire about engagement opportunities by contacting Ellen Kwiatkowski, Regional Director at LegacyWorks Central Coast, at ellen@legacyworksgroup.com.
About Santa Barbara Foundation
Founded in 1928, the Santa Barbara Foundation actively connects donors, nonprofits, government, businesses and the people of Santa Barbara County to take on the most challenging needs facing our region’s communities. Recognizing that its work depends on the strength of the social sector, the Foundation is committed to the health and vitality of local nonprofits. Knowing that together we can do more, the Foundation mobilizes charitable giving and connects their expertise to that of donors, nonprofits, and residents to create meaningful impact on the communities of our county. SBFoundation.or
About Eric and Wendy Schmidt
Eric and Wendy Schmidt have been active philanthropists since 2006, when they started the Schmidt Family Foundation to address challenges facing communities around the world, working for clean renewable energy, healthy food systems, healthy oceans and the protection of human rights. They also founded Schmidt Ocean Institute to advance oceanographic research by offering scientists free access to the world’s first year-round philanthropic research vessel in exchange for making their findings publicly available. In 2024, Eric and Wendy founded Schmidt Sciences, a nonprofit organization working to accelerate scientific knowledge and breakthroughs with the most promising advanced tools to support a thriving planet. Through their philanthropy, the couple are working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all.
About the Shiele Foundation
The Schiele Family Foundation was established in 2022 to support emerging community needs and the Schiele family’s charitable priorities. Since inception, grantmaking has focused primarily on nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara whose work strengthens the arts, the environment, nonprofit collaboration and leadership development, social justice, and youth.
About the Natalie Orfalea Foundation
The Natalie Orfalea Foundation was founded in 2017 . Their vision is to be a catalyst for spiritual and societal transformation for stronger, more compassionate communities and a better world. They partner with innovative organizations doing transformative work in the areas of environment and conservation, education, health and well-being and advancing the rights and opportunities of women and girls, through the lens of story-telling and community building. https://www.natalieorfaleafoundation.org/
About the Towbes Foundation
The Towbes Foundation is a family foundation established in 1980 by Michael and Gail Towbes, dedicated to strengthening the communities of Santa Barbara County. Since its founding, the Foundation has granted more than $25 million to over 400 organizations primarily in Santa Barbara County. Today, the Foundation concentrates its resources on mental health, supporting children, youth, families, and adults through prevention and early intervention, expanded access to services, and effective treatment. The Foundation’s support of the Community Wellbeing Dashboard reflects its continued commitment to data-informed, community-driven solutions in Santa Barbara County. www.towbesfoundation.org
About LegacyWorks
LegacyWorks is a nonprofit organization that partners with communities across the country and locally in Santa Barbara to address their most complex challenges—those that no single organization can solve alone. They catalyze collaborative initiatives that bring people together to reshape the future of their landscapes and communities. Their work focuses on high-impact arenas including wildlife, disaster resilience, land conservation, food and agriculture, water, and community resilience. LegacyWorksGroup.com
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