An on-line survey about collaboration and environmental organizations in Santa Cruz County was conducted in October 2006. This Executive Summary was prepared by Ecology Action to highlight key responses from participants. A full report will be available from Ecology Action in early December. Interested parties are also welcome to directly review all of the survey responses on-line at;
http://www.surveymonkey.com/Report.asp?U=273081322774.

Who Participated?
A high level of participation was achieved in comparison to the 94 organizations listed in
the Community Foundation’s Environmental Directory published in 2004.

• 87 individual survey responses were completed
• Individuals represented 67 separate organizations

The role of respondents in their organizations was diverse:

Organization Demographics
The survey captured a strong diversity of organizations, by type, budget, mission areas
of focus, and ways of achieving mission.

Type of Organization:

Size of Organization by Annual Budget:

How We Accomplish our Mission:

The Mission Areas we work In:

• High responses included:
  • Resource Conservation (48%)
  • Water Quality (45%)
  • Upper Watershed (36%)
  • Coastal Issues (34%), and
  • Fish and Wildlife (32%)
• Low responses Included
  • Air Quality (8%)
  • Environmental Justice (8%), and
  • Renewable Energy (13%)
• The other 14 mission area categories provided in the survey were represented
  strongly, ranging from 18% to 29% respondents

Status of Collaboration

We are already collaborating!

• 87% of respondents were interested in collaborating
• 92% reported collaborating in the last two years
• Those 92% reported collaborating with an average of 3.6 local organizations
  

Our interest in how we want to collaborate was robust and varied.

• We were most interested collaborating to:
  • Participate in information sharing opportunities (62%)
  • Implement projects (60%)
  • Design program (52%)
  • Long range environmental planning for our region (49%)
• We were least but still significantly interested collaborating for:
  • Administrative Support (19%)
• All other categories showed a strong response ranging from 36% to 47%

What We Hope to Gain by Collaborating

Organizations saw many benefits in collaborating.

• The top benefits identified were:
  • Increased level of interaction with the public (58%)
  • Better understand each other’s missions and activities (56%)
  • Participation in information sharing forums (54%)
  • Gain access to advice/lessons from successful local organizations (54%)
• Organizations also saw high value in the 9 other benefit categories, as responses
  ranged from 30% to 49% for all categories across the board.

What We Need to Collaborate

Staff time topped the list of needs to support collaboration.

• Staff time for project development (47%)
• Staff time for grant writing (42%)
• Staff time to engage in planning and visioning for our region (20%)
  Volunteers were the next highest resource need identified (24%).
  Otherwise, organizations reported few needs, with all other resource need categories
  ranging from 4% to 17% response.

What We Can Offer Collaboration

There are more resources available than there are needs to support collaboration.

• There were 73 responses that identified resources available to support
  collaboration compared to only 45 responses identifying needs.
• The most available resources cited are:
  • Participation in information sharing opportunities (64%)
  • Meeting space (43%)
  • Staff time for project development (38%)
  • Staff time to engage in planning and visioning for our region (33%)
    

Collaborating to Meet Community Needs

Over 1,000 Santa Cruz County residents voted on their top priorities for improving our
natural environment by the year 2010. The survey highlights that our local
organizations are not well positioned to address all of the identified goals.

• We strongly address “Improving the health of rivers and ocean”.
  • 65% currently address this goal, and 83% were interested in collaborating
• We fall short in addressing, but are interested in “Increasing open space while
  increasing environmentally sound, affordable housing”.
  • 21% currently address this goal, and 42% were interested in collaborating
• Even fewer address “Reducing single passenger auto use”, although again
  interest in collaborating on this issue was increased.
  • 16% currently address this goal, and 33% were interested in collaborating

Organizations felt that increased environmental education was a key community need
that could benefit from collaboration.

• Environmental education is increased (53%)
• Bi-lingual and bi-cultural environmental education is increased (32%)

Additional community needs that respondents thought would benefit from our increased
collaboration include:

• Marine environmental quality improved (33%)
• Environmental organization increase engagement in local planning (28%)
• Prime farmland preserved (24%)
• Open space preserved (23%)
• Water use reduced (20.5%)
  

For additional information, please email Kirsten Liske or call (831) 426 5925 ext 123