San Diego Coastkeeper “Graduation Report”

By Gina Rogers


Debris accumulated at the mouth of Chollas Creek in SD Bay after a storm.

At the June First Friday luncheon, a group of more than 20 Partners and their guests heard Bruce Reznik, Executive Director of San Diego Coastkeeper, present a report on the dramatic growth they’ve achieved over their three years as a member of SDSVP’s Class of 2005 Investees.

The success of Coastkeeper’s work to protect San Diego’s bays, beaches and watersheds came through loud and clear, as Bruce outlined some of their important accomplishments, including an 83% reduction in sewage spills and the City’s commitment to investing nearly $1 billion in collection infrastructure over the next five; strong urban runoff protections that include provisions on Low Impact Development (LID) and minimizing erosion potential and have become a national model; development of cleanup plans for some of the regions most contaminated waterways; and youth educational outreach reaching more than 40,000 children annually through Coastkeeper’s Project SWELL water quality and pollution prevention curricula.

On the capacity building front, during Coastkeeper’s time as an SDSVP Investee the organization’s staff grew from six FTEs to 11 today and its annual budget rose from $564K to nearly $1.5 million. This is truly a remarkable accomplishment. SDSVP support for this growth included assistance with a re-branding campaign (new name, new logo, and supporting collateral materials); board development, with SDSVP Partner, David Field now serving as board president; wide-ranging member and donor development (identifying a member benefits program, supporting major donor events, and grant-writing); and IT Team support (especially during their move into new office space and with the implementation of eTapestry).

Bruce ended his discussion outlining the many pressing issues Coastkeeper is addressing going forward. The informal First Friday setting offered the opportunity for a discussion about strategies for attaining success in key areas like reducing urban runoff and accelerating the stalled sediment cleanup plan for San Diego Bay.