January 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 50

Inside SFPT

Exhilarating, Exciting, Exhausting

Following career stints in the
for-profit field of finance on the
east and west coasts, Karen Kidwell
transitioned into nonprofits early
in the last decade, fulfilling a personal commitment to work in the
philanthropic world. Kidwell got
her start with nonprofit organizations by serving seven years on the
Board of Directors of the Committee
for Green Foothills. She was a trustee of Earthshare of California, and
is currently a trustee of the Green
Foothills Foundation. Having expeKaren Kidwell
rienced firsthand the importance
of parks in both New York's and San
Francisco's urban settings, she she
came to deeply appreciate the need for green open spaces. " Parks simply
make life in San Francisco better, " she says. In 2008, Kidwell became executive director of the San Francisco Parks Trust (SFPT). Below, Kidwell discusses her role as head of a parks citizen group.
The same thing that makes leading a parks organization easy also makes it difficult. The people who step forward are engaged and passionate, often considering
a park to be almost their personal property. That enthusiasm and energy mean that
they will work hard and dedicate themselves to a park or greening cause. Lots of people are very generous with their time and funds in support of parks-they understand
their importance and care a lot, so that makes my job easy. However, not all users of
parks agree on usage, policies, etc., so it's possible to have passionate disagreements
about our parks and those disagreements can be hard to mediate.
In addition to the " must-have " skills/qualities of being organized, listening well,
possessing high energy and enthusiasm and balancing the interests of all, it's important to have a bias to action tempered by patience. It's crucial in these times of crisis
for parks to move ahead with fundraising and advocacy, and to push and push hard.
However, some things don't yield to pushing in the short run, so it's important to know
when to pull back and let things resolve themselves or return when the situation has
settled down a bit.
Right now I'm spending at least 40 percent of my time on development and fundraising of various types and working with staff and consultants on campaigns to bring
funds directly to the rec centers and parks, with our GearUp and reStore campaigns
(equipment for rec centers and gardeners, respectively), a capital campaign for
trails, and fundraising for SFPT. After that, about 30 percent of my time is spent on
programs and organizational management, including work with our 60 park partner groups. The balance is spent working on advocacy and issues with our RPD colleagues and trustees, communicating with the public and our members and going to
meetings on park/rec issues.
This is an exhilarating and rewarding job, and it can be exhausting, too. The economic crunch has made it even more difficult. It's easy to feel overwhelmed, so I suggest that anyone in this position set a clear set of goals and priorities to ensure that you
actually accomplish something tangible. Your partners, staff, and board of trustees
must know the goals and embrace them. Every day there is a new crisis and another
great idea that you could tackle. But sometimes you have to say no, or " no for now "
to ensure that you can deliver on what you have promised.
48	 Parks & Recreation

JANUARY 2011

www.NRPA .ORG

Friends groups have been around
for a long time; many date to the 1970s
and 1980s, when suburban sprawl first
began to encroach upon beloved nature preserves, historic sites, and parkland. Typically, a citizens group would
coalesce around such crises as development threats or budget cuts. After
successfully confronting the crisis, the
citizens would then continue to function
as a " booster " group to enhance programs and improve facilities.
That park booster paradigm has
shifted. In this era of budget cuts and
stretched resources, the roles of organized, skilled citizen volunteers have
expanded into areas that formerly fell
wholly under the jurisdiction of park
employees. Moreover, friends groups
increasingly serve in the role of providing the funding necessary to keep the
objects of their causes going. As Karen
Kidwell, president of the San Francisco
Parks Trust, explains, " Whereas our local park friends groups used to supply
toppings for the sundae, they are now
providing the ice cream. "
Ironically, even as the need for volunteer groups skyrockets, the elimination of volunteer coordinator positions
in park districts across the country has
created new challenges for many agencies seeking to harness its citizen resources as well as for citizens seeking
to serve the agencies. One result of this
loss of park staff leadership has been
the expanded roles of groups such as
K idwel l's -u mbrel la orga n izations
that serve essentially as friends of the
friends groups.
The ingredients that make for successful partnerships between parks
and citizen volunteers are just as diverse as the needs those partnerships
fill. Interviews with agencies and citizen groups across the country point
to one overarching theme of effective
partnership: a clear, well defined citizen group mission that responds directly and specifically to the most pressing
needs of the park(s) it supports. Additionally, once the mission is in place, it
is the day-to-day process of building



January 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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