Sonoma County Economic Development Board Foundation

“The board treasurer reviews the form 990 with the accountant who prepared it. The board is informed of the filing of the tax return and provided with access to the returns.”

“The governing documents, tax returns and financial information are kept in the organization's office. Copies of these documents are available upon request. In addition, the organization's tax return is available on the guidestar website.”

“OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 4: Innovative Council: The Year of the Entrepreneur (YOTE) project was funded by a grant from the Morgan Foundation, with activities beginning during the second half of Fiscal Year 2015-16. The effort garnered the support of over 20 local organizations that work in business development and entrepreneurship. A YOTE partners meeting took place in April 2016, which allowed YOTE partners to learn more about the project as well as weigh in on the potential direction of efforts. The first major YOTE event took place in June of 2016. This event the first installment of the YOTE Speaker Series featured Lyn Graft of Storytelling for Entrepreneurs and Neal Gottlieb, founding partner at Three Twins Ice Cream. OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 5: Research InitiativesSupports the Foundations mission by helping fund research, economic reports, and business tools to assist local businesses and grow the local economy. OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 6: ECONOMIC CONFERENCE - Dr. Steve Cochrane of Moodys Analytics provided an economic outlook for California and Sonoma County on May 20, 2016 to a breakfast group of over 280 for the 2016 Spring Economic Forecast. Well attended by various financial, construction, education and energy-related businesses, the event included a second speaker, Diego Tamburini, Manufacturing Industry Strategist at Autodesk, whose presentation focused on future manufacturing and consumer trends. The event also had an introduction by Supervisor Efren Carrillo and updates by speakers from the EDB. The Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE) presented a video spotlighting successful Career Technical Education (CTE) high school programs in the county, accompanied by displays of the programs with examples of their projects for all to view OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 7: OTHER PROGRAM SERVICES 8: Creative Sonoma, a new program of the Economic Development Board, received grants from the California Arts Council, the Community Foundation Sonoma County and the Hewlett Foundation. During the fiscal year the grants funded 23 professional trainings and workshops, with nearly 400 participants. The broad focus of the trainings was expanding business capacity of creative individuals, enterprises and organizations. Specific topics ranged from developing business plans and financial management to marketing and developing audience and customer base. Seventy-five percent of the events were free as a result of the grant funding. Creative Sonoma received an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 for these workshops. A highlight of these sessions was the Next Level Program for musicians and bands. It included 2 nights of music showcases of local musicians, a day-long music industry conference, and financial grants of $2,500 each to 5 local musicians to move their careers forward to be awarded in the next fiscal year. The funds will be supplemented with 10 hours of one-on-one consulting to give the musicians a strong chance to capitalize on the opportunity.”

“This entity is audited every two years. Next audit will be fall 2017”