SBTHP’s 2025-2027 Strategic Plan
By Anne Petersen, Executive Director
The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation is pleased to release its 2025-2027 Strategic Plan. This is the organization’s third strategic plan. Our first, released in 2019, was characterized by a vision to represent the diversity of Santa Barbara and its complex history, and to care for the Presidio Neighborhood. This vision was developed through focus groups (held during the 2018 Thomas Fire!), when we consulted with friends and neighbors who played various roles in our organization and in the community. One year into the implementation of the plan our world changed with the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic. We put our programs, museums, events, and facility rentals on hold and focused on governance—the projects that fall to the wayside when everyone is busy and times are good. Those next couple of years were an important lesson in what can happen to the best laid plans.
I’m not going to pretend I didn’t carry a certain amount of stress as the first few months of this year unfolded. But our board and staff, who all participated in strategic plan workshops, affirmed that no matter what is going on around us, we will stay true to our mission and to our values, and that the community needs us now more than ever. Our new 2025-2027 strategic plan reflects that perspective. With this plan we are deepening our partnerships, focusing on service to our community and to visitors, and recommitting to values and truths that are bigger than our own institution and necessary for the kind of robust civic experience we are striving to create.
To thrive in the next three years, we will direct resources into marketing and awareness-building to ensure the community is knowledgeable about our free school and public programs that can provide respite and hope during difficult times. We will support and uplift the amazing small businesses and local nonprofits that make up the Presidio Neighborhood, because we know we are all stronger when we work together. We are also reaching the building permit phase for several important and visible preservation projects at El Presidio de Santa Bárbara SHP. We will invite the community inside this work to explore with us as we repair, excavate, and restore unique features of our neighborhood. We will also take a close look at our operating model to ensure our sustainability in the future. We will be bold in a difficult time. We will use strategies like prototyping, experimentation, and scenario planning to help our resources go as far as possible and to help us remain creative and innovative. With this talented board and staff, we will ensure that we stay true to our values and also support the community around us. We will be brave, and we are ready for what lies ahead.
Considering the conditions under which we were working during the pandemic, we stayed remarkably true to the intent of our plan. Our new mission statement and organizational values supported our commitment to programs that shared the diversity of local history. We completed a priority restoration project at the commercial building at 135-137 E. De La Guerra Street, fulfilling our goal to preserve the historic resources under our care to the highest standards. As a result of our work, that property is now a City Structure of Merit. We also implemented a display about the Chung family and their business in the bar side of the Jimmy’s Oriental Gardens building, now the Pickle Room.
Our second strategic plan, 2022-2024, built upon the first. As we emerged from the pandemic, we entered a new growth phase. We attracted new partners like the Mujeres Makers Market and Farmer and the Flea to El Presidio de Santa Bárbara SHP, completed key visitor experience projects like the Historical Wedding Experience at El Presidio SHP, and enhancements and updates to the exhibits at Casa de la Guerra. We strengthened our role in the Presidio Neighborhood with the acquisition of the Presidio Neighborhood district marketing project from Hugh Margerum. We grew our board and staff with exciting and talented new people with lots of energy and good ideas.
Beginning a new strategic plan in 2025 is a different scenario all together. While our commitment to community-building through public and school programs and preservation work remains as strong as ever, the world around us has shifted. We now face persistent economic uncertainty, the elimination of traditional sources of funding and professional development for museums and historical organizations, and threats to the very values of our organization. How do we plan for success in that kind of world?
