Fund for S.B. Announces New Leadership at Bread & Roses

At the annual Bread & Roses fundraiser on October 8, the Fund for Santa Barbara celebrated the Fund’s accomplishments under Marcos Vargas’s eight years of leadership and announced that Eder Gaona-Macedo will succeed Vargas as executive director. The event raised about $110,000 for the Fund’s social justice work.

On a sunny afternoon at Elings Park, the 500 guests enjoyed a reception with food and beverages from a couple dozen purveyors. Guests were then seated at tables for the mid-afternoon program. As always, the event drew many nonprofit leaders, activists, politicians, and donors united by a strong bond of supporting the Fund’s work.

Vargas highlighted some of the Fund’s accomplishments under his leadership:

• Led in the establishment of the Immigrant Legal Defense Fund, which provided seed funding for the Immigrant Legal Defense Center and funding to other legal service providers
• Led in the convening of the Central Coast Immigration Network, comprising 15 nonprofits
• With the County, established a Racial Equity Fund to support persons of color–led organizations and other groups fighting oppression
• With others, established the Central Coast Climate Justice Network to expand participation of communities of color
• With the USC Regional Equity Institute, the UCSB Blum Center, and the three tri-county community foundations, undertook a regional equity study that has provided data to support organizing efforts and is now an ongoing initiative
• Expanded funding and technical support to Chumash bands and organizations
• With UCSB faculty and labor unions, established the region’s first Labor Center
• Made grants to nonprofits working to combat book bans and gun-related violence, and those working to support reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and the rights of unhoused people

Vargas concluded with a warm welcome to his successor, Gaona-Macedo, who presently is Senior Officer of Community Engaged Research at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. Previously, he served as executive director of Future Leaders of America and was a cofounder and manager of the 805 UndocuFund. Gaona-Macedo shared that he was a beneficiary of the Fund in high school, participating in its Future Leaders program. He related that he was “honored to lead with vision and love, yet with strategy and fire.”

The annual Firebrand Award went to 15-year-old Santa Maria resident Cesar Vasquez for his already significant work as a teenager on issues of immigration, women’s rights, gun violence, and more. The Founder’s Award was posthumously presented to Gloria Liggett for her assistance to many individuals and groups, including the Chumash and the Fund for S.B.

Geoff Green, a former Fund for S.B. executive director, led a live auction and paddle raise. The event concluded with an extended performance by the Vivian Storm Experience, which energized the crowd and led to a lively dance floor.

Last year, in addition to its capacity building work, the Fund provided $100,000 in grants from its General Fund, which were spread over 11 nonprofits. Through the Racial Equity Fund (funded by the County), it distributed nearly $234,000, spread over four nonprofits. In a separate teen-led program, Youth Making Change, a North County and South County board of teens awarded $25,000 to 11 nonprofits.