Pictured above: Kyle Fischler
By: Dylan Ruan
In the internal management of a nonprofit, the question of funding is unavoidable.
Nonprofits like CSSC serve their goals by providing community services, energetic events, and transformative programs. Kyle Fischler, treasurer of CSSC, balances the budget to help keep these things coming.
From a young age, Kyle became familiar with the concept of sustainability when the Boy Scouts instilled him with the proverb, leave no trace. “It wasn’t until I took environmental studies courses at UCSB that I realized sustainability wasn’t just about leaving no trace in nature,” Kyle said.
UCSB is not only where Kyle became more in tune with sustainability, but also where he began coordinating sustainable practices. A campus affairs coordinator position with Environmental Affairs Board (EAB) eventually led Kyle to sit on the Campus Sustainability Committee as a student representative. These experiences allowed him to observe how sustainability is managed as a whole, where money is spent, and how policy is set.
Above all, Kyle learned that students could have a role in sustainability as well.
As CSSC’s treasurer, Kyle’s responsibilities include balancing the budget and overseeing grant writing. A job like this comes with its challenges. For one, the goal of many of CSSC’s programs is to help volunteers develop the proper skills to become effective communicators and community organizers. These skills, unless directly linked to a tangible result like the launch of a campaign – UC Fossil-Free comes to mind, can lead to some hesitation by potential funders.
This is where the CSSC development director often steps in with a strategic plan to help the organization coordinate its fundraising efforts to attract funders who share similar goals with CSSC. Kyle, the development director, and other CSSC stakeholders merge their efforts in order to create program budgets for CSSC and seek out funders who see the value in the skills that CSSC provides for its members.
CSSC holds an annual convergence that gathers students interested in sustainability from across the state. The organization’s most recent convergence, at De Anza College, was particularly satisfying for Kyle. “CSSC’s community is what keeps me coming back,” he said. Although Kyle’s planning role in the CSSC convergence was limited, he provided financial back-end support for essential paperwork that balanced the convergence budget and stamped out insurance.
Kyle’s work usually goes on behind-the-scenes, but is vital towards ensuring that CSSC’s programs continue to teach, train, and inspire students across the state to advocate for social, economic, and ecological sustainability.