What do you appreciate about NCPC membership?
We believe close collaboration between nonprofits, philanthropists, businesses, the government, and local organizations – including strategy and resource sharing – is essential for meaningfully reducing homelessness.
What is your mission?
The Lucky Duck Foundation’s mission is to prevent and alleviate the suffering of homelessness throughout San Diego County. The Lucky Duck Foundation endeavors to apply sound business principles, strategic collaborations, and a bias for action to fund, activate and lead programs designed to prevent and alleviate homelessness throughout San Diego County. And our co-founders match all donations up to $1.5 million per year.
On March 7 of this year the Lucky Duck Foundation’s Food & Water initiative eclipsed the milestone of 2 million meals distributed to San Diego County’s unsheltered homeless population. Through the program, non-perishable meals and water are assembled by volunteers, such as our Lucky Ducklings youth volunteerism group, and LDF staff coordinate with local outreach organizations to distribute the packed meals throughout San Diego County.
Overall, the program delivers meals to as many as 500 unsheltered individuals daily. The meals serve multiple purposes: providing life-saving sustenance to unsheltered San Diegans, while also better equipping outreach workers to build trust and rapport to help them into supportive services. According to a survey of outreach workers, 93% believe the meals are life-saving and 100% believe the meals make them more effective outreach workers.
On March 31, the Lucky Duck Foundation announced an investment of $689,000 to extend and expand the “Pathways” program at the San Diego College of Continuing Education (SDCCE).
Pathways supports individuals experiencing homelessness by providing 75+ certificate and job training programs, paid internships, job development services, case management, transportation, access to community college, and more, equipping participants to secure long-term, livable wage employment.
Pathways serves individuals in any state of homelessness and partners with any regional social service provider. It is expected more than 225 individuals will benefit from Pathways over the next two years.
What other valuable contributions do you offer to the community?
The Lucky Duck Foundation has funded more than 25 different employment and job training programs benefiting more than 1,800 people; purchased and installed industrial tent structures that shelter more than 450 individuals nightly; distributed more than 17,000 winter coats that transform into sleeping bags; removed more than 200 tons of trash through “Cash for Trash” program which pays homeless individuals $2 per bag of trash cleaned up; created “Shamrocks & Shipwrecks,” a public grading system to evaluate politician’s effectiveness in preventing and reducing homelessness; and much more.
