Founding and Scaling a Nonprofit Organization
In 2012, Susie founded the Tahoe Food Hub to strengthen the regional food system by connecting local farms and ranches with schools, restaurants, grocery stores, hospitals, and consumers throughout the Northern Sierra and Lake Tahoe region. The work involved building the organization from the ground up, including: •Writing and securing nonprofit 501(c)(3) status •Forming and developing a governing board •Building operational and financial systems •Developing staffing structures and organizational processes •Grant writing and fundraising •Community engagement and stakeholder development •Building partnerships across agriculture, business, education, and public health sectors What began with five farms and five restaurant accounts grew into a regional network serving more than 50 farms and ranches and over 100 wholesale accounts, while also expanding into direct-to-consumer programs. The organization continues to operate today as a long-term example of sustainable nonprofit growth rooted in community need, operational planning, and cross-sector collaboration.
Case Studies
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Developing Programs that Increase Outreach, Engagement, and Provide a Community Benefit
While working with the Center for Land-Based Learning in Yolo County, California, Susie helped expand a mobile farmers market program designed to increase access to fresh, local, organic produce within underserved communities. Yolo County has some of the highest rates of food insecurity in California, with many residents facing barriers related to transportation, affordability, and access to healthy food. The mobile market program was designed to bring fresh produce directly into low-income neighborhoods, senior housing centers, and communities with limited food access. The work involved: •Program development and operational coordination •Community outreach and engagement •Building partnerships with local farms and community organizations •Mobile logistics and scheduling systems •Vendor and stakeholder coordination •Expanding equitable access to healthy food The program used an innovative community-based approach to make fresh food more accessible while simultaneously supporting local agriculture and regional food systems. This experience demonstrated how thoughtful program development, operational coordination, and community-centered partnerships can strengthen outreach, engagement, and long-term community impact.
Stewarding a Leadership Transition and Succession Plan for Long-Term Organizational Sustainability
As the founder of a nonprofit organization, Susie navigated the complex process of leadership transition and succession planning to support the long-term stability of the organization beyond its founding leadership. This work involved evaluating how to successfully transition institutional knowledge, maintain operational continuity, support staff and board leadership, and strengthen organizational resilience during a period of significant change. The process included: •Succession planning and transition strategy •Organizational documentation and operational continuity •Board communication and leadership alignment •Staff transition support •Knowledge transfer systems •Long-term sustainability planning This experience provided a strong understanding of the challenges organizations face during leadership transitions and the importance of thoughtful planning to preserve organizational culture, stability, and momentum.
Designing Earned Income Models for Nonprofit Organizations to Diversify Revenue
Throughout her career, Susie has helped develop earned-income strategies that allow nonprofit organizations to diversify revenue streams, reduce dependence on grants and donations, and build long-term operational sustainability. Two examples are the Farm to Market program at Tahoe Food Hub and the national tour program for the South Yuba River Citizens League’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival. With the Farm to Market program at Tahoe Food Hub, Susie designed a nonprofit model that generated earned revenue through wholesale and retail food distribution while simultaneously advancing the organization’s broader mission of supporting regional agriculture and increasing community access to local food. The work involved: 1. Identifying mission-aligned opportunities for earned revenue by understanding organizational strengths, community needs, market demand, and the assets that could support a viable revenue-generating program. 2. Designing the business and revenue model, including the value proposition, customer and partner relationships, pricing, financial projections, and the operational requirements needed to make the model sustainable. 3. Building the systems and infrastructure to support implementation, from processes and workflows to partnerships, staffing, technology, and day-to-day operations. 4. Balancing revenue generation with mission impact, ensuring that earned-income activities strengthened rather than competed with the organization’s broader purpose and community goals. 5. Testing, evaluating, and refining the model for sustainability and growth, creating systems that could adapt as demand increased and the organization evolved. The model helped transform Tahoe Food Hub from a startup nonprofit into a financially operational regional food hub serving farms, restaurants, schools, hospitals, grocery stores, and consumers throughout the Northern Sierra region. Susie’s experience founding and scaling the organization included full operational and financial oversight and growing the organization to $1.5 million in annual revenue. At the South Yuba River Citizens League, Susie developed the Wild & Scenic Film Festival’s national tour program into a scalable earned-income model that simultaneously expanded outreach and generated revenue for the organization. Recognizing that grassroots nonprofits across the country could benefit from a stronger tool for community engagement and fundraising, she developed a replicable program model and implementation toolkit that allowed organizations to host localized versions of the festival aligned with their own mission and audience. Over five years, the national tour expanded from a handful of small pilot programs into a network reaching more than 110 cities nationwide. Susie built the operational systems, marketing materials, and host-partner frameworks needed to make the model replicable across a geographically distributed network. Together, these projects demonstrate experience in helping mission-driven organizations identify earned-income opportunities, design viable revenue models, build the operational infrastructure to support them, and develop programs that can grow while remaining aligned with organizational mission. The experience spans both a **mission-driven business model built within a nonprofit organization** and a **replicable program model that generated revenue while expanding organizational reach.