Nonprofits Create Community is NIA’s theme for 2026, as we celebrate the ways that nonprofits come through for their communities in spite of all the challenges facing them. In this series, meet some NIA-insured nonprofits who share their stories of creating community in their own words.
Meet Pacific Beach Coalition of Pacifica, CA
Patrick James Cavanaugh, Executive Director of Pacific Beach Coalition explains:
“Pacific Beach Coalition is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the ocean, coastal habitat, and wildlife and ending litter through advocacy, education, community building, and citizen action.”
How does your nonprofit and your mission create community for the people and places you serve?
Showing Up for the Community with Consistent Commitment
“For more than 28 years, Pacific Beach Coalition has found that the best way to create community for the people and places we serve is to show up.
It sounds simple enough, but our monthly cleanups and habitat restoration events, held consistently and with the same energy, preparedness, and commitment to stewardship now as ever provide a platform for connecting, communing, and collaborating on a tremendous contribution towards a better living for all.”
What are your nonprofit’s biggest challenges or obstacles to creating community?
Climate Change, Affordability, and a Complex, Changing World
“Our nonprofit organization faces similar challenges and obstacles as everyone in our increasingly complex world of fractured community and growing polycrisis.
Whether it’s the inherited legacy of past generation’s mistakes, or the intersectional current and future risks of affordability and climate change, we know people have a lot on their plate.
We hope Pacific Beach Coalition can continue to offer the opportunity for taking action, learning, and inspiring better choices, with both the immediate and lasting impacts rippling outward while we’re here, steadfast and supportive, doing the good work.” the youth who depend on us.”
