Valley Vision Connects the Dots for Sacramento's Future With Collaboration and Data.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this episode. Please send me a text...What does it really take to move a region forward—without picking a side, without chasing headlines, and without sacrificing equity or the environment for “growth”?I had the privilege of sitting down with Evan Schmidt, CEO of Valley Vision, to unpack the organization’s unique role in the Sacramento region: a values-driven convener that brings people together, turns research into action, and helps align partners around the issues that shape quality of life.Evan walks me through Valley Vision’s origin story (born out of the region’s response to base closures), their triple bottom line framework—environmental sustainability, social equity, and economic prosperity—and why collaboration is both essential…and often unglamorous. We also talk about how they measure impact across long time horizons, their Livability Summit and Livability Poll, and what the data is telling us right now about the biggest pressures facing our communities.What we coverWhy Valley Vision exists—and how it’s different from other regional civic organizationsThe “triple bottom line” lens and what it means in real-world decision-makingCollaboration as a discipline: networks, coalitions, alignment, and shared accountabilityThe tension between urgency and trust-building in regional problem solvingLivability Poll takeaways: what residents say are the biggest issues right nowFunding, capacity, and what it would take to scale collective impactChapters & Time Stamps00:00 – Welcome + “alphabet soup” of regional orgs 01:00 – Valley Vision’s origin story and purpose: leadership roundtable + regional stewardship 03:10 – Triple bottom line values: sustainability, equity, and prosperity—without tradeoffs 04:05 – Facilitator and values-driven: why Valley Vision isn’t a neutral “yes to everything” org 07:20 – Where projects come from: contract work, mission alignment, and long-running initiatives 08:45 – What collaboration really looks like (and why it’s not flashy)12:20 – Impact example: Cleaner Air Partnership and long-term systems change 16:20 – Livability Summit: building a regional collaboration conference + shared data 17:40 – Livability Poll: top issues residents name (housing, wages, healthcare access) 19:35 – Housing questions that split the region 50/50—and what that tells us 22:05 – Funding model: grants, contracts, and the challenge of funding “systems-level” work 24:40 – The coming nonprofit shakeout: why deeper collaboration will matter even more 25:10 – Scale + pass-through dollars: bringing investment in and distributing it for regional impact 31:30 – The biggest need: capacity and investment to stay proactive (not only contract-driven) 34:00 – Evan unplugged: family, outdoors, community—and why this work still energizes her 39:10 – Closing: why Valley Vision matters for the Sacramento region’s futureThank you so much for listening to this nonprofit story!  We appreciate you. Please visit the website to sign up for our email updates and newsletter. https://www.nonprofpod.com/  And if you like, leave me a voicemail to comment on the program, leave a question for us to ask in the future or a message for me, Jeff Holden. I may even use your voice mail message in a future episode of one of our incredible local nonprofit organizations. https://www.nonprofpod.com/voicemail. Thanks again for your support in listening, commenting and sharing the great work our local nonprofits are accomplishing.