The Isla Vista Food Cooperative has increased its total fundraising goals for 2025 and 2026 to a sum of $1 million, cooperative board members said at an emergency town hall held over Zoom on May 15.
The I.V. Food Co-op has increased its total fundraising goals for 2025 and 2026 to a sum of $1 million. Nexus File Photo
The I.V. Food Co-op is a community-owned grocery store that has been operable in Isla Vista for over five decades. It is currently in a financial crisis, after dealing with financial difficulties for the past two years, and is at risk of closure. If it were to close, I.V. ‘s status as a food desert, a community with limited access to nutritious and affordable groceries, would be exacerbated.
At the Co-op’s prior emergency town hall meeting held on April 19, board members said that the 2025 fundraising goal to cover expenses was $150,000 for the summer and a goal of $200,000 for the fall.
At the meeting, the fundraising goal was updated to $500,000 for the rest of 2025, which would help facilitate a “stable financial situation.” According to I.V. Food Co-op Board Treasurer Neal Singh, the raised goal would allow the Co-op to achieve a healthier balance sheet, fully stocked inventory, improved store operations, enhanced marketing and better distribution.
This sum would be used in part to cover $150,000 in loans, which must be repaid by the end of 2025 or face insolvency, a financial state where a debtor cannot meet their financial obligations. The Co-op successfully avoided its first potential insolvency event earlier this month, but is continuously planning to prevent future risks of insolvency.
“Contingency planning is something that is being done with the help of our attorney, who is experienced with cooperative law,” Singh said. “Multiple insolvency scenarios are being conceptualized and assessed.”
The Co-op seeks to fulfill its fundraising goals through donations from high-net-worth individuals, charitable foundations, grassroots community members and state grant programs. According to Board Secretary Marcelino Sepulveda, some methods that the Co-op is currently pursuing to raise funds include utilizing “consistent messaging” on social media platforms and “mining personal connections” with high net worth individuals.
“Our fundraising strategy has changed from small-dollar solicitations — donations from our community — to larger-dollar donors, given the abundance of wealth in our community and the interest in supporting our campaign,” Singh said.
According to Singh, sales at the Co-op’s downtown Santa Barbara location, which opened in 2024, have seen a steady rise — a trend which is expected to continue during the summer months due to increased tourism. Meanwhile, sales at the Co-op’s I.V. location are approximately 10% lower than last year and are expected to decrease as students leave for the summer.
“I.V. sales over the summer, of course, are expected to decline, as has been the case for decades as students will leave,” Singh said. “The root causes of the financial situation right now are, of course, the problematic decline of sales from fewer and fewer customers at our I.V. store.”
Singh explained that the Co-op is currently earning an average monthly revenue of $367,000 and paying $212,000 for cost of goods sold, which amounts to a gross profit of $155,000. However, they face an average per-month net loss of $23,o00.
According to Singh, the Co-op has raised $38,000 to date from various sources, including GoFundMe, and has identified multiple potential donors for further contributions. In order to attract donors, the Co-op has created a set of strategies that could build philanthropic relationships, including developing business planning, conducting multiple internal and external reviews and recruiting additional expertise.
Singh said that reaching fundraising goals would lead to “long-term sustainability and profitability,” especially going into 2026.
The Co-op has also set a total fundraising goal of $500,000 for 2026, which would be used for store enhancements, hiring consultants, community educational programming, management reserves and a relocation of the Santa Barbara store which would be “more sustainable.”
Singh said the Co-op needs to make various improvements beyond mitigating the current financial situation.
“When we look at the root causes of our current situation, we’ve identified that across co-op functions, we have not been operating to best practices and in fact have a lot of room in various categories and areas to improve our function,” Singh said.
According to Singh, strategies including purchasing and receiving goods effectively and tracking inventory wastage are initiatives that the Co-op must undertake for its other plans for improvement to have a “chance for success.”
A version of this article appeared on p. 5 of the May 22, 2025 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
