What's A Zoot?
After being severely burned as an infant, many surgeries, and losing all the muscles in his right foot, Zoot overcame his disability to work for a dozen years as an international touring artist, screen actor, dancer, and arts educator— the recipient of 17 grants, numerous commissions, A California Arts Council (CAC) Multicultural Arts Leaders/Coro Fellowship, and working on projects with artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Arsenio Hall, and James Cameron. He was an artist in residence in schools, prisons, and juvenile halls. He participated in the 1992 South LA Riot Recovery program and led the 1994 LA Earthquake Recovery Arts Program in 10 Red Cross shelters around Northridge. His transition to administration came by leading an award-winning prison arts program for six years, with inmate work showcased at the Getty and Hammer museums and the Library of Congress.
In 2000, Zoot became Arts Center Director for the Harbor area of LA Cultural Affairs, where he managed and opened four new community cultural centers, transitioned six partnered centers, and produced four festivals. Later, as interim director, he helped create a new theatre and recording studio for Long Beach’s Homeland Cultural Center. When the Unusual Suspects Theatre Company lost its site and contract working in juvenile halls, he developed a new approved program curriculum and five new sites as their interim leader. Fullerton’s historic Muckenthaler Cultural Center was close to bankruptcy in 2007 when Zoot took the helm. Six months later, the recession hit. During the Great Recession, income, audience, and programs quadrupled. This growth resulted from consensus vision planning, great original programming and presenting, innovative social enterprise, DEI audience development, the first STEAM programs in Orange County, which won county and state awards, institutional arts program contracts, and resource development.
This success led to an MBA, the authorship of two books on nonprofit leadership, and a new career path. Zoot led the Gianneschi Center for Nonprofit Research at Cal State Fullerton while teaching and training leaders there, at Cal Poly Pomona, and at Fullerton College.
As a consultant and CEO, he has routinely doubled the budgets of organizational clients, raising over $42M as a CFRE with an 86% success rate on grants. He raised $2M in two years to restore the foundation for Fullerton College and double the endowment after the old foundation went defunct in 2020. He co-founded the first Drone Apprenticeship program in the country there, adding substantially to the college’s trade programs. Most recently, as interim CEO, he led HOPE Center for the Arts in a new program that doubled income after HOPE struggled to return from COVID.
Zoot is a Past President of the Fullerton Rotary Club, an adjunct professor, a registered historical scholar with the California Humanities Council, the author of three books, and the host of the podcast 501(c)3bs, which is rated in the top 120 on Apple for Nonprofit podcasts.
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Download Zoot’s Resume HERE
What is 4M-Pact?
Why do we, as a sector, define ourselves by what we don’t do well… make a profit? Who else defines themselves by their tax status? And by doing that, do we take the emphasis off of sustainability? We should be defining ourselves by what we do well: Social Impact. If we did, we might better evaluate our work and find sustainable social enterprise. In my take on “4M-Pact,” I am working to drive this point home. My four Ms?
Mission- It all comes down to the mission and being mission-driven for success.
Management- We must prioritize best practices of leadership, management, and supervision for sustainable success through regular maintenance (wait, is that another M?).
Modeling- There are few new ideas in the world. What can we learn from other models in our sector and in other sectors? Let’s always look for and take the best ideas out there to make us better.
Magic- Leave room for great culture, strategic partnerships, and innovation that makes magic happen in our communities… The unseen, but definitely felt, part of our work.
With these four “M”s, we can make a great social impact on our communities and set ourselves up for great success that outlasts our leadership of it!
