Nature Center struggles to survive

The Chico Creek Nature Center has once again launched a crowdfunding campaign, this time to compensate for a loss of city funding that could cause the center’s closure next month.

The “Cover the Cuts Campaign” on GoFundMe.com was launched July 25 by CCNC Executive Director Caitlin Reilly, with a description stating the center needs “$10,000 by August 25th to remain open to the public in September and we must raise $60,000 to be able to survive the coming winter.”

A similar crowdfunding effort last September on FundRazr.com netted $755—a quarter of the center’s goal at the time.

The CCNC received no funding from the city of Chico this fiscal year. In 2013-14, the city’s contribution to the center’s operating costs was $35,000, down from $42,500 in 2012-13 (see “Up the creek,” Newslines, Sept. 26, 2013). Before the city’s financial crisis, its annual contribution to the nonprofit CCNC was $65,000.

At press time, the Internet funding campaign had raised about $5,000.