Panel: Why Business & Nonprofit Partnerships Matter: Creating Impact Beyond Profit!
3:00 PM
Today’s most resilient and respected businesses understand that profit and purpose are not opposites—they are partners.
Experience Description
Profit and purpose are not opposites—they are partners. This panel brings together nonprofit and business leaders to explore how organizations can create meaningful social impact while remaining financially strong, offering practical insights for leaders ready to build businesses that benefit both community and bottom line.
SD Cause 2025 Conference
This dynamic panel convenes leaders from three influential nonprofit organizations and two mission-aligned for-profit businesses to engage business owners, entrepreneurs, and community stakeholders in an essential conversation:
How can businesses balance profitability with purpose while creating measurable, lasting impact?
Representing the nonprofit sector are:
Adrianna O’Donnell, Chief Growth Officer, Chicano Federation
Elsa Morales-Roth, Executive Director, Emilio Nares Foundation
Staci Reidinger, Cause San Diego/Cause Conference Co-Founder, Executive Director.
Tina Matthias, South Bay Sustainable Communities Founder and Executive Director, and SB Elevate Board Member.
These leaders bring deep experience in community advocacy, workforce development, health equity, and social impact, offering a firsthand perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing our region.
They are joined by values-driven business leaders:
Louis Barajas, Co-Founder, Corazon Financial Advocates.
Alex Lombrozo, Founder, Lombrozo & Associates Real Estate.
Together, panelists will share real-world examples, frameworks, and lessons learned on how companies—regardless of size—can intentionally assess and improve their impact on workers, customers, communities, the environment, and governance while remaining financially strong and competitive.
Designed for entrepreneurs, executives, and community leaders who want to move beyond good intentions, this panel highlights how mission-aligned practices strengthen trust, resilience, and long-term success—demonstrating how cross-sector collaboration can build a healthier, more equitable, and prosperous social and economic ecosystem.
Key Takeaways
Understand why balancing profit and purpose is essential for long-term business success.
Learn how to assess business impact across workers, community, environment, customers, and governance.
Discover practical ways to integrate social responsibility into daily operations and business strategy.
Gain insight into how purpose-driven practices improve trust, brand loyalty, and employee engagement.
Learn how nonprofits and for-profit businesses can collaborate to amplify community impact.
Leave with actionable ideas to use your business as a force for good
Presenters
Adrianna O'Donnell
Adrianna O’Donnell is the Chief Growth Officer at Chicano Federation, where she drives the organization’s philanthropic strategy, marketing, communications and strategic partnerships to advance opportunity, equity, and dignity for families and communities across San Diego County. An immigrant from Colombia and the first in her family to earn a four-year college degree, Adrianna brings more than 20 years of nonprofit and philanthropic leadership rooted in lived experience, trust building, and results driven growth.
At Chicano Federation, Adrianna has helped grow philanthropic revenue, elevate storytelling and transparency, and advance major capital and programmatic initiatives that expand community-based services for families in need and support long term organizational sustainability. She holds an MBA in Not for Profit Management from Chaminade University of Honolulu, a bachelor’s degree in International Business from Johnson and Wales University, and is a Certified Fund Raising Executive. Adrianna previously served as the first Latina President of AFP San Diego and remains active in regional civic and leadership organizations, including LEAD San Diego and the National City Chamber of Commerce.
Elsa Morales-Roth
Elsa Morales-Roth is a Mexican-Honduran binational leader with over 18 years of experience serving communities across the CaliBaja region, with a career spanning the government, business, and nonprofit sectors. She is the first Latina Executive Director of the Emilio Nares Foundation, where she leads initiatives supporting families facing childhood cancer and other life-threatening illnesses through multilingual, wrap-around services that ensure equitable access to healthcare for communities of color. In her first year, Elsa launched a mental health program for children in cancer remission that received international recognition from BBC London.
Deeply committed to uplifting the community, Elsa serves as Chair of the International Community Foundation, co-chairs the Cancer Committee of the Health Consortium of the Californias, and is a member of the LEAD San Diego Board. Although she has been recognized as a San Diego Business Journal Latino Leader of Influence, a 40 Leaders Under 40 honoree, and a recipient of the County of San Diego District One Latinx Leadership Award, her greatest fulfillment comes from the everyday impact she makes supporting families and building healthier, more equitable communities on both sides of the border.
Elsa holds a Bachelor’s in Communications from Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and a Master’s in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from the University of San Diego.
Staci Reidinger
Staci Reidinger, APR+M, is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Cause San Diego, Director of the Cause Conference, and Co-Director of the San Diego County Doughnut Economics Alliance. She also serves as President of Reidinger Public Relations. An award-winning public relations, marketing, and nonprofit professional, Staci is a 24-year U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran with extensive leadership experience across corporate, nonprofit, and public service sectors.
Staci previously led The UPS Store’s PR and Social Media Operations, supporting more than 5,000 franchise locations nationwide. She has helped multiple nonprofits collectively raise over $2.5 million and founded the Business & Nonprofit Crisis Support Network in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Throughout her career, Staci has remained deeply committed to public service, providing pro bono support to nonprofits, advocating for military veterans, mentoring youth, and working to reduce homelessness. She has served on the PRSA San Diego and Imperial Counties Board of Directors and currently serves as Adjunct Professor at San Diego State University, Past President of HomeAid San Diego, and Communications Director for the Navy Marine Corps PROUD Foundation.
Staci holds a B.A. in English and Education from the University of Colorado Boulder, an MBA with an emphasis in Marketing from Capella University, and an M.A. in Communications and Media Studies from San Diego State University.
Her honors include 2024 San Diego Business Journal Veteran Leader of the Year, three PRSA Bronze Anvil Awards, and the 2020 PRSA National Paul M. Lund Public Service Award. She lives in San Diego with her husband and daughter and enjoys distance running, triathlons, traveling, and outdoor adventures.
Ms. Catherine M. Arambula Lewis
San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association’s Sponsorship Chair
Catherine M. Arambula Lewis currently serves as the Membership and Sponsorship Chair for the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association (SDLRLA) and is the founding Treasurer of the SDLRLA Public Benefit Fund (C3), the Association’s programmatic and community impact arm.
Catherine has been actively involved with SDLRLA since 2008, when she was first introduced to the organization and its mission to advance equity, mentorship, and collective support for Latino attorneys and the broader San Diego community. What began as participation in a membership event evolved into long-term engagement, sponsorship, and collaborative leadership.
Through years of service, mentorship, and community initiatives, SDLRLA has become a cornerstone of Catherine’s personal and professional network. The relationships she built through the Association—rooted in trust, shared purpose, and community-centered values—have shaped her leadership journey and reinforced her commitment to socially driven, relationship-based engagement.
Tina Matthias
Tina Matthias is a longtime nonprofit and civic leader with over 30 years of experience building sustainable, community-centered solutions in the South Bay. She is the founder of South Bay Sustainable Communities Network (SBSC) and serves on the SB Elevate Executive Board, bringing together residents, schools, and local partners to reduce waste, recover food, and reinvest resources back into the community through composting, food rescue, and environmental education.
Under Tina’s leadership, SBSC has diverted tens of thousands of pounds of food waste from landfills, returned compost to local families, and rescued thousands of pounds of edible food for food-insecure communities—demonstrating how operational efficiency and social impact can work hand in hand. She also created Youth 4 a Sustainable Future, a student-led program now active in local schools, proving that sustainable practices can be scaled through smart systems and cross-sector collaboration.
Louis Barajas
Louis has over three decades of experience helping clients navigate finances and is a nationally recognized speaker, author, and wealth manager. His mission is to empower individuals to live better lives through financial literacy and guidance.Louis loves to teach and has been an adjunct professor on financial planning. He has published five books on personal finance and entrepreneurship and will release his sixth book, The Go-Better Entrepreneur, in June 2025 (www.louisbarajas.com). Louis has been featured in national and regional publications such as USA Today, The Miami Herald, The Los Angeles Times, People en Español, Success Magazine, Hispanic Business, Senior Market Advisor and Latino Leaders Magazine. He has provided his financial and business insights to national news programs such as CBS Sunday Morning, CNN’s Your Money, CNN’s Your Bottom Line, CNBC, The Willis Report on Fox Business News, Aqui Y Ahora and Despierta America on Univision, ABC News, ABC7 Vista LA, KCAL/KCBS, National Public Radio’s Tell Me More and NPR’s Marketplace Weekend Edition. In 2015 and 2016 Louis was part of NPR’s Family Matters live tour at several major universities throughout the United States. Currently he is starring on the national and award winning PBS television series Opportunity Knock$ (opportunityknocks.net)
Alex Lombrozo
Alex Lombrozo is a San Diego based real estate broker with over 20 years of experience serving families, entrepreneurs, and investors throughout San Diego County, with a deep and lasting commitment to the Latino community. Throughout his career, Alex has helped hundreds of Latino households achieve homeownership by breaking down complex real estate and financing processes into clear, accessible guidance—often serving as a bridge for first-generation buyers navigating the U.S. housing system for the first time. His work extends beyond transactions; Alex is widely recognized for his role as an educator and advocate, empowering Latino clients with knowledge around credit, financing, property rights, and long-term wealth building through real estate.
In addition to serving U.S. residents, Alex has played a key role in assisting Mexican and Latin American investors safely and successfully invest in California real estate, helping them navigate cross-border tax considerations, lending options, legal compliance, and asset protection. By fostering trust, transparency, and culturally competent representation, he has helped international clients invest responsibly while strengthening local neighborhoods and the regional economy. Alex’s mission has always been rooted in impact—using real estate as a tool for stability, opportunity, and generational wealth, while giving back through community engagement, mentorship, and collaboration with nonprofit organizations that uplift the Latino community across San Diego.
Paloma Aguirre
Supervisor Paloma Aguirre is a proud first-generation Mexican-American and long-time community organizer and public servant whose career has been shaped by her dedication to environmental justice and advocacy for working families. Born in San Francisco and raised between the U.S. and Mexico, she became the first in her family to graduate college and later earned a master’s degree in marine biodiversity and conservation from UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Her early career included grassroots organizing in South San Diego and Chula Vista, where she helped low-income families navigate issues like immigration and housing. She later worked on coastal conservation and cross-border pollution issues with groups like Wildcoast and the International Community Foundation.
Aguirre made history as the first Latina elected to both the Imperial Beach City Council and later as Mayor, where she championed efforts to clean up the Tijuana River Valley and pushed for federal investment to address public health crises caused by sewage pollution. In 2025, she was elected to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors representing District 1. She brings a strong voice for immigrant communities, environmental justice, and housing equity, and has already made a mark by securing federal funds for wastewater infrastructure and taking on leadership as Chair Pro Tempore of the Board.
