Victorious Yet Notorious: The Two Sides of the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation

by Alex Hoeft | Sep 11, 2025 | Uncategorized

Editor’s note, Sept. 12: A statement on reasons for departing staff was updated.

The Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation is a darling of the region.

A charitable nonprofit that, since its start in 1998, has pooled hundreds of millions in donations and investments to address local needs such as environment, education, housing, and more — it’s truly by, of, and for the people of Tahoe/Truckee.

Under CEO Stacy Caldwell’s guidance, TTCF’s assets have grown from $19 million to $43 million since 2012 and the team has raised more than $4 million for nonprofits since 2014. More than $1 million has been gifted in local scholarships. The foundation has partnered with and funded numerous organizations, agencies, and jurisdictions across the region, a tiny sample being: Nevada and Placer counties, KidZone Museum, Sierra Senior Services, Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue, Town of Truckee, U.S. Forest Service, and Watch Duty.

“We are not a single purpose organization, say like the land trust or the watershed council, or the friends of the library,” said Kelley Carroll, board member since 2016 and current board chair. “We play in all the parks … The organization has gone through a very rapid growth period. Certainly, in the last five years, six years, where we have gone from this very, very small core staff to now plus or minus three times that size.

“Overall, Stacy has always had the full trust of the board in what she’s doing. She’s very good about keeping us informed of what’s going on. Especially to each of us in turn as a board chair. She’s the face of our organization and she’s the key to our success.”

Beneath the admirable mission and proven results, however, exists what some call a toxic environment — one enabled by a hand-picked leadership board that results in rapid staff turnover. Over the past three years, at least 13 staff members have left their positions at TTCF, which has a staff of 11. Such an atmosphere, former staffers allege, has impacted programs housed at the community foundation.

Caldwell declined to speak to the Ink for this story.

Moonshine spoke with multiple people connected to TTCF, including five former staff members who still work in the area. Because of fear over possible retribution, they are not identified in the article by name, though their connections have been independently verified.

“For those of us that care so deeply about this community and really care about the community foundation,” said one of the former staffers, who will be known as Bailey, “you recognize that it doesn’t matter how much money you’re bringing in or how good it looks from the outside, when you have turnover like that in a hostile work environment, something has to change. Somebody needs to do something.”

Overall, Stacy has always had the full trust of the board in what she’s doing. She’s very good about keeping us informed of what’s going on … She’s the face of our organization and she’s the key to our success.”

~  Kelley Carroll, TTCF board chair

“When I was on the board, I saw staff and board members leave because of the culture that I thought Stacy brought to TTCF,” said Kat Rohlf, who served on the TTCF board from 2010 to 2019 and was on the hiring committee to bring Caldwell aboard. “I wasn’t willing to leave because I really believed in what we were doing … When you’re affiliated with the community foundation you have to make a choice: Are you willing to put up with the bad because the good is so great? It hurts my heart to see all the turnover. I know what it costs … to stay there. It’s a great organization that could achieve even greater things with different leadership.”

Behind the nonprofit curtain

“It is no secret,” noted a January 2025 piece from the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy, “that the reward and rigor of nonprofit leadership often comes with budget constraints and wage inequity, coupled with complex human and social issues and pervasive burnout.”

Nonprofits are often associated with higher passion but lower wages than the private sector. However, such a reality has not necessarily deterred people from working for these organizations. A 2024 study calculated an 18.6% growth in nonprofit employment between 2007 and 2017.

“We have worked hard to build our culture and retain talent,” shared Ashley Beck, the foundation’s director of engagement and communications. “We offer competitive salaries and benefits for our sector and region. Our team believes so much in TTCF’s leadership and mission that we have had staff members return after leaving to do a second stint with us.”

Beck is a direct example of the previous sentence: She worked for the community foundation from 2016 to 2019, moved away, then returned in June 2024.

TTCF’s appeal in particular, former employees shared, included working with community partners, being responsive to local needs and priorities, launching exciting projects, and more.

“There was a lot of allure,” Parker, a former staff member, said.

“From the outside, you see a powerful woman at the helm,” Bailey echoed. “I had only ever worked under men and for the most part had had not great experiences. So, yeah, I was really drawn to a staff of all women for connection and community and what working with women brings versus working with men.”

Nonprofit Compensation Associates conducts annual surveys to understand compensation and benefits trends. A 2025 survey conducted with about 400 Northern California-based nonprofits (there are roughly 32,000 across the state) found that those with between six and 15 employees saw a 15% voluntary turnover rate for full-time employees (with a 5% involuntary rate) and 20% voluntary turnover rate for part-time employees (4% involuntary).

Across three years, TTCF has seen a 118% turnover rate, based on Moonshine’s research. Spreading that evenly over those years yields a 39% annual turnover rate. A majority of TTCF’s staff have full-time positions.

“Daniel Pink is a great author,” said a former board member who asked to remain unnamed for fear of retribution. “And he talks about how job satisfaction comes from autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Surely there’s purpose when you work for a nonprofit, any nonprofit, but the community foundation, absolutely. But the whole autonomy and mastery piece, it’s like those are not allowed if they don’t align with Stacy’s idea of what that is.”

That frustration was one expressed by the former staff members interviewed, specifically the inability to examine how something was done at TTCF. For example, one individual who questioned the wording of a strategic plan was subsequently pulled into a one-on-one and told that they were “undermining leadership and being disrespectful.”

Others were taken off certain projects or positions abruptly or without notice (locked out of certain systems) because their loyalties didn’t seem to be in the right place.

Parker pointed to staff members leaving without new jobs lined up or taking pay cuts just to get away. Another noted that when they told a fellow staff member some of the things Caldwell said to them, the other staffer cried and said they didn’t realize things were that bad.

“I would say I’ve never worked so hard and felt so undervalued,” Bailey said. “And the pay is better than all nonprofits in the region. I mean, the question is not pay. Yet they cannot keep staff. There’s only one through-line here; when you have such high turnover the only through-line is the leadership.”

Robin, a different former staffer, said, “There were multiple instances where Stacy reacted poorly to feedback and would see a lot of things as attempts to undermine her. At some point I realized that okay, there’s not a whole lot of openness to a team approach here.”

Such actions and their impacts were not contained to the community foundation’s inner workings.

“There were a growing number of instances that I kept uncovering around community relationships that had been compromised,” Robin continued. “Like, Stacy getting upset about us talking to X, Y, or Z community partner because of her own personal history with them.”

Former staffer Shannon said community partners brought this up more than once. “[Stacy] wants to put money behind [projects] and maybe she has good intentions, but she’s not the one that’s going to execute it in a way that has the most impact. That’s why she hires staff. But then she doesn’t let her program staff do things the way that they need to get done. It’s this thing of you have to be in control, and that’s not lost on partners. I had multiple partners come to me being like, ‘I noticed that you get overruled on a lot of things.’”

This approach was not lost on board members. “Stacy’s extremely visionary,” shared the former board member. “She’s always looking out with what’s best for the organization. There’s some amazing talent — there has been and there still is — at the community foundation. And when you hire amazing talent, you should empower them to do the job and use their professional skills and networks to do their work. The culture doesn’t do that. It’s very much an old-style sort of command and control, it seems like. You’re either marching to Stacy’s drum or you’re out.”

This has led to, some staff went on to say, more complex reasons for some of the foundation’s public-facing shifts.

Take the annual community grant cycle, normally opened each August, available for nonprofits for up to $5,000 each and intended to aid in various aspects of work. On Aug. 1 of this year, TTCF’s nonprofit partners were informed that the cycle would not open in order to “better align our efforts with our strategic plan and leverage funds to best serve our community needs,” according to an email. The promise was that by late September, TTCF would be in touch with more clarity and information.

Board chair Carroll explained the gameplan: “We have all these other organizations that are also doing funding cycles. The Martis Fund, the airport, the Tahoe Fund, on and on and on and on and on. And what we’re trying to do is coordinate system-wide with all those groups.”

There’s only one through-line here; when you have such high turnover the only through-line is the leadership.”

~ anonymous former staffer at TTCF

Other individuals familiar with the grant pause said the decision was made without insight from the staff directly in charge of it.

“Things can change or like happen at a whim’s notice,” former staffer Avery recalled, “where everything just gets shut down and certain projects get thrown off to the wayside.”

The Mountain Housing Council (MHC), a regional collaboration intent on accelerating solutions for achievable local housing that existed from 2017 to 2023, is another example given of a program departure with an unclear ending.

TTCF facilitated the cause, which was “wildly successful,” Bailey recalled. Indeed, MHC partners implemented housing policy, produced numerous white papers, launched 15 new programs, attracted over $80 million to the region, and aided the creation of more than 770 workforce housing units.

When it came time to discuss continuing the program, Bailey said TTCF wasn’t able to provide the clarity and transparency funders like local counties and the Town of Truckee wanted. Other options were considered to house the program or portions of it, but attempts went sideways.

“Ultimately it all died in the water,” Bailey said. “Conversations about sunsetting were ongoing during this time because there was lack of clarity around how it could continue (governance, funding, etc.) and after all of this, it was clear that sunsetting was really the only option.

“Mountain Housing Council I really think could still be powerful and active,” they furthered. “It is a nationwide example of a successful coalition. With capacity being built across other agencies, and the challenges that some public agency and paying members members had with the person at the helm, there was a lack of willingness to commit to the next round of what Mountain Housing Council could have become.”

Beck refuted this allegation, writing in an email, “The Mountain Housing Council was never intended to be a permanent fixture, but to jump-start conversations on the housing shortage, align strategies, and leverage resources. MHC laid the foundation for a more collaborative network of housing support.”

Former TTCF board chair Lauren O’Brien said similarly, “I don’t think we wanted to own things. We wanted to incubate and then let people take ownership as it evolved.”

The program ended in 2023, with the community foundation redistributing its roles to partners like The Housing Hub and Truckee Tahoe Workforce Housing Agency.

A separate example, Shannon said, was the Truckee Tahoe Airport District’s taking back its Agency Partnership Program, which was housed with TTCF from 2022 to 2024.

Airport GM Robb Etnyre told Moonshine this was part of a “shift into a different approach to community impact” and that “working with [Community Impact Officer] Phyllis McConn and her team at TTCF to administrate that program was excellent.”

He continued: “Instead of a handful of smaller grants with applicants who would solicit other public entities to co-sponsor programs/projects, we focused our efforts on larger impact items we now refer to as ‘strategic initiatives’ … [each with] a direct tie to the purpose of the airport district and the use of public funds provided to the airport district by residents of both Placer and Nevada counties within [our] boundaries.”

Internally, Shannon said there were mentions from the airport about the high administrative fee the foundation took to oversee the program (this was corroborated during article research). This person also suggested TTCF’s lack of inclusion in the airport’s Wildfire Mitigation Program spoke to deeper issues.

One of TTCF’s most successful stories is its Forest Futures campaign, which has raised $16.44 million and granted over $6.1 million to local organizations, implementing solutions to ensure healthy forests. The community foundation, though, is not included as a partner in the airport’s Wildfire Mitigation Program.

“You have a community foundation with a forest and wildfire focused program with millions of dollars that they’ve been giving out,” Shannon said, “and then you’re trying to plan a large project with all the agencies that have received funding from TTCF already, but you’re not going to involve them in this large project moving forward … I thought that was interesting.”

“We see our efforts addressing a different shortfall than those programs were designed to address,” Etnyre said to Moonshine’s inquiry, adding that he’s spoken with TTCF on the matter. “I see the landscape as a tapestry approach to address wildfire mitigation, forest health, and the ecosystem of businesses around a forest economy. We are all collectively building capacity for our community health.”

Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation Staff Departures for Past Three Years

Mixed messaging

Each former TTCF employee who spoke to the Ink confirmed they shared their situation and/or concerns with at least one board member (who varied) upon departure. Yet it’s unclear how seriously those experiences were taken. Current chair Carroll said there’s been nothing more than “non-specific comments” from staff about Caldwell’s leadership shared between board members.

“There have been circumstances I have heard about where people have run into people in town because it’s a small town, and yeah, things have been said [about Stacy’s leadership],” he continued. “Have I ever heard specifics? No. Have any of the board members ever taken it to the level of demanding that we do anything to look into it? Not really in a formal sense.”

Former TTCF board chair Wally Auerbach said claims of a contentious culture and rapid staff turnover were not his experience during the nine years he served on the board.

“TTCF’s leadership and especially Stacy has always been forward-thinking and aggressive in terms of responding to the community’s needs on various fronts,” Auerbach wrote in an email. “If that ‘get-it-done’ dynamic occasionally results in some staffing challenges, it would not be a surprise. Successful organizations all have their ups and downs. Certainly not newsworthy, though.”

“Our turnover rate is similar to that of other organizations in our area,” Beck added, adding that staff have left for a variety of reasons in the last three years.

Previous Chair O’Brien remarked that she witnessed a shift in Caldwell’s leadership style during her nine years on the board, particularly as Caldwell gained more influence in the community, but recognized it as normal in a company’s and leader’s evolution. She also confirmed hearing concerns from staff members, with personality clashing and control standing out as reasons for frustration. At the same time, O’Brien said she could see why other board members were so supportive of Caldwell. “The numbers don’t lie,” she added in reference to fundraising and impact reports. “And for the community foundation to make a $100 million impact, it takes focus and drive.”

O’Brien advocated for staff exit interviews, particularly around key departures. “I wanted to make sure we knew why people were leaving,” she explained. She was provided a summary of the interviews; nothing egregious, she said, showed up.

“[Stacy] is a little bit more driven than most nonprofit CEOs, but that’s probably why it’s been so successful,” O’Brien said. “You take your pros with your cons. I do know that she has taken it to heart when people do leave and tried to work on herself.”

Rohlf recalled Caldwell’s initial days, noting she especially appreciated how the new CEO “walked in knowing what she didn’t know and being very open … I will always say Stacy’s one of the most creative people I’ve ever met. Her ability to think outside the box is really admirable.”

Boards typically only interact with their sole charge, the CEO (or general manager, executive director). They’re the ones who hire, fire, and so on the head position, with intentionally little correspondence with staff. The community foundation’s current approach to staff sharing concerns goes up the command chain (to someone’s direct supervisor, then the chief operating officer), and eventually to Kurt Hagen, a consultant who functions as human resources. Exit interviews are also supposed to route through Hagen, though Carroll did say this hasn’t always been the case.

The unnamed former board member said not once during their many-year tenure did the board receive exit interviews.

Caldwell receives an annual employment review each September. Standard practice is for board members and staff to complete a survey rating her as CEO. Every couple years, community partners will also take a similar survey. From there, the results are distilled and shared with Caldwell by the board.

As CEO, Caldwell’s most recent publicly available base salary is $208,000 as of Fiscal Year 2023/24. For context, Claudia Andersen, CEO of the Tahoe Community Foundation (formerly Parasol), saw a $201,650 salary for Fiscal Year 22/23. Tahoe Fund’s Amy Berry received $231,722 for 23/24.

O’Brien said that during her board tenure, comments from staff about Caldwell’s actions were “carefully and thoughtfully evaluated” between directors — “We did recognize potential areas for improvement in her leadership over staff based on these, but nothing out of the ordinary or egregious.

“I felt that there was strong contingency of very pro-Stacy and the results were there to prove it. I was quiet because I really didn’t have any foundational information to challenge this view.”

Multiple people speculated a curated board as one reason Caldwell hasn’t faced more criticism.

During Rohlf’s last year on the board, she presented Caldwell with “what I thought were really good suggestions” for her replacement, but was told Rohlf’s top choice would not be appropriate for the board. Rohlf later found out Caldwell didn’t like the individual because she’d once had a heated conversation with them.

Reflecting on her time as a board member (she’s still on the grants committee), Rohlf said it was a fun one to be part of, even with the stark differences to her current board position. “That was my first board experience,” she said. “I don’t know if it’s because I have had board experience that I’m not afraid to speak up [as part of the Truckee Tahoe Airport District board]. But if somebody has a problem, every one of us speaks up. We don’t hold back. But the culture in that [TTCF] board room … it’s not open to the public. You don’t know what other people really think about it.”

To Carroll’s mention of hearing only “non-specific comments” about Caldwell, the unnamed former board member said, “Then he’s not listening, he’s not paying attention. That’s all I’ll say. I mean, this has been a problem, and it’s been in staff surveys, it’s been in 360 reviews. He’s not paying attention.”

A different board member, they added, spoke out about Caldwell concerns and high turnover a couple years ago and asked for it to be investigated. In reaction, professional counseling was offered. “But it was very hush-hush,” they explained. “We didn’t talk about it in board meetings.” Still, this board member felt hopeful at the quiet attention.

But the turnover continued, as did complaints. “When staff surveys come back and they’re not looking good,” they said, “or there’s sort of a rush of people leaving and no one’s responding to it, it’s a huge red flag.”

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A new home

TTCF’s current office space is tucked next to NAPA Auto Parts on Donner Pass Road. It’s a tight space for staff and easy to miss for passersby. Now, a much more prominent location is on the horizon.

In October 2024, the idea was publicly floated by TTCF to the Truckee town council for a change in the Railyard Master Plan to allow for office and gathering space use where it currently wasn’t permitted — within the Downtown Extension District (from the eastern end of historic downtown Truckee and into the balloon track). Specifically, the community foundation had its eye on the ground floor of the Truckee Artist Lofts building.

After a series of starts and stops for Railyard development (retail, a grocery store, a movie theater), the Artist Lofts, which began housing residents in 2021, still stand alone.

There was pushback to the zoning change from some who wanted to keep the original intent of the Railyard Master Plan, which required ground floors on primary streets (such as Donner Pass Road) to be occupied by active, pedestrian-oriented uses, not offices. Still, council members unanimously approved the zoning clearance at the April 8 meeting, allowing in nonprofits and gathering spaces to the master plan amendment.

“I think what the community foundation has envisioned there is exactly what this space needs right now,” said Vice Mayor Anna Klovstad at the meeting. “I hope that you guys have a magnificent donor that shows up and you build an absolutely amazing facility in the near future. But until then, I really want to welcome you to the downtown community.”

Per Truckee development code, TTCF has four years to complete the project, which includes interior improvements only to the 3,462 square feet. The above blueprints show initial layout plans. According to Kelley, it’ll happen much more quickly: “We’re in the process of selecting the general contractor who’s going to do the work. The goal … is hopefully to move in the first half of 2026.”

At the April meeting, Caldwell explained to council, “We’ve been [in our current office] maybe 20 years now, something like that. It’s been a really good home for us, but we’re ready to step out and into the community and be a little more visible with what we’re doing, and we think this is a great opportunity. This is something we’ve heard from our donors often — why don’t people know what you’re doing? We’ve always been behind the scenes. We see this as an opportunity to evolve as a mission … Building community and bringing interesting conversations together and bringing un-likeminded people in a way we can solve problems.”

Funding for the construction and move is dedicated and provided by a private donor, Kelley said.

“We’ll be tying Truckee Artist Lofts in with the bigger community, because now we are there,” he continued. “We had some pushback from some folks who thought we weren’t going to bring enough foot traffic. But some foot traffic is a whole lot better than no foot traffic, which is exactly what they have right now. And the idea is we are not staying there forever. We’re like a hermit crab; we’re going to outgrow that shell, at least ideally, and we’ll move eventually into the dream vision of the community foundation: our own building.”

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Beyond the physical dream, Beck shared that Caldwell hopes for TTCF’s continued contribution toward creating “a resilient forest that diversifies our economy and helps solve our housing issues. She wants to build up our disaster preparedness so we are better able to respond to challenges like potential wildfires … Her vision is inclusive of locals, part-time homeowners, visitors, and the broader network of state agencies and rural mountain communities.”

Concurrently to the community foundation’s ongoing goals, a group of former TTCF employees has quietly developed as a support system.

“I call it a sisterhood,” Parker said. “And it basically has, over time, because there are now so many of us, become a group that catches you as you spin out the other side.”

It’s not a formal thing, they continued. “We gather the troops, and we all have a beer or a bite or a kombucha or whatever you’re drinking. And we’re like, ‘Yeah, here we all are,’ and ‘Are you okay?’ and ‘You’re not crazy. We all went through the same thing.’ We take over an entire table now; there’s so many of us.”