When Michael Olenick became the president and chief executive of Chatsworth-based nonprofit Child Care Resource Center, he managed a staff of 300 and $89 million. In 21 years, the staff quadrupled and the budget grew to $700 million.
“You have to kind of run it like a business,” he says.
Although he grew up in the child care space – his mother was a childhood development professor in Chicago and previously ran a slew of preschools – Olenick spent his early to mid-20s chasing the rock and roll fever that swept over U.S. during the late ’60s. He played electric violin in a band that opened for REO Speedwagon and collaborated with Sam Lay from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.
When Olenick left that world in his late 20s, he studied social programs and how to make them successful. He got a part-time job evaluating why foster parents weren’t going to foster parent training classes at the community college, and determined someone needed to act as a liaison between the Department of Children and Family Services and these community colleges.
From there it was a snowball effect. He ended up taking on that very role and began running half a dozen family and children programs for Los Angeles County and the community college network.
When the Community College Foundation switched leadership, Olenick was suddenly running programs in 60 to 70 different colleges statewide.
A well-oiled machine
When Olenick took over the CCRC, the organization was in shambles. It was being sued by the state and dealing with internal fraud issues.
“We didn’t have certain processes in place,” Olenick says. “The state did a forensic audit on us and said, ‘you’re charging too much for this or for that and you owe us $2 million.’”
Olenick removed several high-level employees from the organization and diversified revenue streams in order to streamline the nonprofit.
Running a nonprofit like a business took some getting used to. Olenick had to reject program ideas that were projected to always be in a deficit.
“And they all looked at me and said, ‘but we’re here to do good,’” he recalls. “You can’t do good if you run yourself into the ground.”
There was also a culture problem. Olenick said staff feedback at CCRC mentioned executives never smiled.
“So I always made sure that when I walked in that door, no matter how I feel coming in, it’s showtime,” he says. “I say hello to everybody that I see.”
As CCRC grew, it switched over to updated administrative programs that could handle more projects. It had to create online portals for parents to find child care that fit their specific needs. It also meant keeping an eye out for trends that could disrupt the operation.
As more families moved to San Bernardino County, the CCRC began expanding its programs geographically. In the years following Covid-19, agencies noticed more families migrating out of L.A. County. (Indeed, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education predicts enrollment will drop 30% in the next decade.)
“(Agencies) located in Los Angeles are really struggling with where the kids are going to be in the next few years. How can they sustain what they’re doing?” Olenick says. “Whereas we’re okay. We made the moves before anybody even thought about it.”
Olenick is looking ahead in other ways, too.
“I’m kind of getting up there in age,” Olenick says. “So I’m trying to make sure that, over the next five years, if I leave, the organization will not fall apart.”
The CCRC serves around 50,000 kids and families a month. It also has a team of five stationed in Sacramento to work on policies and legislation.
And it is still growing. The nonprofit is looking into providing Head Start services for children for whom CCRC pays for child care services. It’s also making strides with with medical providers in L.A. County to provide health care services for families in its network. CCRC itself in the process of becoming a Medi-Cal provider.
“You build this really big engine, you don’t want to see it die,” Olenick says. “You want it to outlive you, right?”