Hutton Parker Foundation strives to provide organizational sustainability to community-based nonprofit organizations throughout Santa Barbara County and to assist agencies in achieving their highest performance capacity and delivery of services resulting in stronger, more efficient communities for all.

Hutton Parker Foundation was an idea and dream originating with Betty Hutton in the 1970’s.  Betty believed in and epitomized the American dream having built a successful business in Orange County, California.  As part of her legacy, Betty dreamed of establishing a family foundation.

In the early 1980’s, as Betty prepared for retirement, Tom Parker took over operation of The Hutton Companies and propelled it into a very successful real estate development company.  From the start of this partnership, Betty and Tom both knew their end goal was to transfer the majority of Hutton Companies’ assets into a private foundation.

The opportunity to sell most of the real estate holdings and fund the new foundation occurred in 1995.  Fortunately, Betty was able to see her dream come to fruition prior to her death that same year.

Since then, Tom Parker has continued both his and Betty’s dream of further growing and developing Hutton Parker Foundation.   Utilizing the same skills that made Hutton Companies successful, Tom has worked to create a very different type of private foundation.   Hutton Parker Foundation invests its core assets directly into the nonprofit sector by making loans to local area nonprofits and purchasing commercial buildings to house nonprofit agencies, many with similar missions, creating synergy and an opportunity to solve community wide issues.  These “mission based investing” programs are a logical extension of the skill set used previously in the for profit sector at Hutton Companies.