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Silicon Valley Community Foundation: Global Philanthropy

Silicon Valley Community Foundation

SVCF’s mission is to channel the excess wealth flooding Silicon Valley into worthy, charitable causes around the world. One of the systems SVCF uses as a means of helping nonprofits all around the world is Donor Circles.

Each circle has its own focus or philanthropic cause. Currently, the Donor Circles include Donor Circle for the Environment, Donor Circle of the Arts, Donor Circle for Africa and Donor Circle for Safety Net.

Each Donor Circle consists of individuals interested specifically in the circle’s cause who wish to fund nonprofits in the given field that are in need of support.

For example, the Donor Circle for Africa “works with nonprofit groups and entrepreneurs in Africa whose projects demonstrate sustainable and affordable solutions for essential needs.” Since 2012, this Donor Circle has given out over $50,000-worth of grants.

For example, the Donor Circle for Africa “works with nonprofit groups and entrepreneurs in Africa whose projects demonstrate sustainable and affordable solutions for essential needs.” Since 2012, this Donor Circle has given out over $50,000-worth of grants.

Aside from these Donor Circles, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation also gives grants and scholarships to individuals.

On an individual level, two of the issues SVCF specializes in are immigration and education.

In a brief describing the work they do for immigrants in Silicon Valley, SVCF acknowledges a pervasive obstacle in immigrants’ successful assimilation: lack of access to educational resources and aid. The organization attributes immigrants’ difficulties in finding work to an “insufficient number of effective English-language learning, job training and legal services.”

In a San Francisco Chronicle article about SVCF, two recipients of Silicon Valley Community Foundation grants recount some of the challenges they faced as new immigrants. Ramon Alvarez, a 28-year-old Mexican-born immigrant, says that he used to fear interactions with native English speakers, but with the help of SVCF, now he will “talk to anyone.”

In a community with booming affluence, an organization like the Silicon Valley Community Foundation stands as a crucial mobilizer for the many causes that truly deserve the world’s attention.

– Liz Pudel

Sources: SVCF 1, SVCF 2, SVCF 3, SVCF 4, San Francisco Chronicles

Photo: Wikimedia Commons,

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Silicon Valley Community Foundation Supports Nonprofits

Silicon Valley Community FoundationIn December 2015, Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) awarded $50 million in matching grants to support 24,450 nonprofit organizations in the United States and 45 other countries, according to CSRwire.

This is the largest total to date, beating out last year’s total of $23 million in matching grants. SVCF gives matching grants through its partnership with YourCause, which is the leading Software as a Service provider of employee engagement resolutions.

YourCause provides companies with a variety of employee engagement techniques including volunteering and charitable giving.

Maeve Miccio, Vice President of Corporate Responsibility for SVCF, said, “SVCF is proud to say that we sent more than $50 million in matching grants to nonprofit organizations around the world in 2015. We applaud our corporate clients and their employees who have made philanthropy a priority through employee engagement programs in their workplaces. Their gifts support everything from education to the arts to hunger relief programs, and their generosity is inspiring.”

Matching grants come from corporate funds, matching the amount of money donated to a charity by an employee of that company.

According to CSRwire, nearly one-fifth of the total matching grants SVCF awarded by December 2015 came from PepsiCo employees and matching grants from the PepsiCo Foundation.

“PepsiCo believes in investing in our people and in the communities where we operate,” according to Andrea Seek, Director of Global Citizenship for PepsiCo. “It is gratifying that our partnership with SVCF and YourCause has allowed us to help improve and strengthen our communities around the globe.”

Around 65 percent of Fortune 500 companies have programs to match employees’ donations with corporate donations, according to CSRwire.

Approximately $2.1 billion was donated by the U.S. in 2014 by companies around the world through matching corporate gift programs.

SVCF is the largest community foundation in the world and continues to work toward innovative philanthropic solutions to challenging problems.

– Jordan Connell

Sources: CSRwire, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Photo: Silicon Valley Community Foundation

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Silicon Valley Community Foundation

silicon valley community foundation
Launched in 2007 through a merger between the Peninsula Community Foundation and the Community Foundation Silicon Valley, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation has developed a new approach for giving. The organization’s overall aim is to maximize the impact each donation will have for any given cause.

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation,  led by CEO Emmett D. Carson, operates by working to “simplify giving so donors can focus on their charitable passions, partner with the most effective organizations to create change, and advance innovative philanthropic solutions to challenging problems.” Moreover, its five basic strategies (economic security, education, immigrant integration, regional planning and a community opportunity fund) help ensure the foundation’s success.

In order to achieve maximum outreach, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation collaborates with other foundations and initiatives. Many of these foundations target early childhood education and community leadership projects focused on “strengthening organizations serving low-income and communities of color.”

Initiatives that have recently been completed include the Fostering the Future initiative, which took place over a six year period (2005-2011). Its objective was to provide a better life for youth that are subjected to abuse from either their biological families or foster families, as well as for children who have become too old for foster care. The Envision Bay Area initiative, that took place from 2010-2012, aimed to build a community of both leaders and constituents that made daily decisions based on what would be best for the environment. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation made use of YouChoose Bay Area in order to make this initiative successful. The work from this initiative ultimately “convinced the local planning agencies to set higher greenhouse gas emissions than their staff had initially recommended.”

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation is currently responsible for $2.9 million in assets and has over 1,600 philanthropic funds.

– Jordyn Horowitz

Sources: The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Photo: Future Partners