Letter from the CEO:
Emmett D. Carson, Ph.D., CEO and President
I just returned from the annual meeting of the national Council on Foundations in Atlanta where,
for the second year in our young history, the community foundation received several "best in class"
honors from our peers.
As you might imagine, the broader conference focused on how foundations can and should respond to help ease
the severe impacts of the deepening recession. Several high ranking
officials of the Obama administration spoke to the conferees about a wide range of topics including:
the economy and the stimulus package, H1N1 flu virus, universal health care and other issues.
Surprisingly, nearly every speaker focused their remarks on the need for foundations to become more
actively involved in the public policy process at the local and national level.
As I heard these repeated calls to action, I became ever more proud of the community foundation's recent decision to
become more engaged in the public policy arena as another component of our work along with research,
convening and grantmaking. As a region-wide community foundation serving both San Mateo and Santa Clara
Counties, we have the unique ability to provide community leadership by thoughtfully engaging in policy
work at the local, county and state level. As a community foundation, we have both the legal right, as
well as the moral responsibility, to selectively engage in public policy advocacy and lobbying.
The board and staff of the community foundation are fully aware that engaging
in the public policy process is difficult, complicated and often messy work. To guide our work, the
community foundation spent nearly a year developing strong internal guidelines with the assistance of
both legal counsel and outside consultants to determine when and how we should engage in public policy,
advocacy or lobbying. We do not expect that we will engage in advocacy or lobbying on a regular basis
and that when we do, we will be very selective in determining when our voice and experiences can add
value to the public discussion. We believe that our democracy is only strengthened when those with
credibility and informed opinions participate in the public policy process.
On April 30, 2009, the community foundation's board met during a special meeting to discuss whether
to take a formal position on Proposition 1D
as well as to consider two other policy issues. Proposition
1D would take $1.6 billion in funds over five years from First 5, which provides educational, health
care and other services to young children and their families throughout California and redirect those
monies to the state's general fund. After a full and thoughtful discussion, the board voted to oppose
Proposition 1D and contribute $50,000 to defeat the measure. This is our first significant lobbying effort
and is consistent with the community foundation's long and continuing
involvement
in supporting early childhood development and our direct involvement with a number of our successful
programs that receive support from First 5 San Mateo. We felt that such a long history of commitment
could only be honored by stating our opposition to efforts that would undercut years of invaluable work
at improving the life outcomes of our community's most important asset – our children. As John Maltbie,
former county manager of San Mateo writes in the current issue of
ONE magazine:
"The fundamental problem is that children don't have a seat at the table when budget and funding decisions
get made. They can't vote, and they don't have PACs. These are hard times and tough decisions have to
be made. But are we making the right decisions?" Silicon Valley Community Foundation believes that voting
No on Proposition 1D in the May 19th special election is the right decision.
By now it is no surprise that nonprofits in our region are struggling to help provide food and shelter
to an alarming number of families and individuals. Demand for food and shelter is only increasing.
There are also heavy burdens on youth aging out of the foster care system, and our initiative work on
child welfare reform supports efforts to curb these burdens. Over the last six months we have been
regularly convening nonprofit leaders and government officials to help think through how we can all
best work together to help our region weather this economic storm. This amazing brain trust has helped
bring about a convening of more than 100 organizations in which representatives of nonprofits received
a joint briefing from Santa Clara and San Mateo county officials about how stimulus monies would be
distributed (a first) as well as led to the community foundation partnering directly with San Mateo
County government to distribute $500,000 in addition to our $1 million to safety-net organizations in
San Mateo and Santa Clara counties (also a first). In addition to these efforts, the convenings also
surfaced several policy recommendations, two of which have been endorsed by the community
foundation's board.
- Support for California State Assembly Bill 1057, which would reduce barriers in the application
and delivery process for obtaining food stamp benefits. The bill removes the fingerprinting requirement
that now exists for applicants and switches from quarterly to semi-annual reporting periods. California
is one of only 4 states that require fingerprinting at a cost of $8 million per year and unknown county
administrative time to operate the finger-imaging systems. Research has shown that these fingerprint
requirements have no impact on reducing fraud and abuse within the food stamp program. We believe that
we need to have as many people who are in need and eligible receiving food stamps so that we reduce
family hardship and circulate those monies in our local economies.
- Support for California State Assembly Bill 12, which extends support for foster care youth from 18
to 21. This would ensure that California opts into federal funding opportunities to establish relative
guardianship programs. It also provides transitional support for foster care, kinship-guardianship and
adoption assistance benefits to qualifying youth who meet certain conditions (e.g., employment and
education related requirements). Without this legislation, California would be unable to access newly
available federal funds to states for these purposes.
In addition to this policy work, we have made great strides in moving forward with our newly announced
grantmaking strategies. We have announced $1.43 million in grants to nonprofit organizations to help
residents get foreclosure
prevention counseling, financial
education and build assets. We have awarded $1.39 million in grants to
strengthen legal services for immigrants and bridge cultural gaps. And, we have awarded almost $2 million to help close
the achievement gap in middle school mathematics by
investing in the development of teachers and in
providing additional extended learning opportunities for students.
We are excited by these efforts and thrilled that a number of donor advisors have
stepped forward to partner with us in these efforts.
At the community foundation's regional meeting last October, before we were aware of the full extent of
the economic crisis, I pledged that the community foundation would use every tool at our disposal to assist
our region during this challenging time. This continues to be our promise to the region. The success we
have had to date has been due to the ongoing support that we have received from our donor advisors, corporate
and private foundation partners and nonprofit leaders.
To all of you, our sincere thanks. Together, we are making a difference!
