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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
SILICON VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION BUILDS ON ITS VISION
By PATRICIA BRESEE
While attending "Philanthropy's Vision: A Leadership Summit" outside Washington, D.C., this month, I was delighted to be present as the Silicon Valley Community Foundation received four prestigious national awards - second-most of any foundation in the country - from the Council on Foundations. That experience contrasted sharply with my reading of recent items in the Mercury News describing the experience last year of a single donor among 1,500 donor-advised funds.
On Jan. 1, 2007, Community Foundation Silicon Valley and Peninsula Community Foundation, former competitors, merged into a new organization with a bold new mission to transcend county lines and promote solutions to regional problems. No community foundations of this size and complexity had ever merged, and that has created opportunities and challenges.
Recognition from peers and statistics are early indicators, but they do show confidence. In 2007, we surpassed our parents' combined grants and gifts from 2006. We distributed $242 million from our unrestricted endowment and 1,500 donor-advised funds to organizations in our two counties, across the country and around the world.
These included 41 corporate funds, 16 supporting organizations, five city affiliates and 45 scholarship funds. Our ratio of administrative costs to total assets has decreased to .75 percent. New and existing donors contributed $292 million to the foundation. Regrettably, we did lose one major fund, while donors created 100 new funds.
We recognize that many people who care deeply about our organization have questions, and on behalf of our board, I appreciate the opportunity to address them and explain our vision.
- Why haven't we announced our initiatives yet?
Because doing it right takes time. Last spring we undertook extensive research, initiated nine strategic conversations with hundreds of community leaders, developed issue briefs and surveyed the community. A report on each session is available at www.siliconvalleycf.org/newsResources_cip.html.
- Have we stopped making grants to non-profits?
No. Grants from our unrestricted endowment continue to target our two counties. In fact, the $8 million granted last year was a slight increase from 2006. We also extended our parents' grant-making programs, enabling non-profits to prepare for possible changes in funding.
Anxiety about the degree of change, new roles in a larger organization, duplicate positions or longer commutes led some to seek other opportunities. While we respect those decisions, we applaud how old and new staff have joined to build a new culture. More than half worked for our parents, as did 70 percent of our senior leadership team. Chief Executive and President Emmett Carson, one of the nation's leading non-profit executives, has met with hundreds of donors, non-profit and community leaders and continues this outreach.
- What about customer service?
The merger led to some service and communication interruptions for donors and grantees. We deeply regret this and have made structural changes and created new positions to correct them.
- Did we curtail international grants?
No. Even with stricter new legal requirements, we continue to help donors support organizations and causes around the world, providing due diligence and using new partnerships such as Give2Asia. Through March, we had distributed $1.99 million in international grants, nearly as much as our total for 2007 ($2.05 million).
Despite the inevitable difficulties and complexities, we are convinced the result will be worth the journey. Our new initiatives and grant guidelines, to be announced by the fall, will help us maximize both our assets and our influence. We will use our public voice to bring people together to create positive change.
How we execute will be the true measure, and the real winners will be the people of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties who rely on the community foundation to make a difference in their lives.
PATRICIA BRESEE, who served as Superior Court commissioner in San Mateo County for 15 years, is board chair of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which has more than $1.9 billion in assets under management
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