Jill Rademacher

As we draw closer to our third Silicon Valley Gives event, it’s gratifying to see how people are embracing it as a way to get the word out about causes they care about to new audiences and potential donors. Our donor experience and engagement team has been able to work closely with dozens of individual and family donors in preparation for the regional giving day. 

We’re helping many of them set up matching funds that can be used to attract more donations to their favorite charities on SVGives Day.

• For example, among other generous matching grants these donors have established, the Shackleton family has put up a grant for Act in Action, the John B. Morey Jr. family will be matching donations made to the San Mateo County Historical Association, and the Henrikson family is supporting Friends of Deer Hollow Farm.
• You can see more examples of matching grants on the SVGives website.
• If you’re an SVCF donor and want more information on creating a matching grant, your philanthropy advisor is here to help you.   

SVGives was launched as a response to a need SVCF saw – the need to shine more light on the charitable organizations working hard every day in our area. What I’ve learned since joining SVCF is that we continually strive to meet the ongoing needs of our community.

Two examples that highlight this: We are working to grow the Silicon Valley Regional Fund, and we have begun a two-year process of reviewing our strategic grantmaking efforts.

With the generous support of many of our donors, the Silicon Valley Regional Fund is poised to fund the availability of affordable housing and public transportation in the corridor from San Francisco to San Jose.

• This fund was born out of our recognition that to best serve our community, we must support organizations addressing critical issues of the entire region, whether they are based in San Francisco, San Mateo or Santa Clara counties.
• Our fundraising efforts for the Regional Fund are underway through June.  
• We will then invite proposals to solicit the best thinking from nonprofit organizations on ways to solve these complex challenges.
• Our first grants from the Regional Fund are slated to be awarded this fall. 

I invite your participation to help ensure our region’s growth is equitable.    

In addition, our strategic review of the grantmaking focus areas we adopted in 2008 will help us ensure we continue to dedicate our discretionary grant resources to issue areas we believe are the most relevant and timely for Silicon Valley.

• The process will include outreach to SVCF grantee organizations and a wide variety of community stakeholders. 

If you would like more information about any of these topics, please contact me at jrademacher@siliconvalleycf.org. Wishing you a wonderful spring.