MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 15: Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) announced it awarded USD 1.3 billion to nonprofit organizations in 2017 through the remarkable generosity of its individual and corporate donors.
Locally, $436 million (34 percent) of the $1.3 billion supported nonprofit organizations in the nine counties that make up the San Francisco Bay Area bringing the total amount granted to nonprofits in California to $515 million.
This exciting growth of SVCF further enables large-scale community impact directly from Silicon Valley to the rest of the world.
"Silicon Valley and our country face a myriad of complex and difficult challenges. It is our honor to partner with so many passionate donors who want to make our community and world a better place," said Emmett D. Carson, Ph.D., CEO and president of SVCF. "Over the course of SVCF's 11 years of operation, we have granted $5.6 billion to nonprofit organizations who share our vision of addressing the most difficult challenges facing our communities."
SVCF is proud of the commitment that new and existing donors have shown through their $1.4 billion in new gifts received in 2017. These gifts combined with appreciated assets brought SVCF's charitable assets under management to approximately $13.5 billion as of December 31, 2017. As a community foundation, SVCF engages with individual donor families, corporations, foundations and nonprofits to assist them in achieving their charitable goals.
The $436 million awarded to nonprofits in the Bay Area makes SVCF the largest single grantmaker to Silicon Valley regional charities. SVCF also continued its strong tradition of international grantmaking, awarding a total of $105 million to charities in 66 countries outside the U.S.
SVCF's corporate donors continued to make a significant impact on the issues they care about most - STEM/STEAM education, economic and community empowerment and environmental protection consistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Corporate advised funds accounted for $62 million in grants.
SVCF will shortly release its range of 2017 grants through its grants catalog that will be available on its website. This catalog enables anyone to view grants awarded to nonprofit organizations by either subject area or geography.
SVCF is keenly aware that even with the enormous good that is accomplished through the 14,500 grants that were awarded in 2017, these grants alone cannot solve the complex challenges of housing, transportation and education confronting Silicon Valley. It is for this reason that SVCF engages in research and convening efforts to galvanize the community and influence public policy with Bay Area governments and the California legislature.
Among SVCF's accomplishments in 2017:
•Hosted its first On the Table event that engaged 7,000 residents in over 430 mealtime conversations throughout Silicon Valley on the impact of the housing crisis on all segments of the community in partnership with NBC Bay Area.
•Released the San Mateo's Forgotten South Coast Residents report on the challenges facing residents of the South Coast, including inadequate housing, schools without clean water and inadequate transportation options.
•Convened the California gubernatorial candidates to discuss their commitment to support early childhood development through its initiative Choose Children. A total of 44 percent of third graders in Silicon Valley do not read at grade level and a staggering 74 percent of all African American and Latino third graders in Silicon Valley do not read at grade level.
•Among the first to support a series of housing bills that were signed by Governor Brown to increase the supply of housing throughout California.
•Continued to champion the rights of immigrants in our community by partnering with Santa Clara County to protect DACA students and supporting successful state legislative efforts to ensure that they would have access to every legal remedy before they could be deported.
