Community is merely a state of mind, says Emmett Carson, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
"America is changing, and, by that, becoming more diverse," he said. "More and more people are achieving the American dream and can direct their resources."
He visited Southwest Florida this week as the keynote speaker at the three-day Philanthropy Experts and Leaders Academy held at The Westin Resort in Cape Coral and sponsored by the Cape Coral Community Foundation and the David & Joyce Gomer Founders Fund.
He asked everyone in the sold-out conference to raise their hand if they were born in Cape Coral. Not a single hand raised.
"And yet I believe you all love this community and want this place to be everything it can be, not just now but in the future," he said.
The Silicon Valley foundation is the largest in the world, with $13.5 billion in charitable assets and $1.7 billion in annual grants to nonprofits. It has broadened its giving, including a $25,000 grant post-Hurricane Irma to ECHO International in North Fort Myers.
"Silicon Valley is a state of mind, not just a place," Carson said.
He pointed out that the Silicon Valley includes San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Francisco, with 54 municipalities. 50 percent of the people who live there weren't born there, and a third were born outside the U.S.
By broadening their range, they can help people across the globe, responding to the benefactors' desires. His foundation has about 2,000 benefactors.
Michael Chatman, president and CEO of the Cape Coral foundation, calls Carson his mentor. After taking the foundation's helm in 2016, Chatman expanded the agency's mission, calling it the Global Center for Generosity, spreading beyond the city's boundaries.
Carson also addressed how private and community foundations differ and what they can offer their communities.
"The strength of private foundations is they make a grant on time, on task to a nonprofit to do good work," he said.
Community Foundations "don't have a really big hammer" to pound through donations, and they have to build consensus on giving.
"Life is short now for me," he said. "I want to get stuff done."
Community Foundations have an opportunity to build bridges of different sectors of the community, Carson said, focusing on what they have in common, and less on their differences. They can commission studies and advocate for change based on the data.
"We can bring them together to solve community issues," he said, pointing out several examples, such as stepping in to promote legislation that helps the community.
"We're very laser focused and very good at seeing the tapestry of how things are connected," he said. "This is the exact problem we're trying to fix."
Carson cited a movement in which African American and Latino children, despite passing a state math test, were held back in their classes after teachers questioned whether they could do the work.
It demoralized the children, and put them behind in getting math credits, he said. Once behind, they had difficulty catching up for graduation requirements, and it ultimately affected their earning potential.
Working with the community, they focused on the children, not the teachers who could hold a child back.
That allowed the foundation to be a bridge that brought supporters together.
"What we feel on 99 other issues is irrelevant," he said.
SB359, signed into law, allows teachers to use discretion to promote a child, "to push a child forward, but can't use discretion to hold a kid back."
"It mattered, but it wasn't a grant," he said. "Our power is getting systemic change done."
Jack Hakimian, president of Global Presence Enterprises in Miami, attended the academy for the second year, saying he draws inspiration from the speakers' "nuggets and wisdom."
After last year's seminar, he and his wife used what they learned to grow their social interaction with their business 800 percent.
"We work hard, but we love what we are doing," he said. "This is really enriching, learning form heavyweights in the nonprofit world."
Other speakers included Chatman; Nicky Goren, president and CEO of the Meyer Foundation; Wendy Steele, founder of Impact 100; Pratichi Shah, a philanthropist and entrepreneur; and Ryan NcNeil, who played in the NFL, including for the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions and operates the McNeil Family Foundation.
"These people are very successful for what they do," Hakimian said.