User:Vipul/Silicon Valley Community Foundation

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the community foundation that serves the Silicon Valley community. The two counties served are Santa Clara County, California and San Mateo County, California.

Early history: 2006-2011
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation was formed on July 12, 2006, through the merger of two community foundations in the Bay Area: the Peninsula Community Foundation (headquartered in San Jose, California) and Community Foundation Silicon Valley (headquartered in San Mateo, California). The Silicon Valley Community Foundation launched officially on January 3, 2007.

In September 2008, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation announced five key grantmaking strategies: Economic Security, Education, Immigrant Integration, Regional Planning and a Community Opportunity Fund to address time-sensitive community needs including safety-net services.

2012
On December 18, 2012, Mark Zuckerberg, the principal founder and CEO of Facebook, announced a donation of 18 million Facebook shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which at the time of the donation were worth a total of about $500 million USD.

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation raised a total of $985 million (USD) in the year 2012. Assets under management grew to about USD 2.9 billion, and the foundation awarded a total of $292 million in grants in the year 2012.

Areas for grant-making
Starting September 2008, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation announced five key grantmaking areas: Economic Security, Education, Immigrant Integration, Regional Planning and a Community Opportunity Fund to address time-sensitive community needs including safety-net services:


 * 1) Economic Security: This includes working to improve people's credit scores, opposition to payday loans, support for tighter financial regulation, and tactics to stop homes from being foreclosed.
 * 2) Education: This includes closing the achievement gap in mathematics and the sciences. The strategy includes both in-school support and out-of-school support.
 * 3) Immigrant Integration: This includes making it easier for immigrants to learn English and integrate into the society as well as making them in a better position to contribute to society thereby benefiting natives.
 * 4) Regional Planning: This includes plans related to both land use and mass transit options in the Silicon Valley area.
 * 5) Community Opportunity Fund: The goal is to build a safety net and meet the immediate and pressing needs of people hit hard by bad economic and personal circumstances.

Eligibility and application process
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation website details the grant application process. Eligible organizations must operate in the Silicon Valley area, i.e., they must serve either the San Mateo or the Santa Clara County. They must also be registered 501(c)(3) organizations and must have an explicit non-discrimination policy. Religious organizations are allowed to apply as long as the grant is for an activity that benefits the wider community without discriminating on the basis of religion. All grant applications must be submitted through the online application system.

News coverage
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation has been covered extensively in local newspapers and magazines in Silicon Valley Palo Alto Online, the Half Moon Bay Review, SFGate, and others.

Coverage in philanthropy and social innovation-related publications
Emmett Carson, the CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, wrote an article titled Redefining Community Foundations in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2013 issue.

An article about community foundations on the website of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation included discussion of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

In May 2012, the Chronicle of Philanthropy ranks the Silicon Valley Community Foundation as 7th in its list of large donor-advised funds. This ranking is outdated considering that the Silicon Valley Community Foundation raised a large sum of funds in 2012 (about $985 million) much of it near the end of the year, including Mark Zuckerberg's $500 million donation in December 2012.