CONTACT:
Rebecca Salner, Media Relations Officer
650.450.5525 or rsalner@siliconvalleycf.org

SILICON VALLEY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION AWARDS SIX GRANTS TO PROGRAMS IN EAST PALO ALTO

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Silicon Valley Community Foundation today announced that it has awarded grants to four San Mateo County-based programs that support youth, economic security and land preservation.

The grants, each of which was at least $75,000, were part of $1.8 million awarded since January to more than 60 organizations serving San Mateo County.

Earlier this year, six grants that totaled $152,500 were awarded to programs that will serve residents of East Palo Alto.

The community foundation contributed $10,000 from its endowment to help launch the East Palo Alto Community Farmers’ Market, $45,000 to support programs and services at College Track’s East Palo Alto Center and $50,000 to support community participation in land use, design and economic studies of the city by the Community Development Institute.

Grants also were awarded to Foundation for a College Education, One East Palo Alto and to the higher learning program at Youth United for Community Action, which offers youth the chance to create positive change and develop life skills through community organizing.

The June grants in San Mateo County were:

• $110,561 to help Cabrillo Unified School District expand the “Every Child a Reader and Writer" literacy program to Cunha Intermediate School in Half Moon Bay and fund literacy coaches for the district’s elementary schools.
• $100,000 to help the Peninsula Open Space Trust acquire and protect Mindego Hill, a 1,047-acre parcel of land on the western portion of Skyline Ridge. The majority of the grant came from The John and Mary Perkins Fund, which targeted land conservation and was set up as a bequest.
• $75,000 to help 30 underserved public high school students in southern San Mateo County participate in a college preparatory program at the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University.
• $75,000 to Springboard Forward of Belmont to support its Workplace Services program, which helps lower-wage workers in key industries identify career talents and get on a track for success. Rather than seek out workers in individual communities, Springboard Forward’s program focuses on the workplace itself.

“We’re committed to meeting community needs and tackling the challenges we face in communities throughout San Mateo County and across our region," said Emmett D. Carson, Ph.D., CEO and president of the community foundation. “These grants will help excellent organizations continue that work."

Since its launch in January 2007 through the landmark merger of Community Foundation of Silicon Valley and Peninsula Community Foundation, the new community foundation continued to follow the endowment grant guidelines of its parent foundations while conducting a Community Input Project to help inform a new grantmaking structure. As of June 30, the community foundation had awarded $11.5 million through endowment grants to nonprofit organizations in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. The last grantmaking deadline using prior guidelines was Feb. 15, and the few final grants from that round will be awarded this summer. New endowment grant guidelines will be announced this fall.

Donors give to the endowment fund in order to support a permanent, charitable resource for the region’s changing needs. In addition to endowment grants, the community foundation partners with more than 1,500 fund advisors with donor advised funds. Payouts from these funds include grants to local, national or international nonprofits. A variety of assets, including cash, stock and real estate, may be used to open or add to a donor advised fund.