community_foundations

Community Foundations

Information about Foundations & Philanthropy

Foundations provide substantial resources that allow nonprofits to offer services to our local communities through grants and scholarships, as well as the operation of charitable programs.

Local Community Foundations

David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health
San Francisco Foundation
Sequoia Hospital Foundation
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Sobrato Family Foundation

The following resources are provided to encourage better communication among nonprofits and foundations serving San Mateo County. If you would like to recommend other resources to be included in this list, please contact webmaster@thrivealliance.org.

Information about Foundations & Philanthropy

The Foundation Center is the nation's leading authority on philanthropy and engages in the following activities:

Collects, organizes, and communicates information on U.S. philanthropy.
Conducts and facilitates research on trends in the field.
Provides education and training on the grantseeking process.
Ensures public access to information and services through our Web site, print and electronic publications, five library/learning centers, and a national network of Cooperating Collections.

The Foundation Center's San Francisco Library offers training opportunities and an excellent collection of books, magazines, and electronic files related to philanthropy and grantseeking.

Foundation Finder is a database of more than 73,000 private and community foundations in the U.S.

Foundation/Philanthropic Networks

The Council on Foundations is a membership organization of more than 2,000 grantmaking foundations and giving programs worldwide. It provides leadership expertise, legal services and networking opportunities to members and to the general public. The Council works with a variety of other affiliate groups including:

The Foundation Incubator helps educate funders through workshops, small group discussions on selected topics, mentoring, one-on-one coaching, referrals to experts, collaborative grantmaking, and more. TFI's community includes family, public, company, and community foundations, supporting organizations, giving circles, individual donors, and philanthropy education groups, all united by a passion for learning and an interest in collaboration. The Incubator is based in Palo Alto, California and hosts programs in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. They maintain an excellent online resource center: http://www.foundationincubator.org/resource/index.html

Northern California Grantmakers (NCG) is an association of foundations, corporate contributions programs and other private grantmakers. Building on an initiative started in 1965 to exchange ideas, improve cooperation among foundations, and increase their knowledge of community problems, NCG has grown to support the activity of more than 175 member grantmakers active in the Bay Area, with combined grantmaking of more than $1 billion annually. NCG's work is focused on enhancing the effectiveness of philanthropy and strengthening the ties between philanthropy and its many stakeholders in nonprofit organizations, government, business, media, academia, and the public at large

Interesting Articles & Resources

"A Failure of Philanthropy: American charity shortchanges the poor, and public policy is partly to blame" by Robert Reich, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2005 (PDF).

"Aspen Institute Announces Grants to Study Unrestricted Funding to Nonprofits" article in Philanthropic News Digest (1/21/2006).

"Tackling Vision Care: How one nonprofit uses an NFL Team's celebrity to improve poor children's eyesight" by Melinda Tuan & Fay Twersky, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2005 (PDF).