The Daily Tell

Five years ago, Silicon Valley Community Foundation was challenged by Skoll Foundation to match an initial gift of $5 million; a challenge they easily passed.

Since that day in 2004 when one of Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s parent foundations, Community Foundation Silicon Valley (CFSV), launched a five-year plan to create a charitable savings account for the community, the foundation has raised $11.7 million through gifts from more than 100 donors – more than doubling the initial goal of $5 million in matching donations.

"We are thankful for the Skoll Foundation’s leadership and the generous donors who helped us not just meet but exceed the challenge," said Emmett D. Carson, CEO and president. "They understand the value of having a flexible, unrestricted endowment to address critical local needs."

Prior to the creation of the account as much as 97 percent of CFSV’s assets were designated to specific recipients by the donors, but now the organization will have the ability to increase the number of unrestricted grant-making opportunities to local nonprofits e, according to CFSV.

While the driving force of the Skoll foundation is "large-scale change," Jeff Skoll, founder and chairman of the Skoll Foundation and the first president of eBay, said that helping the CVSF reach more stable financial footing was important to the region and continues the ties he has to it since it assisted with the formation of the eBay Foundation.

In fact, when the eBay Foundation became an independent, private foundation it continued its partnership with the community foundation by creating a corporate advised fund to conduct its grant-making.

Silicon Valley Community Foundation awards grants to nonprofit organizations that apply under five grant-making strategies: economic security, education, immigrant integration, regional planning and a community opportunity fund for safety-net services. It has $1.5 billion in assets under management and 1,500 philanthropic funds.