What’s to Become of SVCF’s Fundraiser with San Francisco Nonprofits Now in the Mix?

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) has been hosting this wildly popular 24-hour fundraising event called Silicon Valley Gives for a while now. It’s a foundation-sponsored annual event that helps raise money for local nonprofits through an online donation.

Since all donations are made in a single place, it makes giving super-simple for donors who might otherwise be overwhelmed by time-consuming and convoluted donation processes. Thousands of nonprofits get exposure to new donors, while SVCF’s grants get an extra financial boost from the community. It's a win-win. 

Well in a recent press release, SVCF announced that San Francisco nonprofits can now get in on this action too. Up until now, only nonprofits based in San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Benito were invited to the party.

Silicon Valley Community Foundation CEO, Emmett Carson, said in a press release:

In the Bay Area, community needs do not start and stop at a county line. After years of working with donors on the issues they care about, we know their sense of community is expansive – many people work in one part of the Bay Area, live in another and perhaps grew up in yet another. They strongly want to support community needs across a wide geography. We’re thrilled that the next SVGives will enable more charities to benefit from the philanthropic spirit of Silicon Valley.

While this is great news for San Francisco nonprofits, some organizations elsewhere in the Bay Area are concerned about the big city stealing its thunder. Apparently SF nonprofit have been trying to get a piece of the pie for a while now. This is a legitimate concern since San Francisco has emerged as kinda-sorta the nonprofit capital of America—almost to a fault.

In both 2014 and 2015, "Silicon Valley Gives" helped raise about $16 million for local nonprofits. And in 2015, 80 San Francisco-nonprofits squeezed their way into the fundraising event because they legitimately served Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Benito County residents. This fact makes us very interested to see how the 2016 event pans out.

Aside from the annual charity fundraiser, SVCF makes strategic grants in the areas of economic security, education, immigration, and building strong communities. In 2014, SVCF gave $216 million locally to charities in the nine Bay Area Counties. But it didn’t leave the rest of California or the world out entirely either, a reflection of the diverse interests of those with donor-advised funds at SVCF. The foundation committed an additional $30 million to nonprofits elsewhere in California and $18 million to organizations elsewhere in the world.

To learn more about Silicon Valley Gives, check out the annual event’s website. The next event is scheduled for May 3, 2016, but make sure to check out one of the information and training sessions for nonprofits this fall.