Silicon Valley One - Fall 2007 - (Page 7)

Checking In on Corporate Giving he scope and impact of corporate giving in Silicon Valley involves multiple approaches, innovative yardsticks, intriguing predictions and unusual incentives, finds a report issued by Silicon Valley Community Foundation. Nearly three out of four firms surveyed make gifts locally—with education and health and human services as the leading recipients—but there is more to be done, says community foundation CEO and President Emmett D. Carson. “When it comes time to grade Bay Area businesses on the business of giving, on the whole, we would earn a C+ in a region that has never been satisfied with less than an A. We would urge our region’s visionary corporate leaders to remember that, in effective corporate philanthropy, it is not the size of the asset that matters most, but how companies use those assets to build the communities in which we all live,” says Carson. For the complete “Corporate Philanthropy in Silicon Valley” report, based on data from 100 of the region’s firms, go to www.siliconvalleycf.org. one T C + Central Valley Air Gets a Breather he air quality in the Central Valley, consistently ranked among the worst in the nation, may be on its way to becoming a little cleaner, thanks to legislation that will take effect in January. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently signed legislation that will expand the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District governing board from 11 to 15 members to include additional representation from urban and rural areas, as well as public health experts. Advocates of the increased representation, which include the Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, said the new legislation will give more Central Valley communities a voice in addressing complex air-quality issues. The move is also expected to strengthen the board’s medical and scientific capacity. The area’s pollution crisis is extreme: One in five children and one in eight adults suffer from asthma, according to UCLA’s California Health Interview Survey. Thousands suffer or die each year of causes related to dirty air, according to a Union of Concerned Scientists report. Exposure to harmful ozone and particulate matter is estimated to cost Central Valley residents $3.2 billion annually in health-care costs from heart and lung diseases, according to Cal State Fullerton’s Institute for Economic and Environmental Studies. Passage of the bill had been an important goal for The Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation, a supporting organization of Silicon Valley Community Foundation that has worked, since its inception in 1999, to improve air quality in California. For more information, go to www.kirschfoundation.org or www.calcleanair.org. one T c Why I Give Richard Lavenstein Richard “Dick” Lavenstein is hands-on with his charitable giving. A Silicon Valley Community Foundation fund first-grade experience, including the Learning Centers program in the San Mateo–Foster City School District, benefiting about 670 low-income children and families. Lavenstein, a retired real estate developer/investor, recently completed his estate planning, ensuring that his passion for and dedication to children and families will continue for years to come. “I have an investment in the community, not just a charitable gift. My partnership with the community foundation has resulted in numerous benefits,” he says. “Over the years, the community foundation has provided me with expert guidance from program staff and the validation and partnerships needed to continue my investment long after I’m gone.” one advisor for more than 20 years, he created a donor-advised fund that helps support programs enriching the preschool through www.siliconvalleycf.org innovation through philanthropy one 7 http://www.siliconvalleycf.org http://www.kirschfoundation.org http://www.calcleanair.org http://www.siliconvalleycf.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Silicon Valley One - Fall 2007

From Emmett D. Carson Home Run Back From the Brink Checking In on Corporate Giving Central Valley Air Gets a Breather Why I Give Five Minutes With ... Full Faith and Credit Giving and Receiving What If?

Silicon Valley One - Fall 2007

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