Posted on January 17, 2013

Silicon Valley Community Foundation Raised $985 Million in 2012

The Silicon Valley Community Foundation has announced that it attracted $985 million in new gifts last year, making 2012 its most successful fundraising year since the foundation was created by the merger of the Community Foundation Silicon Valley and the Peninsula Community Foundation in 2006.

Total contributions in 2012 were more than double the nearly $470 million the foundation received in 2011, although some $500 million of the total came from Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's gift of eighteen million shares of Facebook stock in December. In addition, 138 new funds were established at the foundation in 2012, bringing the total number of funds under its umbrella to more than 1,650, while assets under management grew to $2.9 billion. In 2012, the foundation awarded $292 million in grants to nonprofits working locally, nationally, and around the world.

One of the largest community foundations in the world and the largest single funder of nonprofits in the Bay Area, SVCF ranks among the top twenty U.S. funders by total giving, based on 2011 data, according to the Foundation Center. In 2012, the foundation ranked thirty-first on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's top 400 fundraising list, with $472 million in contributions, not counting the Zuckerberg gift, up from a hundred and thirtieth the previous year.

"Silicon Valley has long been the center of new ideas and new technology," said SVCF president and CEO Emmett D. Carson. "Now, our region is also a leader in a new wave of philanthropy characterized by donors who want to change the world during their lifetimes....The past year should leave no doubt that Silicon Valley is at the forefront of a new era in giving."