The Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) is a donor-advised community foundation serving the Silicon Valley region. It is the largest charitable foundation in Silicon Valley.
31-889: Silicon Valley Community Foundation was formed on July 12, 2006, through the merger of two community foundations in the San Francisco Bay Area : the Peninsula Community Foundation (headquartered in San Mateo, California ) and Community Foundation Silicon Valley (headquartered in San Jose, California ). Silicon Valley Community Foundation launched officially on January 3, 2007 (headquartered in Mountain View, CA. In September 2008, Silicon Valley Community Foundation announced five key grantmaking strategies: Economic Security, Education, Immigrant Integration, Regional Planning and
62-442: A supporting organization . Private foundations are subject to 1.39% excise taxes found in section 4940 through 4945 of the internal revenue code. Once a charity becomes a private foundation, it retains that status unless it follows the difficult termination rules of section 507. Every organization that qualifies for tax exemption as an organization described in section 501(c)(3) is a private foundation unless it falls into one of
93-506: A Community Opportunity Fund to address time-sensitive community needs including safety-net services (2008-2013). On December 18, 2012, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan announced a donation of 18 million Facebook shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, which at the time of the donation were worth a total of about $ 500 million. Silicon Valley Community Foundation raised
124-566: A fund for Tackle Ebola with Silicon Valley Community Foundation. In April 2018, the foundation hired a law firm to investigate the claims made by Mari Ellen Loijens describing sexual harassment over the course of many years. A few days later, the CEO, Emmett Carson, was placed on paid leave. Two months later, the CEO's employment "ended" and the resignation of the head of H.R. was accepted, as an investigation "found that many allegations from current and former employees were substantiated". In November 2018,
155-551: A private foundation is controlled by a single donor or family through a board that is made up of a majority (more than 50%) of directors at non-arm's length. It is a legally registered charity with the Canada Revenue Agency. A public foundation is governed by a board that is made up of a majority of directors at arm's length. A private foundation is not allowed to engage in any business activity, but it can operate its own charitable program. The Canada Revenue Agency designates
186-478: A specific purpose. A private foundation may have diverse purposes, including collective, familiar, or the purpose of passive administration of funds. Normally, the supervision of a private foundation is done by the county government where the foundation has its domicile, however, large foundations must be registered by the County Administrative Board (CAB), which must also supervise the administration of
217-454: A tax benefit immediately upon donating the assets to the donor advised fund, but may defer when the assets are distributed as grants to charities. The fund is not legally required to distribute any assets, like family foundations are, so there is little pressure to move money. The timing of prominent donations to the foundation has led to accusations of the foundation being used as a tax loophole. Both Mark Zuckerberg and Nick Woodman donated near
248-446: A total of $ 985 million in 2012. Assets under management grew to about $ 2.9 billion, and the foundation awarded a total of $ 292 million in grants in the year 2012. In December 2012, SVCF helped relaunch Caltrain 's Holiday Train, a nine-year tradition was brought back after a two-year hiatus. On December 19, 2013, Zuckerberg announced a donation of 18 million Facebook shares to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, to be executed by
279-563: A variety of assets to be used for charitable purposes. The people or organizations that establish the funds can then recommend that grants be distributed, in the name of the fund or anonymously, to qualified nonprofit groups and schools. In the USA the donor receives a charitable tax deduction in the year that gifts are made into their funds, but not all countries where community foundations currently operate provide such incentives for donors. Increasingly, community foundations are hosting giving circles as
310-402: A way to further support giving in their communities. The assets of community foundations are pooled and invested, with donors typically having a choice of investment products. The funds established at community foundations can be non-endowed or expendable funds (i.e., the corpus of the fund can be spent in its entirety) or they can be endowed, which limit distributions to the interest earned on
341-634: The Foundation Center website, the top five largest community foundations, by assets, were: Statistics made available by the Foundation Center enable also financial comparison of the largest community foundations with the largest corporate and private foundations and illustrate the fact that community foundations in the United States tend to be larger than corporate foundations in both assets and grants given. There are 46 Community Foundations in
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#1732855713778372-489: The 84,000 private foundations that filed with the IRS in 2008, approximately 66% have less than $ 1 million in assets, and 93% have less than $ 10 million in assets. In aggregate, private foundations in the U.S. control over $ 628 billion in assets and made more than $ 44 billion in charitable contributions in 2007. The following foundations are set up under civil law legal systems: The Austrian Private Foundation (Privatstiftung)
403-590: The Grand Victoria Foundation supports development of Illinois community foundations. The Kansas Health Foundation operates a similar program in Kansas communities. There are 191 community foundations in Canada, accessible to more than 90% of Canadian communities. The Winnipeg Foundation was Canada's first community foundation, established in 1921. According to the latest data available, from October 2014, on
434-528: The UK and UK Community Foundations (formerly the Community Foundation Network ) acts as an umbrella organisation for some of them. Private foundation A private foundation is a tax-exempt organization that does not rely on broad public support and generally claims to serve humanitarian purposes. Unlike a charitable foundation , a private foundation does not generally solicit funds from
465-485: The United States, is a charitable organization described in the Internal Revenue Code by section 509. A private foundation is necessarily a 501(c)(3) exempt organization (or a former such entity). It is defined by a negative definition: by what it is not. A private foundation is not a public charity , as described in section 170(b)(1)(A) (i) through (vi). Neither is it a section 509(a)(2) organization, nor
496-467: The United States, there are several restrictions and requirements on private foundations, including: Violations of these provisions give rise to taxes and penalties against the private foundation and, in some cases, its managers, its substantial contributors, and certain related persons. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest private foundation in the U.S. with over $ 38 billion in assets. Most private foundations are much smaller. Out of
527-609: The application as a "charitable organization", a "public foundation", or a "private foundation", depending on its structure, its source of funding and its operation. The Income Tax Act requirements are different, depending on the type of charity ( Income Tax Act , R.S.C. 1985 (5th supp.) c. 1, para. 149.1(4)(a)). Foundations were first introduced in The Bahamas in December 2004 following the Foundations Act. A private foundation, in
558-665: The assets and/or the amount granted by the foundation as long as the corpus is not spent. Endowments last in perpetuity due to the corpus never being able to be spent. The first community foundation was set up in Cleveland in 1914 by Frederick Goff and operates now as The Cleveland Foundation . Others soon followed including the California Community Foundation and the Chicago Community Trust . The first Community Foundation in Canada, The Winnipeg Foundation ,
589-467: The board of directors of the foundation named Nicole Taylor as president and CEO. Netflix co-founder and executive chairman Reed Hastings gifted two million of his company shares worth $ 1.1 billion to the foundation in January 2024. SVCF is a 501(c)(3) organization that publishes annual reports of its financial transactions and grantmaking. As a donor-advised fund sponsor, the IRS allows donors to claim
620-426: The categories specifically excluded from the definition of that term (referred to in section 509(a)). In addition, certain nonexempt charitable trusts are also treated as private foundations. Organizations that fall into the excluded categories are institutions such as hospitals or universities and those that generally have broad public support or actively function in a supporting relationship to such organizations. In
651-499: The end of the month, totaling $ 990 million. On December 31, 2013, the donation was recognized as the largest charitable gift on public record for 2013. In 2014, Jan Koum , founder of WhatsApp donated close to $ 556 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to set up a donor-advised fund. Silicon Valley Community Foundation created and hosted Silicon Valley Gives, the Bay Area's first 24-hour giving day, on May 6, 2014. The event
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#1732855713778682-575: The first observed under legal scrutiny or classification. Some of the above must be, in most jurisdictions, expressed in the document of establishment. Others may be provided by the supervising authority at each particular jurisdiction. The following foundations are set up under common law legal systems : In Canada , the Canada Revenue Agency is a branch of the Canadian government which regulates all foundations. Under Canadian law, since 1967,
713-619: The founder and beneficiaries are non-residents of Mauritius. A foundation in the Netherlands (Stichting) is a legal person created through a legal act. This act is usually either a notarised deed (or a will) that contains the articles of the foundation which must include the first appointed board. Foundation legislation was last reformed in 1998, giving rise to the Netherlands Antilles Private Foundation (Stichting Particulier Fonds). The Nevis Multiform Foundation
744-650: The private foundation to beneficiaries. The Liechtenstein Family Foundation (Stiftung) was first introduced in 1926 and updated by the Act Reforming the Persons and Companies Act in 2008 which included a new Act on Foundations. They are allowed to pursue non-commercial and/or private benefit purposes. Private Benefit Family Foundation pays no taxes. The Mauritius Foundation was introduced following 'The Foundations Act' of 2012. Such entities are tax exempt as long as
775-441: The public or have the legal requirements and reporting responsibilities of a registered non-profit or charitable foundation. Not all foundations engage in philanthropy; some private foundations are used for estate planning purposes. One of the characteristics of the legal entities existing under the status of "Foundations" is a wide diversity of structures and purposes. Nevertheless, there are some common structural elements that are
806-436: The same time as their companies' IPOs, and the founders of WhatsApp donated shortly after their company's acquisition. Community foundation Community foundations (CFs) are instruments of civil society designed to pool donations into a coordinated investment and grant making facility dedicated primarily to the social improvement of a given place. Community foundations are a global phenomenon with 1700 existing around
837-738: The world, of which over 700 are in the United States. Private foundations are typically endowed by an individual or a single family. Community foundations are independent registered philanthropic institutions serving geographically defined territory, typically a city or administrative area (county, region and the like). The six main characteristics of the CFs are: It is a combination of all these basic characteristics what makes true CF, although there are many other types of community organizations that have some of these characteristics. Families, individuals, businesses, and nonprofit groups establish funds within community foundations into which they can contribute
868-567: Was established in Winnipeg in 1921. Since the 1980s, a number of private foundations in the United States have created initiatives to develop community foundations in various states. One of the earliest such initiatives was in Michigan. In Indiana, the Lilly Endowment funded a program that has spurred development of community foundations in each of the state's 92 counties. On a smaller scale,
899-584: Was introduced in 2005. The Panama Private Interest Foundation was introduced following the Law 25, June 12, 1995. The Saint Kitts Foundation was introduced following the Foundation Act of 2003. The Seychelles Foundation was introduced following the Foundation Act of 2009. A private foundation in Sweden (Stiftelse) is formed by a letter of donation from a founder donating funds or assets to be administered for
930-542: Was last reformed under the Private Foundation Act in September 1993. The Austrian private foundation is considered a legal person having beneficiaries rather than shareholders or proprietors and may be established for any purpose. There are three levels of taxation related to Austrian private foundations: taxation of asset transfers, ongoing taxation of the private foundation's income; and taxation of distributions from
961-586: Was sponsored by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation , Microsoft , NBC Bay Area , and more than 100 other individuals, foundations, and companies. The event raised $ 8,000,833 with 14,889 unique donors and more than 21,869 donations. SVCF also hosted more than 20 trainings for more than 650 local nonprofits to help them capacity build leading up to the event. On October 2, 2014, Nicholas and Jill Woodman , founders of GoPro , announced that they would donate $ 500 million to Silicon Valley Community Foundation. October 23, 2014, Paul Allen announced that he would open