Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, was gearing up for the 14th annual Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot, when tragic fires swept through Butte County and other parts of California. The poor air quality led to questions whether the race would happen at all, but thanks to much-needed rain, the 25,000 participants trotted their way through downtown San Jose.
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group embarked on a “Mission $1 Million” goal to be distributed across five nonprofits including: Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, the Santa Cruz County Food Bank, Healthier Kids Foundation, the Health Trust and Housing Trust Silicon Valley.
Silicon Valley Education Foundation, the merging between ALearn and the old SVEF, hosted the Fund the Future dinner that featured Yahoo CEO and raised $1.1 million for the foundation’s STEM education programs. Lisa Andrew, CEO of the merge, praised former SVEF CEO Muhammad Chaudhry and Kathryn Hanson, the founder of ALearn.
“I knew I was assuming the responsibility of this huge organization that she co-founded and created,” Andrew said. “I could only hope to have the same impact as Kathryn has.”
The AllGoodWork Foundation recently launched in Silicon Valley with an event at Common Grounds, a coworking space in the area. The foundation connects nonprofit organizations that need offices to donated workspaces.
“Silicon Valley has the same issues when it comes to nonprofit displacement,” Founder Nate Heasley said. “It made sense to come here because there’s a clearly documented problem.”
Amy Feldman, All Good Work’s Silicon Valley Director, already has over a dozen locations lined up throughout the South Bay in an effort to make sure nonprofits are paired up in spaces close to the communities they work with.