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December 2021
Progress Newsletter
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PVF is grounded in community partnerships. We work with people committed to change and to improving the quality of life for folks who are directly combating major social issues like poverty, housing, employment, and food insecurity.
They are individuals determined to uplift their communities and they are creative, imaginative, and ambitious. As first funders, we watch them grow and succeed, taking on new and exiting initiatives.
For example, Pastor Paul Baines is the Founder & CEO of Project WeHOPE, a nonprofit operating shelters, RV parking programs & mobile hygiene services. PVF has been with Pastor Baines since the beginning and we are excited about his newest endeavor: United Hope Builders, a nonprofit factory enterprise focused on affordable housing. They were awarded a Facebook Housing Innovation Grant, made in partnership with PVF, to build a factory in East Palo Alto to manufacture prefabricated homes and employ local residents.
Another individual we are proud to serve is Dr. Belinda Hernandez Arriaga, founder of Ayudando Latinos A Soñar (ALAS), a Latino centered nonprofit program for youth & families on the Coastside. During the height of the COVID pandemic, ALAS created a mask-making sewing cooperative with recently laid-off nursery workers to provide masks for farmworkers, laborers, house cleaners & other essential workers. They now have also established weekly programs delivering food, water, & sweatshirts to farms, as well as offering reading programs for young children living on farms.
In a time of unique challenges, we are committed to championing these innovative leaders doing outstanding human service work.
By Bill Somerville, Founder
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Little could I have imagine that I would be writing a second end of year post amidst Covid. Just when we thought it was over, there have been more twists and turns. Our hearts broke over the immense new needs that have arisen. But, our hearts have also burst with optimism. Challenging times require solutions that challenge.
In 2021, Facebook partnered with us on their Housing Innovation Grants to find new and innovative seed ideas for affordable housing in the Bay Area. We focused on innovations in the space of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and Community Land Trusts. We unearthed visionary initiatives and made grants including an ADU pre-fab factory in East Palo Alto and an AI driven sofware platform for ADU planning and approval.
Our activist donors created impactful new initatives like the Women of Courage Award inspired by the lifetime work of Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D–14) to acknowledge the courageous character and impactful community service of young women in San Mateo County, ages 18-30.
Our ‘non-profit as a service’ model has helped parters like Hate is a Virus, 15% Pledge, Giving Gap, and so many more go from idea to impact in literally days, and grow to a national footprint.
We catalyzed radical collaboration between the leading NFT art platform Art Blocks, a coding academy Street Code, and innovative public art non-profit SaveArtSpace, to produce a generative art coding workshop for youths in East Palo Alto. And if that weren't radical enough, all of this was funded and the donations made with Ethereum cryptocurrency. The vibrant artwork created in this workshop will be put on display on 20 billboards in the Bay Area in January. We can't think of a more exciting way to kick off the new year.
2021 has been a year of pushing bold and challenging solutions forward. Keep those ideas coming. We will find you, and we will fund you.
By James Higa, Executive Director
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Bill Somerville Named as Jefferson Award Recipient |
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PVF’s Founder Bill Somerville has been named a Jefferson Award Recipient “for his streamlined, grassroots grant making process that meets his community needs”. As Bill says, “the essence of good philanthropy is trusting the people that you work with to do good things”.
Two such individuals were highlighted in Bill’s award recognition: Larry Purcell of the Catholic Worker House and Sister Christina of the Saint Francis Center. We're proud to share the video and article at the link below.
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James Higa, Executive Director, brings 28 years of executive experience from Silicon Valley, working with Steve Jobs to change the face of technology. He was at the birth of the personal computer revolution as a member of the original Macintosh team and was deeply involved in the creation of many products and services at Apple over 3 decades. He has a long history of public service as a board member of Stanford's Haas Center and in grassroots relief efforts.
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Bill Somerville, Founder, has been in non-profit and philanthropic work for over 50 years. He was the director of a community foundation for 17 years, and in 1991, he founded Philanthropic Ventures Foundation. Bill has consulted at over 400 community foundations, on creative grantmaking and foundation operations. Bill is the author of Grassroots Philanthropy: Field Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker.
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PVF is a demonstration foundation practicing unique forms of grantmaking
and innovative philanthropy. Our primary interest is in the creative
and significant use of the philanthropic dollar.
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Philanthropic Ventures Foundation | 1222 Preservation Park Way, Oakland, CA 94612 info@venturesfoundation.org | (510) 645-1890 |
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