City Beat
Fund grants help agencies meet higher demand for services
Five WG-area nonprofits receive a total of $119,500
By Kate Carter
Five Willow Glen-area nonprofits are among 47 second-round recipients of the Community Foundation Silicon Valley's Urgency Fund grants to help struggling community-benefit agencies meet the area's increasing needs while receiving fewer contributions.
The fund provides the agencies, affected by the current economic downturn and slow recovery, with 10 percent of their budgetary needs to continue operating until the end of their fiscal years. The foundation is hoping others will help the agencies meet the rest of their needs.
The fund was initiated last October by Jeff Skoll, the founder and chairman of the Skoll Community Fund, with a $2.5 million contribution. The Skoll fund is the largest supporting foundation of the Community Foundation.
A $150,000 contribution to the fund from the Community Foundation, coupled with additional donations from other organizations, raised the fund's total to slightly less than $3 million. It distributed $2 million in its first round of grants last fall and $970,575 in this second round.
Willow Glen-area recipients included Project Match, which received $4,500; Live Oak Adult Day Services, which received $5,000; Sacred Heart Community Services, which received $25,000; InnVision of Santa Clara County, which received $35,000; and Second Harvest Food Bank, which received $50,000.
Most nonprofits in the Silicon Valley are experiencing an increased need for services but a drop-off in contributions, which can make meeting that increased need even more difficult. Jenny Luciano, spokeswoman for Sacred Heart Community Services, said that the agency is seeing a 12 percent increase in the number of people it feeds and amount of food it provides since the beginning of its current fiscal year last July. The nonprofit provided more than 600 agencies, distribution sites and its own programs with 23.8 million pounds of food during its fiscal year 2000-'01 to feed an average of 120,000 people per month.
"Our responsibility in the community is to be the main clearinghouse for donated and surplus food throughout the Santa Clara and San Mateo counties," Luciano said. "We've not seen a serious drop in donations, although that doesn't mean we don't need them. Money is very important--the most difficult money to raise is dollars for operations, but that is the most important."
Luciano said the foundation's recent $50,000 grant, along with the $175,000 it received in the grant's first round, will help it meet the increased demand. The agency is also "tightening its purse strings," she said, by reducing the amount of food choices it offers rather than reducing the quantity it provides.
Project Match, which helps provide low-income seniors with low-rent housing in the Bay Area, has already scaled back its services. It continues to operate its Senior Group Residence Program by developing six large single-family homes in communities throughout the valley, including one in Willow Glen, into affordable, community-living situations for seniors. But in December, it eliminated its program of matching senior-citizen homeowners with seniors who need a room for rent and continuing to provide services to those seniors, said Bob Campbell, executive director of Project Match.
"We're reducing expenses as much as possible," he said, adding that the agency has negotiated a significantly reduced rent for its Meridian Avenue office and restructured its organization.
To make its situation even more critical, Project Match's reserves are dwindling to keep up with its expenses. Campbell said it only has enough reserve for two months of operation. The agency has a $45,000 shortfall--the largest in its 25-year history, he said.
"The funding certainly helps to replace the money we haven't been able to raise," he said. "It's about 10 percent of the amount we're trying to raise by the end of the year."
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
