On a fall evening in 1994, about 70 people gathered in the ZD Wines conference room on the Silverado Trail, overlooking the magnificent vineyards, to consider the future of Napa Valley philanthropy.
The focus is on community foundations, which have become popular across the country, including in Sonoma County, as effective, low-cost models of giving to local charities.
Prominent Silicon Valley philanthropist Bill Somerville, the keynote speaker, extolled the benefits of community foundations, as did Napa business attorney Nikki Seward, the gathering’s organizer.
Thirty years later, Napa Valley Community Foundationn success on a scale that no one attending the Silverado Trail Winery Meet could have ever imagined.
Currently, the fund has 12 employees and administrative costs are 3.75% of the total budget. The income for this fiscal year was 11.4 million dollars.
Since 1994, the nonprofit agency, headquartered in Napa, has awarded more than $106 million to dozens of Napa Valley nonprofits and currently has $83 million in assets under its control.
In recent years, the agency has given out $6 million to $11 million in grants and scholarships in addition to an annual operating budget of $1.5 million to $2.3 million, foundation officials said.
The agency’s mission has expanded over time to include relief and recovery efforts during wildfires and other natural disasters, helping legal immigrants obtain citizenship, and coordinating with Sonoma County officials to launch a supplemental housing program to address the affordable housing crisis.
The main purpose of the Community Foundation of Napa Valley remains the same: to direct donations to charity.
Among the many nonprofit organizations that rely on the agency’s help Napa Court Appointed Special Counsel program, or CASA, which helps ensure the safety and protection of children in court custody.
The three-person Napa CASA handles about 100 cases a year, and most of their clients—from newborns to 21 years old—are in foster care.
Julie DiVerde, who has directed Napa CASA for 17 years, said the agency receives between $10 and $20,000 annually in community funds through contributions from donors.
“It would have been very difficult without him,” he said.
DiVerde said the support isn’t about money, but about something bigger.
“It’s from the community, from the people who believe in us,” he said of the fund’s scale. “It’s powerful. If it’s hard work, frustrating work, it has value.”
Funded by charity
Community foundations offer public donations that benefit people in specific geographic areas. According to the Council of Foundations, there are more than 900 such organizations in urban and rural communities across the country.
Agencies typically donate money to charities in one of two ways: through donor-advised funds, which are charitable investment accounts for the sole purpose of supporting specific nonprofit organizations, and through discretionary grantmaking portfolios, in which board members make direct contributions.
Community foundations also connect interested parties to make donations.
“It’s really about mobilizing resources and solving problems at the local level,” said Terence Mulligan, who has led the Napa Valley Community Foundation since 2004. “We use the money to improve the quality of life for everyone in the valley. The money we have gives us purchase and some influence in the world. That’s why people return my phone calls.”
The fund has experienced significant growth over the past seven years, largely due to disaster and charitable donations from heirs, including through estate plans.
Annual donations administered by the foundation since 2016 have ranged from $3.6 million to $28.7 million.
The largest donors since 1994 include the estate of poet and novelist Jane Mead, who died in Napa in 2019; estate of David and Jane Gotelli, longtime Napa residents; More than 25,000 non-recurring donors for the 2017 wildfires and Napa Valley VintnersIn response to the 2014 earthquake south of Napa, he contributed $10 million to the foundation’s Natural Disaster Relief Fund.
The Napa Valley Community Foundation’s largest grants have gone to disaster relief and recovery, legal services for immigrants, workforce housing and education, including scholarships.
The agency’s single largest grants include $5 million Brannan Center in Calistoga and $200,000 Monarch Justice Center.
