Great ideas always start with someone. In the case of Community Foundations, which now hold more than 10% of all philanthropic funds in America, it was a Cleveland man named Frederick Harris Goff. Having worked as a litigator for John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil in the early 1900s, and as president of the Cleveland Trust Company, Goff was no stranger to wealth. He also advised families on estate planning and became increasingly concerned about what happened to those estates when the causes they were dedicated to no longer matched the needs of the community. “How fine it would be,” [...more...]

Nicole Taylor’s passion for “power-building” and lifting up those living on the margins has its inspirational roots 350 miles south in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, where her Jamaican immigrant mother’s spirit of giving and of service was, according to Taylor, unparalleled. “She just continuously gave to others and expected me to do the same. Even though we didn’t have literally anything to give, I was always expected to help.”  Despite being raised in Los Angeles, Taylor, CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the largest community foundation in the nation, feels a deep debt of gratitude to her adopted region. [...more...]

While a UCLA undergrad, Valerie Red-Horse Mohl dreamed of being a filmmaker.  But Red-Horse Mohl needed a day job, and wound up at an interview with Drexel Burnham Lambert, the firm that changed U.S. markets through the high-yield bond. “I think I learned more from that experience than I would’ve if I had gone anywhere for an MBA,” the CFO of the East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF) says. With her “College-of-Life” business degree in hand, Red-Horse Mohl went on to found the first investment bank focused on Indigenous Tribal Nations where she structured and managed over $3 billion in capital, [...more...]

Founded in 1928, East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF) partners with an active network of donors, local government funds, institutions, and […more…]

As president and CEO of the East Bay Community Foundation (EBCF), James W. Head has steered the nearly 100-year-old institution […more…]