Member Article

Sharing experiences of philanthropy from across the Atlantic

In July, during his holiday to California, the Chief Executive of Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, Rob Williamson, met Emmett Carson, President and CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. It was an opportunity for the two leaders to share experiences of the evolution of community philanthropy on each side of the Atlantic.

Silicon Valley Community Foundation is largest in the United States and the world, with assets over $7.3bn. It resulted from the merger in 2007 of two existing community foundations which came together to serve the region on a larger scale. It now engages private donors and corporations from within Silicon Valley, from across the US and from around the globe and makes grants locally, nationally and internationally through more than 1,800 philanthropic funds. Emmett Carson is SVCF’s founding CEO and previously was CEO of The Minneapolis Foundation. Prior to that, he oversaw the Ford Foundation’s grant-making on philanthropy and the charity sector.

During the visit, Emmett, who has previously visited the North East of England as part of a transnational community foundation initiative, shared experiences of how SVCF has broadened its reach in response to evolving definitions and experiences of community on the part of donors. Despite the differences in scale, the two foundation chief executives found much in common to discuss around how their respective foundations were playing a leadership role within their communities and within the philanthropy field.

Rob Williamson said: “It was a real pleasure to meet Emmett as he is such a key figure and thinker in the global community foundation movement and in philanthropy overall. I was fascinated by some of the parallels in the experience of our two foundations, although SVCF operates on such a vast scale in comparison to Tyne & Wear and Northumberland. I came away inspired again by the important role we can play in developing a culture of giving and supporting both the philanthropy which benefits our area, and that which emerges from it. I would like to thank Emmett for his time, and his team for helping with the logistics of my visit and for making me so welcome.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Adam Lopardo .