Tri-Valley Community Foundation Helps Raise and Distribute Charitable Contributions

By George Walsh, Hacienda Network Staff Writer

Giving back to the community that you live in is a direct way to have an impact on the lives of others around you. However, finding the right charity and the right manner to go about supporting it can be confusing and, in some cases, time consuming. In the Tri-Valley, residents are to fortunate to have The Tri-Valley Community Foundation (formerly Tri-Valley Community Fund), located at 5674 Stoneridge Drive. The Foundation is a non-profit resource that helps individuals, businesses, and other groups make donations to local human service, cultural, and educational organizations. It serves the communities of Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, Sunol, San Ramon, Danville, and Alamo.

The Foundation brings together charitable donors, community leaders, and service providers to assess community needs, provide leadership in addressing those needs and serve as a prudent and accountable steward of charitable contributions. The Foundation is both a permanent endowment of charitable gifts and an active fund-raising organization dedicated to improving the human condition and enhancing the quality of life in the communities it serves. Through community fund-raising campaigns and the building of a permanent fund designed to meet the area's changing needs, the Tri-Valley Community Foundation is working to enhance the quality of life today and meet the challenges of the future. The Foundation has been in operation since 1983 and has been in Hacienda since January of this year.

"We raise and distribute charitable contributions to support over 100 local charities and schools in the Tri-Valley area," says David Rice, president of the Tri-Valley Community Foundation. "We provide three major services. The first thing we do is to make grants to local non-profit organizations. The second thing we do is to provide technical services and equipment to help those organizations become better managed and more effective at what they do. The third thing that we do, which is unusual for a community foundation, is that we operate three of our own charitable programs."

Most community foundations raise and distribute money or provide technical assistance. In addition to those services, the Tri-Valley Community Foundation runs the Senior Support Program of the Tri-Valley, which is headquartered in the Pleasanton Senior Center. It also operates a Youth Achievement Program for at-risk youth to help them get back to school if they've left school, get their diplomas or GEDs, and participate in internships, job skills training, and job placement programs. The third service the Foundation offers is a Health Access Program, where it works with insurance companies, local medical officials, and non-profit organizations to provide free or inexpensive health care to those who need it. The Health Access Program also assists under-insured families that are medically indigent with their health insurance needs. "We work with a number local doctors and dentists who often provide free services to people in need - primarily children," Rice says.

Gifts to the Foundation can honor a friend, perpetuate a family name or memorialize a loved one. Gifts can support the Foundation's general fund to support the community or a particular charitable area or institution that has made a difference to a family. Donors can give gifts of cash, securities, retirement-plan assets, closely held stock, real estate, life insurance, and personal property. "Our general philosophy is to build a healthier community by assessing community needs, then finding the funds to meet those needs through the philanthropy of people in the community," Rice says.

Photo: (left to right) The Tri-Valley Community Foundation's president, David Rice, and the group's chairman of the board, John Gilpin.

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