Guest Opinion: The gift that enriches the giver: giving back to our community Guest Opinion: The gift that enriches the giver: giving back to our community (December 17, 2003)

by Peter Hero

Imagine children going to a school bordered by a vacant dirt lot where trash accumulates.

Now imagine students, parents and community volunteers reclaiming that land and turning it into a thriving community garden.

And now imagine the children taking home healthy organic vegetables and fruit they tended, nurtured and picked with their own hands, and presenting this food to their family to supplement their dinner.

Imagine the educational connections that a creative and passionate teacher could create with such a garden outside the classroom: math, science, social studies, biology, genetics, entymology and the importance of care and patience. The possibilities are endless.

Now put your imaginations aside. Such transformations happen each day, thanks to the many public-benefit (nonprofit) organizations serving our communities. This one happened in our own Midpeninsula -- at the East Palo Alto Charter School, through a partnership with the Collective Roots Garden Project of Menlo Park.

In the 15 years I've lived in Palo Alto it's become clear to me that without the nonprofits that touch our lives, collectively and individually, the quality of our lives would be greatly diminished.

Palo Alto is greatly blessed with such agencies -- agencies that bring us joy through the arts, or preserve our rich heritage or ensure that those needing assistance are helped.

Whether it's an individual agency meeting specific urgent issues, or individual residents joining together through collective efforts such as the Palo Alto Community Fund, Palo Alto Rotary Endowment, or the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund (my foundation is honored to partner with all three), our community is strengthened and enriched both in funds and spirit.

Unfortunately, the past two years have been hard for public-benefit agencies throughout our region. Nonprofits have been hit from all sides, with cuts in government, corporate and foundation funding. Donations from individual community members have become even more critically important.

Community Foundation Silicon Valley's 2002 study, "Giving Back, The Silicon Valley Way," found that despite the downturn in the economy individual giving had dropped by only 5 percent since 1998. During the same period, per capita household giving had increased to 3.3 percent of household income.

What we are seeing at the Community Foundation is that people are becoming more selective in their giving, choosing to focus their efforts on the causes they care about most.

Our research found that those causes have changed over the past four years. While religion has always had the highest percentage of individual charitable support, it's been relatively low in Silicon Valley compared with the rest of the country. But in 2002, support for religion increased by 15 percent from 1998, to 52 percent of those who gave to charity saying they gave to a church, temple, synagogue, mosque or other religious group. Support for human-service organizations jumped to a close second place (51 percent), followed by education (44 percent) -- many people reported giving to more than one category.

An increase in donations to religious causes and human/social services was seen nationally as well -- following 9/11 and the downturn in the economy.

Despite this shift toward supporting human and social services, small increases in donations to local agencies have not kept pace with the increased need for services in our region.

With some of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, our communities have thousands of families needing assistance with basic needs. They are turning to agencies like Clara-Mateo Alliance and the Urban Ministry of Palo Alto for help.

Unfortunately, I can't predict a Happy New Year for many of our local public-benefit agencies. State and local government funding cuts will continue, and perhaps accelerate, in 2004.

Your year-end gifts matter more than ever.

At this time of year, as we are endlessly urged to shop, please remember that the greatest gift of all may be a less tangible one -- that of one's time, talent or treasure helping others. There is no better way to honor someone special than to make a donation to a cause he or she cares about.

What we buy in stores may have limited shelf-life, but what we give back our community can last for generations.

Peter Hero, a Palo Alto resident, is president of the Community Foundation Silicon Valley. He can be e-mailed at phero@cfsv.org.

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