The Big Ask The Big Ask (March 17, 2004)

Private dollars are hoping to fill large public needs

by Bill D'Agostino

With once-flush public funds drying up, Palo Alto philanthropists are being asked to help build and improve numerous facilities, possibly more than at any time since the dawn of the city's history.

That, of course, is in addition to all the nonprofits that are desperately trying to keep their heads above water as local job growth remains stagnant and government funding disappears.

"Everybody's got their cup out there right now," Assistant City Manager Emily Harrison said.

Three of the most visible projects aim to construct a new homeless center, a center for Jewish life and a city history museum. Those projects alone will cost $130 million, all needing some private dollars.

"There's a growing awareness within the community that they can no longer expect the city to fund these major projects," former Mayor Gary Fazzino said. As a result, citizens are "taking it upon themselves" to raise the money, he said.

"This probably hasn't been done to this degree since the early days of Palo Alto," Fazzino said.

Coming at a time when the state is passing bonds to delay paying its debt and small charitable foundations are suffering, many are wondering if there is enough private money, even in the wealthy Midpeninsula, for all these projects.

Many local leaders are confident the projects will succeed, but a few local groups that recently reduced their expectations know too well that not all dreams come true.

"It's really going to be very interesting to see if all of the groups can meet their timelines and their financial goals," Councilwoman Judy Kleinberg said.

A few wild cards have also been thrown in this year, including a spate of new fund-raising groups. The cause that is perhaps the nearest and dearest to the community's heart -- its school district -- is hoping that two fund-raising groups are able to supplement its coffers with $1 million in private donations.

"That's one check I didn't expect to write this year," Kleinberg said.

Lowered expectations amid new challenges

The initial goal was admittedly grand: Raise $1 million to help the city plant trees on Palo Alto's most famous street.

But after struggling to keep early fund-raising momentum going, the Trees for El Camino Project's leaders have decided to fold up their organization once they reach $250,000 -- well below the original mark.

The project was hamstrung not just by the local economy, but also by government restrictions on where along the state's thoroughfare trees could be planted, according to Betty Meltzer, the program's co-chair.

"We decided to set our sights on a financial goal that was consistent with what we could actually accomplish," Meltzer said.

The trees project is not the only group whose expectations withered with the economy.

For instance, the Palo Alto Art Center has placed a long-desired plan to expand on the back burner.

"It's still very much our medium-term goal," said Carolyn Tucher, president of the center's board.

In 2002, the board had hoped to begin a campaign to greatly expand the Art Center, located on the corner of Newell and Embarcadero roads.

That plan was scaled back after the city's $49 million bond measure, which aimed to expand two libraries and a community center, failed to get voter approval in November 2002. The measure would have released $5 million in city funding for the group.

Last year, the center learned of an additional setback -- the state announced it was taking away promised grant money for the center's Cultural Kaleidoscope program.

As a result, the center's fund-raisers switched their goals from expanding the center to keeping programs whole.

Locals who often give money to causes agree they're not able to help every local cause they deem worthy, especially this year.

"We're not able to do them all," resident John Gunn said.

New groups, more cups

Soon to be added to the mix are a new group hoping to receive checks for upkeep of public facilities.

The still-forming Friends of the Palo Alto Park hopes to raise funds to improve local parks.

In future years, many local leaders also expect the Juana Briones Heritage Foundation to try to raise enough money to purchase Briones' historic Palo Alto home, which is currently owned by a couple that want to tear down the building.

City leaders say they, too, will have their cups out for private funds -- in addition to grants -- to purchase a 13-acres of open space to add to the Arastradero Preserve.

And the leaders of the Friends of the Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo aim to expand that facility in the not-too-distant future.

Although lowered public revenue sources can be partially to blame in this spate of public/private partnerships, no one cause can be attributed to the number of cups out there.

Some of the major projects did not expect to raise money during the downturn until opportunity or a crisis propelled them forward.

The idea for the Palo Alto History Museum had been around for numerous years, for instance. But the project only took off last year, when the city offered up the old Medical Foundation home on Homer Avenue -- known as the Roth Building -- for nonprofits.

"When the Roth Building became available it was kind of an 'Ah-hah!' because of its appropriateness," project manager Karen Holman said.

Similarly, the Campus for Jewish Life -- a project to transform 12 acres in south Palo Alto into housing and a community center -- became a reality in 2000, when the Palo Alto Jewish Community Center lost its longtime home at Terman Middle School to the school's reopening.
Young dot-com survivors

Some of the stepped-up private fund raising for public needs can also be attributed to younger families who thrived in the dot-com boom, and survived the dot-com bust with their wealth intact.

These "new young leaders," Kleinberg said, are "the only reason why all these capital campaigns have got a good shot."

Those younger families get some credit for the success of the Palo Alto Library Foundation, which recently met its goal of $1 million to upgrade and expand the Children's Library.

Councilman Jack Morton said that was "an absolutely amazing thing," given the economy.

Smaller foundations that might have supported such ventures in recent years, Morton pointed out, have lost much of their wealth to the downturn. "The principal on which they based their long term funding capabilities has eroded substantially," he said.

Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com

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