To our Colleagues and Friends:

Milestones n.Significant points in development

In March 2004, the Foundation celebrated its fifth anniversary. While that is an admittedly brief span, consider what takes place in that time or less. A newborn baby learns to smile, crawl, walk, talk, and starts kindergarten. A home is designed, constructed, decorated and provides a warm haven for a family. A U.S. citizen runs for President, enters office, and completes a full term. An economy goes through a boom and a bust, and can boom again. In that light, we decided this report would reflect the Foundation's development and summarize activities and grantmaking from July 2003 through June 2004.

A number of milestones are identified in this report, but several have been critical in shaping our identity:

  • Starting the foundation within Community Foundation Silicon Valley (CFSV) enabled us to carve a unique niche at the intersection of grantmaking and public policy advocacy and lobbying. It also provided us with expertise in the form of experienced advisors, including Peter Hero, CFSV's President, and our independent current and former Board members, who are appointed by CFSV: Harry Saal, Perry Olson and Bill Johnson.
  • Our success in shepherding a bill in support of clean cars through the California legislative process showed us that we could be effective in a new arena: lobbying. It led to the expansion of our public policy work to include nuclear disarmament and stem cell research so that we could leverage our limited grant resources with policy changes.
  • Partnerships with two other foundations represented new steps. In grantmaking, we collaborated with the Glaucoma Research Foundation to fund a new model for research into the causes of glaucoma, engaging creative scientists from neuroscience, molecular biology, genetics and immunology. With the Ploughshares Fund, we developed the Arms Control Advocacy Collaborative (AC2) and, for the first time, retained an external lobbyist in Washington, DC, to help represent the peace and security field on Capitol Hill. The value added by that lobbyist to AC2's work persuaded us to engage other lobbyists to leverage our work in asteroid identification and tracking.
  • Our decision to participate in two coalitions, one in California for clean air, and another at the national level in support of medical research, gave us a new peer group: nonprofit organizations who work daily on the front lines. That peer engagement has been invaluable in keeping us focused on the practical. It also reminds us that there is strength in numbers.

We know that many of the issues we are tackling require a long-term commitment. We plan to continue our efforts with strategic funding of our nonprofit colleagues, collaborations with other philanthropic organizations, and investments in lobbying and advocacy. Five years from now, we anticipate having a new series of milestones to share with you.

Thank you for your support of our work and your guidance as we have established the Foundation. We couldn't have done it without you and the talents and dedication of our staff.


Steven T. Kirsch Michèle van Blitter Kirsch Kathleen Gwynn
Co-founder & Board Chairman Co-founder President & CEO