We created Magnify to help fully realize the opportunity to activate Silicon Valley’s breathtaking financial resources for good, and invest in the nonprofits in our own backyard, so that every resident of this region can thrive. Our talented, dedicated, but under-resourced nonprofit organizations form the connective tissue, the safety net, for our community and are a vital source of creativity and motivation that help make this a better place for all of us.

We set out to test, learn, iterate, and share what we learned to catalyze more local philanthropy in Silicon Valley to make this place a shining example, not only of the wonders technology can bring, but of the ways a whole community can rise together.

This initiative also produced many lessons for the field, which we have documented and shared with the public. At the highest level, they can be distilled to the following.

  • Proximity is powerful and necessary.
  • Curation tools can be useful, if contextualized, tailored, and offered by a trusted messenger.
  • Anchoring high-capacity donors at higher giving levels, and accelerating the pace of giving is critical, takes time, and likely requires external imperatives.
  • Deep and authentic collaboration with other philanthropic and donor-supporting organizations is achievable and instrumental in fostering broader and more sustained impact in community, through greater local giving.
  • Inequity is an ever-present but invisible thread through our community.

Read the full article about local giving community by Catherine Crystal Foster at Magnify Community.