Northern California Grantmakers

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) will honor NCG member the Levi Strauss Foundation on April 8th as one of the recipients of its 2013 Impact Awards.

The pioneer spirit that guides Levi Strauss & Co. is evident in the gutsy foundation it created in 1952. Today, under the leadership of Executive Director Daniel Lee, the Levi Strauss Foundation drives cutting-edge and effective grantmaking for justice, supporting innovative community partnerships and promoting the practice of good corporate citizenship.

Guided by Levi Strauss & Co.’s corporate values of courage, empathy, originality and integrity, the foundation creates programs that improve the lives of disadvantaged people in the areas of HIV/AIDS, asset building, worker rights and well-being, and social justice. In 1982, LSF was the first U.S. corporate foundation to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Today, it devotes a higher percentage of grant dollars to lift up marginalized communities than any other corporate grantmaker.

LSF is one of only a few foundations – corporate or otherwise – that exceeds all the benchmarks of good grantmaking suggested in NCRP’s Criteria for Philanthropy at Its Best. It fosters dialogue in the philanthropic sector about best practices through stakeholder convening, conference presentations and regular high-quality contributions in best-practice literature.

NCG congratulates Levi Strauss Foundation Executive Director Daniel Lee and his staff for this well-deserved recognition of their work.

Read the full corporate foundation Impact Award announcement online.

Learn more about NCRP’s 2013 Impact Awards.

NCG was pleased to partner once again with the San Francisco Business Times as a sponsor of the 2012 Corporate Philanthropy Awards which was held Wednesday, July 18 at the Fairmont hotel here in San Francisco.

We were also excited to see so many of our members honored during the awards breakfast.

Here are some member highlights:

• The list of Top Corporate Philanthropists in the Greater Bay Area included 18 NCG members–28% of the list.
• NCG members took 13 of the top 20 spots.
• NCG member JPMorgan Chase & Co broke into the top 5 for the first time.
• NCG member Wells Fargo received a “Beyond the Check” Community Partner in Sustainability award.
• NCG member Clorox Company received a “Beyond the Check” Community Change and Impact award.
• Several NCG members were recognized with the Community Commitment Award given to companies who gave 1% or more of their company-wide net profit to community organizations. They included: JPMorgan Chase, PG&E, Salesforce.com, Levi Strauss, GAP, Clorox and Bank of Marin.

The top 10 corporate givers  honored at this year’s event were:

1. Google
2. Chevron
3. Wells Fargo*
4. Safeway Inc.
5. JPMorgan Chase & Co.*
6. Cisco Systems Inc.*
7. Bank of America*
8. PG&E*
9. Genentech Inc.*
10. Intel Corp.

*NCG member

Congratulations to all the award recipients and honorees at this year’s event. And for a complete list of the 65 corporate grantmakers honored, check out the latest issue of the San Francisco Business Times.

For the second year in a row NCG member Levi Strauss has teamed up with Water.org to raise awareness around the issue of clean water access. On March 22nd–World Water Day–Levi’s launched “Go Water<Less,” a new interactive challenge that encourages individuals to take water-saving measures and to help provide clean water access to those without.

At the “Go Water<Less” website individuals can learn more about water conservation; facts about clean water access worldwide; and take an online pledge to participate and share it with their social media networks.

In the following video Levi’s and Water.org share one woman’s journey for clean water, reminding viewers that there are one billion people in the world who don’t have access to clean water.

Check out Levi’s “Go Water<Less” campaign online.

Learn more about Levi’s “Go Water<Less” on their Unzipped blog.