SONOMA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOUNDATION BECOMES COMMUNITY FOUNDATION SONOMA COUNTY

Realigns name to better reflect mission to serve the community.

For Immediate Release

Contact: Gloria Duncan 707/579-4073

Santa Rosa, CA — February 2002 - Sonoma County Community Foundation has changed its name. Sort of. It is now "Community Foundation Sonoma County," or just "the Community Foundation." According to President and CEO Kay M. Marquet, there are a number of reasons for the switch, the most obvious being the ongoing need to explain that the community foundation is not a part of county government. "Although we are a public charity, we are often confused with a county agency," Marquet said. "We thought it appropriate that our name better reflect our mission to match philanthropic interests with community needs."

"One of a community foundation’s special functions is to evaluate and help coordinate the needs and services in its communities, so that charitable gifts are used effectively to fulfill a community’s most critical needs and opportunities," she explained.

Since it was established in 1983 as a means to create a permanent endowment that would provide funding for local nonprofit organizations, the Community Foundation has distributed more than $36 million in grants and scholarships to hundreds of Sonoma County agencies and students. Assets reached $1 million in 1988 and the unaudited total for 2001 is $78 million. Grants in 2001more than doubled from last year’s $16.6 million, including $4.7 million for the completion of Chop's, the DeMeo Teen Club and $6.3 million to the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center.

The League of California Community Foundations has embarked on a statewide visibility campaign to raise the public’s awareness of community foundations and their role in the communities they serve. There are 582 community foundations in the United States holding assets of approximately $31.5 billion. In 2000, they gave approximately $2.2 billion to a wide variety of nonprofit activities in the areas of urban affairs, the arts, education, environmental projects, health and disaster relief. All share the common goal of serving donors, nonprofit organizations and the community as a whole.

For more information, visit the Community Foundations’ website at www.sonomacf.org

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