Supervisors Accept $490,000 Grant from Silicon Valley Community Foundation to Advance Equity Initiatives

Redwood City -San Mateo County supervisors today accepted a $490,000 grantfrom the Silicon Valley Community Foundationto support work that will help bring an equity lens into the allocation of resources in the County.

The grant will support the Office of Racial and Social Justice in implementing a framework that supports community- and data-driven decision making that addresses inequity.

"A big thank you to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation for giving us a very generous grant. Obviously it was very competitive," said Board President Warren Slocum.

Shireen Malekafzali, the County's chief equity officer, said, "The Office of Racial and Social Justice is still new, and building a new function in local government without state or federal funding is a challenge. The support from local philanthropy enables the County to deepen and expand capacity to build the structures needed to affirmatively further equity in government.

The grant advances SVCF's Equity Forwardinitiative, a multi-sector movement to close the racial wealth gap in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The initiative is built on the evidence that Silicon Valley is both a region of tremendous prosperity and tremendous need, yet there is a massive economic gap existing along racial lines that has only widened after the COVID pandemic began.

"Our work to advance equity in our communities would not be possible without the partnership of the local government sector," said Nicole Taylor, president and CEO of Silicon Valley Community Foundation. "We are pleased to support the County of San Mateo in continuing to prioritize the equitable distribution of public funding and investing in strategies and solutions to ensure that every resident has a voice in shaping their futures."

SVCF's partnerships in Equity Forward extend to other leading local philanthropic organizations: The Grove Foundationand The David and Lucile Packard Foundationcontributed financial support to SVCF's grant to the County.

Supervisors in May 2024 approved an ordinanceto promote racial and social equity in the delivery of public services and within the organization. The grant will provide funds that allow the Office of Racial and Social Justice to build capacity to implement plans and changes across systems and institutions.

Specially, the funding is proposed to support the following efforts:

• Build an equity data portal utilizing a shared prosperity framework.
• Deepen support for the implementation and development of equity action plans.
• Bring technical expertise to identify improvement opportunities to public grantmaking efforts.
• Design a structure to ensure quality community research, analysis and data stewardship.
• Retain project management support to achieve desired outcomes.

The grant builds on the successful partnership between the County, the community foundation and additional partners during the COVID-19 pandemic. The work included bringing together voices from across San Mateo County to shape an equitable recovery, among other efforts.

Michelle Durand
Chief Communications Officer
[email protected]