Community Involvement

Our philanthropic philosophy

Our philanthropic philosophy is simple: to give back to the local, national, and global community. Our goal is to leave the world a better place for the generations that follow.

Our philanthropic mission

Our philanthropic mission is to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number of people. We support causes, issues, and organizations when we feel a deep connection or they’re brought to us by our employees, customers, or partners. We work with organizations where we believe our participation will make a significant and sustainable impact.

Our Philanthropic Initiatives

Our philanthropic initiatives support the environment, human rights, education, and health and wellness, with an emphasis on women and children.

V-Day – Charitable Donations

V-Day, a non-profit corporation, distributes funds to grassroots, national and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls.

PETA – Charitable Donations

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry.

Beatitudes Society – Charitable Donations

The Beatitudes Society develops and sustains emerging leaders as they build a progressive network for justice, compassion and peace as expressed in the Beatitudes.

St. Baldricks Foundation – Charitable Donations

The St. Baldrick's Foundation funds more in childhood cancer research grants than any organization except the U.S. government, more than $12 million in 2009 alone!

AIDS Lifecycle – Charitable Donations

AIDS/LifeCycle is an AIDS fundraising bicycle event that raises money to support HIV/AIDS services in California; raises awareness and knowledge about the services and programs offered by the benefiting organizations; and increase awareness and knowledge about HIV/AIDS among the participants, their donors, and the general public.

Annika Kelly Strain Foundation (AKS) – Charitable Donations

The Foundation's mission is to give children who suffer from pediatric cancer a moment during their courageous battle when they can forget their illness and enjoy just being a child. Through the efforts of volunteers and donations, the AKS Foundation funds programs to make a difference in the lives of the very courageous kids that spend weeks and months in treatment in UCSF's Pediatric Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant units.

California Academy of Sciences – Charitable Donations

The Academy, an international center for scientific education and research, is at the forefront of efforts to understand and protect the diversity of Earth’s living things. The mission of the California Academy of Sciences is to explore, explain, and protect the natural world.

Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) – Board

Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) is the independent business voice for the environment. E2 is a national community of individual business leaders who advocate for good environmental policy while building economic prosperity. Working with the National Resources Defense Council, E2 takes a reasoned, economically sound approach to environmental issues by relying on fact-based policy expertise.

Feeding America (America’s Second Harvest) – Food & Charitable Donations

As the nation’s largest charitable hunger relief organization, the Feeding America network secures and distributes more than two billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually.

Friends Outside – Adopt-A-Family & Charitable Donations

Friends Outside is an organization that works to break the cycle of incarceration, specifically in San Mateo County. In families where one or both parents is incarcerated or has been incarcerated, the likelihood of the children becoming incarcerated is unfathomably high. Friends Outside works to break that cycle through after school programs, tutoring, compassion, oversight and other services such as providing food, clothing, and basic necessities.

Greenpeace – Charitable Donations

Greenpeace uses peaceful direct action and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.

Grist – Charitable Donations

Grist believes that news about green issues and sustainable living doesn't have to be predictable, demoralizing, or dull. An independent media organization, Grist exists to tell untold stories, spotlight trends before they become trendy, and engage the apathetic.

Human Rights Watch – Charitable Donations

Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world, standing with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, nongovernmental organization, supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. It accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly.

KQED – Charitable Donations

Northern California Public Broadcasting (NCPB) provides consistently high quality public media that informs, educates, entertains and engages from a Northern California perspective. Through the creation and acquisition of programs, the leveraging of multiple media assets, and strategic partnerships, NCPB delivers television, radio, internet and education network content that makes people think, feel, and explore new ideas.

Marin Child Care Council – Charitable Donations

Founded in 1979, the Council is a non-profit agency that offers a variety of services for parents, child care providers, and the community that are essential to the delivery of quality child care in Marin County.

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) – Charitable Donations

NRDC is the nation's most effective environmental action group, combining the grassroots power of 1.2 million members and online activists with the courtroom clout and expertise of more than 350 lawyers, scientists and other professionals.

Partners In Health (PIH) – Charitable Donations

The work of PIH has three goals: to care for patients, to alleviate the root causes of disease in its communities, and to share lessons learned around the world. Through long-term partnerships with sister organizations, PIH brings the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need and works to alleviate the crushing economic and social burdens of poverty that exacerbate disease. PIH believes that health is a fundamental right, not a privilege and works to raise the standard of care for the poor everywhere through service, training, advocacy, and research.

Ronald McDonald House – Charitable Donations

For nearly 35 years, Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) has been creating, finding and supporting programs that directly improve the health and well being of children worldwide. RMHC makes a global impact on the most pressing problems facing families today with locally tailored programs designed to address the most pressing community needs.

San Francisco AIDS Foundation – Charitable Donations

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation provides leadership to prevent new HIV infections. Linking community experience with science, the Foundation develops ground-breaking prevention programs and bold policy initiatives to promote health and create sustainable progress against HIV. Established in 1982, the Foundation refuses to accept that HIV transmission is inevitable.

Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) – Charitable Donations

Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) provides information, resources, and support to families affected by autism. For families who have just received the autism diagnosis, TACA aims to speed up the cycle time from the autism diagnosis to effective treatments. TACA helps to strengthen the autism community by connecting families and the professionals who can help them, allowing them to share stories and information to help people with autism be the best they can be.

University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center – Charitable Donations

Advancing knowledge, enhancing care is the mission of the Masonic Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota. The Masonic Cancer Center fosters this mission by creating a collaborative research environment focused on the causes, prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer; applying that knowledge to improve quality of life for patients and survivors; and sharing its discoveries with other scientists, students, professionals, and the community.