It is with great reluctance that I rip a local institution a new one, especially after that institution, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, took a righteous drubbing from the Mountain View Voice reporter for the relative pittance it gives to local causes compared to the largess it rakes in from wealthy donors (Jan 24, p. 1). However, the Foundation has a bigger problem, one that it shares with an increasing number of large nonprofits. The fact is that the larger of these entities are coming to increasingly resemble arms of business, or instruments of policy, rather than the charities they are supposed to be.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the area of education. Take the Zuckerberg-Chan gift of $1.6B (reported originally as $1B). Mark Zuckerberg is known to be an aficionado of privatizing public schools, hardly a charitable cause. The Voice article gives enough information for the reader to understand that the Silicon Valley Community Foundation is using the money to assist Zuckerberg in an education-related project. However, nowhere is there an indication that the funds are going toward any cause that would meet commonly accepted definitions of charity.

Before the 2007 merger that created the present entity, schools and districts used to get donations from one of the precursor organizations, often with no strings attached. Today, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation controls these donations while being a staunch advocate of the Common Core. Chances are, none of the schools or districts on the receiving end made any noise when the Common Core was being implemented.

The Foundation is far from alone in its mission creep. While running for office, our newly minted State Assemblyman was touted as working for an "educational nonprofit" whose mission was to help bring technology to the classroom. It is a no brainer which way he will vote in Sacramento when the appropriation comes for earmarking funds for technology in the classroom.

Finally, doesn't the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and some of its donors give to the Mountain View Voice's holiday charity drives? Maybe I missed the newspaper's disclaimer about this potential conflict of interest, or maybe I did not.

I commend the Mountain View Voice for taking on the important task of critiquing our so-called community foundation. I agree with most if not all of what Mr. Jebian and Mr. Somerville have said above. I feel we really no longer have a community foundation here. The Silicon Valley "Community" Foundation has become more of a tax shelter and policy arm of rich donors and corporations. The community has little to no access to grants or input on the policies SVCF promotes.