Silicon Valley charity tabs CEO
The Silicon Valley Community Foundation on Thursday named Nicole Taylor, a former top administrator with Arizona State University, Stanford University and the East Bay Community Foundation, as its president and chief executive officer.
The nation’s largest community foundation had been without a permanent president and CEO since Emmett Carson resigned in June after a law firm hired to investigate allegations of workplace bullying issued a scathing report. The foundation said it “clearly failed to provide a safe and inclusive workplace environment for its employees.”
Taylor has deep Bay Area roots, but since May 29 she has been a vice president for strategic fundraising at the ASU Foundation. She joined Arizona State in January 2017 as dean of students.
Before that she was associate vice provost of student affairs and dean of community engagement and diversity at Stanford University, after serving as president and CEO of Thrive Foundation for Youth in Silicon Valley. She also spent more than
15 years with the East Bay Community Foundation, the last six as its president and CEO.
Taylor, 49, has a master’s degree in education and a bachelor’s in biology from Stanford and started her career as a teacher in Oakland. She currently serves as a board member for Common Sense Media and the Rogers Family Foundation.
Taylor has large and controversial shoes to fill. The foundation was created in 2007 by the merger of the Peninsula Community Foundation and the Community Foundation Silicon Valley. Under Carson’s leadership it grew into a fundraising juggernaut, targeting Silicon Valley’s elite.
Most of its contributions went into donoradvised funds, which are individual accounts set up at a public charity including some run by arms of large brokerage firms. Donors get an immediate tax deduction but the money can stay in the account, where it generates fees for sponsors and investment advisers, until they make grants to operating charities. Donors can recommend how the money is invested. Critics would like to see donoradvised funds distributed more quickly.
In its 2018 rankings published Oct. 30, the Chronicle of Philanthropy said the Silicon Valley Community Foundation was the nation’s largest community foundation in terms of private support ($1.37 billion) and the third largest charity overall. However, the vast majority of that support was in donor advised funds; if you exclude them it ranked 79th overall.
The foundation’s board put Carson on paid leave April 26 after a report in the Chronicle of Philanthropy quoted former employees who said the foundation’s top fundraising executive at that time, Mari Ellen Loijens, harassed and bullied them. Loijens resigned April 19, the day after the report came out.
Greg Avis, a Silicon Valley investor, became the foundation’s interim CEO and president while recruiting firm Spencer Stuart searched for a permanent replacement. Taylor will begin her new role on Dec. 19 and work with Avis during a transition period.
The foundation declined to make Taylor or its leadership available for an interview.
Gretchen Buhlig, CEO of the ASU Foundation, said in an email that Taylor “has a keen ability to take big, complex ideas and strategically shape them into partnerships that promote philanthropy and improve society.” She worked on a range of issues there, including education, space exploration, entrepreneurship and innovation. “She is a true champion of the ASU charter, promoting inclusivity and access at every chance she can,” Buhlig said.
Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Community Foundation, said he has known Taylor for many years. “She knows the community, is from the field, and has the right experience and temperament to be successful in leading this important institution. I look forward to working with her,” he said in an email.