Monterey Peninsula Foundation helps bolster 2015 Monterey County Gives! fundraising drive

Monterey County Gives!, the Weekly's annual charity campaign that supports the big ideas of local nonprofits, may still be five months away from launching, but it got a big new partner this week—one with a lot of history, and a lot of financial muscle behind it.

The Monterey Peninsula Foundation announced today it would enter into three partnerships with giving programs, including Monterey County Gives! (a project of the Monterey County Weekly Community Fund at the Community Foundation for Monterey County); the Community Foundation Santa Cruz County and Silicon Valley Gives (a project of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation). 

The Monterey Peninsula Foundation stages the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the Nature Valley First Tee Open at Pebble Beach, and disperses the proceeds from the two tournaments to charity. More than $120 million has been raised for charity since the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am began. 

"Our goal is to continue supporting the nonprofit sector. We believe that we can achieve this by partnering with other local giving programs,” said Steve John, CEO of Monterey Peninsula Foundation.“This is a new giving model that we hope will leverage even greater public and private philanthropy in our communities. We’re very excited.”

The Weekly's community fund was created in 2000 and has raised and contributed over $5.2 million for local nonprofits, including a record-breaking $1.4 million last year.

"This is a wonderful example of the power of collaborative philanthropy," said Dan Baldwin, president of the Community Foundation for Monterey County.

Monterey County Gives! call for proposals from local nonprofits will go out this week, and can be found in the July 2 issue of the Weekly. Thanks to expanding partnerships that include the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, this year's campaign, which launches on Nov. 12, will have matching dollar commitments of nearly $300,000 in place to kick off. 

"The fabric of our community is stronger when individuals and organizations join forces for the good, leveraging our creative and fiscal resources," says Weekly's founder and CEO Bradley Zeve. "Monterey Peninsula Foundation—by joining Monterey County Gives as a key partner—has demonstrated their commitment to philanthropic and community leadership yet again."