Community foundations work to improve the lives of people in a specific geographic and/or interest area by strengthening effective nonprofits and supporting generous community members who want to give back. Individuals, families, and businesses granted over $160 million to nonprofits through San Diego’s four local community foundations in 2018.
Join us for an engaging panel conversation with senior representatives of these local community foundations, who collectively serve thousands of local philanthropists. Hear tips from these leaders who help many of our community’s generous donors pursue their philanthropic goals, and learn how to connect with community foundations’ expertise and networks. We’ll have the opportunity to better understand their giving models, and hear about upcoming initiatives, high-priority focus areas or trends that they see in philanthropic giving.
Our panelists:
• Sharon Omahen, Executive Director, Coastal Community Foundation
• Christy Wilson, President & CEO, Rancho Santa Fe Foundation
• Sharleen Wollach, Vice President, Operations, Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego
• Brian Zumbano, Vice President, Chief Development and Stewardship Officer, The San Diego Foundation
Please register early. This event usually reaches full capacity with a wait list.
Black, Jewish and Queer. These three identities weave the fabric of who I am, but it took a long time to believe that they could exist together.
Lee and Toni Leichtag established the Leichtag Foundation in 1991 following the sale of their business. Lee and Toni were lifelong entrepreneurs with a passion for innovation and for supporting talent. They believed that only with big risk comes big reward. Both born to families in poverty, Toni to a single mother, they strongly believed in helping those most in need and most vulnerable in our community. While they supported many causes, their strongest support was for young children and the elderly, two demographics who particularly lack voice in our society.
Lifelong Baltimoreans, Rabbi George and Alison Wielechowski and their sons, 11-year-old Lennon and 9-year-old Gideon, are more than pursuing the good life in Southern California. Having moved to San Diego more than three years ago, they are fulfilling a lifelong dream.
You would think that as the executive director of San Diego LGBT Pride, Fernando Zweifach López Jr., who uses the pronoun they, has done all the coming out they possibly can. A queer, non-binary individual who has worked for many years on civil rights issues, López also speaks openly and often about their father’s family, Mexican-American migrant workers who tilled the fields of rural California.
Stacie and Jeff Cook understand commitment. They live it.
