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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1023-E1024]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HONORING BILL SOMERVILLE
______
HON. ANNA G. ESHOO
of california
in the house of representatives
Friday, August 2, 2019
Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the work of Bill
Somerville, an extraordinary philanthropist, grant-maker, advisor, and
a generous, creative, and devoted advocate for those in need.
Bill Somerville grew up in Berkeley, California, and later attended
the University of California. He served for 17 years as Executive
Director of the pioneering and highly regarded Peninsula Community
Foundation and is a nationally recognized expert on creative grant-
making, having advised more than 400 community foundations in the
United States, Canada, and abroad on effective operations and
grantmaking. He has taught courses on
[[Page E1024]]
philanthropy at Stanford University, UC Berkeley's Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute, and Laney Community College, in Oakland,
California. Bill was honored with the 2004 Gerbode Fellowship Award in
recognition of outstanding achievement as a nonprofit executive and is
a founding member of the National Advisory Board of the Haas Center for
Public Service at Stanford University. He has also been an advisor to
the Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare and serves as an
advisor to the Peery Family Foundation and the Junior League of Palo
Alto.
Bill is the author, with Fred Setterberg, of Grassroots Philanthropy:
Field Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker, a guide to creative grantmaking.
In it, according to the Financial Times, May 2008, ``Somerville
describes in engaging prose how to be an effective philanthropist. With
no agenda other than his need to set things right in the world, he lays
out a series of principles that can be adopted by both endowed national
foundations and those with lesser means, providing they have an urge to
use their wealth to improve the world.''
Bill Somerville's career as a maverick grant-maker spans 50 years in
nonprofit work. In 1990, he founded Philanthropic Ventures Foundation
(PVF) which specializes in creative giving programs customized to
donors' interests. Under his stewardship, PVF has distinguished itself
as a leader in ``venture philanthropy,'' a term coined by Somerville to
describe PVF's quick-response, high-impact grant mode, including
immediate response grants and paperless giving.
Larry Purcell, the highly respected founder of the Catholic Worker
House in Redwood City, California, reports that more than 40 years ago
he and Bill Somerville became teamsters for the poor by picking up free
fresh produce from the South San Francisco Produce Terminal. The
Catholic Worker House has continued to distribute thousands of pounds
of produce each week, using three 15,000-pound trucks acquired through
Bill Somerville's generosity and that of Philanthropic Ventures. A
decade ago, Bill Somerville and Philanthropic Ventures Foundation gave
the Catholic Worker House seed money to purchase a two-bedroom house in
Redwood City for day laborers. In 2018 Bill Somerville and
Philanthropic Ventures Foundation provided seed money for Catholic
Workers to buy a home in Oakland to house men coming out of San Quentin
State Prison. Meanwhile, Catholic Workers in Redwood City, San Bruno,
San Jose, and Santa Maria, California, have been feeding, clothing,
sheltering, and educating the very poor by the thousands. Bill
Somerville and Philanthropic Ventures Foundation have supported each of
those Catholic Worker Houses in magnificent ways. According to Purcell,
Bill Somerville is great, humble, dedicated, and serves the poor with
deep, deep kindness.
In Grassroots Philanthropy Bill said ``Philanthropy is a fascinating
pursuit. It's the stuff of dreams made practical, a lever that can move
the world. Philanthropy is a subject about which I remain unequivocally
and unapologetically passionate.''
Madam Speaker, I ask the entire House of Representatives to join me
in honoring the extraordinary work of an extraordinary man, Bill
Somerville, and thanking him for his unique leadership. He has
strengthened our communities and bettered our nation through his
vision, passion, and integrity, and he stands as a role model of what a
citizen can do to create transformative change in the lives of so many.
____________________