Tipping Point Community Press Kit

TIPPING POINT COMMUNITY 2012 PRESS KIT

San Francisco seeks Hellman’s philanthropic successors

Press Contact: Jen Pitts Managing Director, Communications + Development [email protected] 220 Montgomery Street, Suite 850, San Francisco, California 94104 P 415 348 1240 F 415 348 1237

www.tippingpoint.org

By: Dan Schreiber | 01/04/12 8:45 PM SF Examiner Staff Writer The death of San Francisco philanthropist Warren Hellman was felt across The City by the organizations he helped and the people who benefited from his generosity. Although Hellman was best known for creating and funding the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, he also gave money to education and arts causes across the Bay Area through his family foundation. The memorial service for Hellman last month was attended by more than 1,000 people, including Mayor Ed Lee, who said he couldn’t help but think about how so much generosity could be replicated. In a recent interview with The San Francisco Examiner, the mayor said he wants tech industry leaders to fill the void left by Hellman. Lee said he now plans to reach out and “help create the 21st-century philanthropic family.” “With these tech companies, I’m listening to how they can be successful, and then I say, ‘By the way, you can help The City be successful by joining in this new generation,’” Lee said. “I think they really want to show the full range of what they can do.” Lee’s call for civic generosity comes as he wants to see more big companies move to the revamped Mission Bay area and the mid-Market Street corridor. Lee wants job creation to be the centerpiece of his new term, and he’s pursuing additional reforms to The City’s payroll tax to draw in more employers and encourage existing businesses to hire more people. The mayor’s call for charity was prompted in part by Marc Benioff, the CEO of San Francisco-based Salesforce.com, who recently chipped in $1.5 million to fight The City’s homeless problem. Benioff and his wife, Lynne, ended up donating directly to a Catholic charity that will now house 12 families in need in the Richmond district. The donation to a targeted cause might be indicative of the new generation’s desire for accountability, according to local charitable organizations. “These new leaders in philanthropy are starting businesses and using metrics more than the previous generation,” said Daniel Lurie, the CEO and founder of Tipping Point, a nonprofit that connects donors with charitable causes. “The days of writing a check and hoping it goes well are done.” The mayor also mentioned Zynga CEO Mark Pincus and Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway as potential leaders in the new class of city benefactors. Pincus said in a statement that he supports the mayor’s goals for improving The City’s overall economic picture. “At Zynga, we have tremendous pride in San Francisco and plan to do our part to make this city a global hub for technology and invention,” he said.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/people/dan-schreiber

San Francisco seeks Hellman’s philanthropic successors

Press Contact: Jen Pitts Managing Director, Communications + Development [email protected] 220 Montgomery Street, Suite 850, San Francisco, California 94104 P 415 348 1240 F 415 348 1237


Conway and Benioff heavily backed an independent expenditure committee to help Lee get elected mayor, but political consultant and lobbyist Alex Clemens said philanthropic goals in San Francisco tend to steer clear of campaign politics. “I don’t see it as pay-to-play politics because the benefit is to the people, and it’s to the most disadvantaged people,” Clemens said. “In San Francisco, I think we expect our mayor to hit up our wealthiest residents to give back to the city they’re choosing to live in.” Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/01/san-francisco-seeks-hellman-s-philanthropic-successors#ixzz1nFD9Hi7u

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/01/san-francisco-seeks-hellman-s-philanthropic-successors#ixzz1nFD9Hi7u

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/01/san-francisco-seeks-hellman-s-philanthropic-successors#ixzz1nFD9Hi7u

2011 Award Recipient

Press Contact: Jen Pitts, Managing Director, Communications + Development [email protected] 220 Montgomery Street, Suite 850, San Francisco, California 94104 P 415 348 1240 F 415 348 1237


CEO & Founder, Tipping Point Community

It is beautifully simple: “We fight poverty.”

Daniel Lurie is passionate about eliminating poverty in the Bay Area. He is inspired and driven to change the way those who serve our most marginalized citizens are supported. In 2005 Mr. Lurie started Tipping Point Community, a groundbreaking philanthropic organization with a name chosen to reflect Malcolm Gladwell’s notion that a few passionate people with a good idea can spark change.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Mr. Lurie worked for Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign and Accenture Consulting. He joined the Robin Hood Foundation in New York City the week before September 11, 2001. Following that tragedy, he was inspired by the foundation’s efforts to address the city’s needs and give those who wanted to help both a direct and effective way to give. He used his time in graduate school to adapt the Robin Hood model to fit his Bay Area home.

The Tipping Point model finds, funds, and partners with the most effective nonprofit groups connecting Bay Area individuals and families to the services needed to break the cycle of poverty and achieve economic self-sufficiency. Intensely dedicated to helping those who assist others, Tipping Point has screened hundreds of non-profits and made hundreds of site visits to identify the best poverty-fighting organizations in the Bay Area. Beyond financial assistance, Tipping Point provides their grantees with the technology, strategic planning, executive coaching, and communications tools they need to grow and increase their effectiveness.

Tipping Point Community focuses on tangible outcomes because achieving results means breaking the cycle of poverty for good. Every grant given to an organization is tied to measurable goals because low-income families deserve access to the most effective services available. Tipping Point’s nonprofit partners provide comprehensive support in the four key areas of education and youth, employment, family wellness, and housing. Since 2005, Tipping Point Community has raised more than $30 million to educate, employ, house, and support nearly 150,000 Bay Area people in need.

Tipping Point is the only non-profit organization on the West Coast whose board underwrites all operating costs. That means 100 percent of every dollar donated goes directly to the most capable poverty-fighting organizations in the Bay Area. Tipping Point has no endowment. Each year it start its fundraising efforts from zero. All the funds raised go out their door and directly to innovative poverty-fighting organizations within 12 months.

"For an area as wealthy as the Bay Area, there is still an incredible amount of need," said Mr. Lurie. "In our community, 25 percent of the population is too poor to meet basic needs. More than 600,000 people live in poverty. Shockingly, 71,000 people are homeless in the Bay Area, and 40,000 of those are families. In my mind, those numbers are unacceptable, and they're unacceptable to our board and donors.”

Daniel Lurie of Tipping Point does what's right



Daniel Lurie visits the Compass Children's Center in San Francisco. Photo: Russell Yip / The Chronicle

Meredith May, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, July 31, 2011

A typical workday for Daniel Lurie looks something like this:

Check the kitchen construction at a homeless shelter. Brainstorm with employees about his annual charity fundraiser. Dash through the Tenderloin to meet with the Rev. Cecil Williams at

Glide Memorial Church.

But he still squeezes in a stop at a child care center in the Tenderloin, where he pushes a blinking glowworm - which plays "It's a Small World" - back and forth with an exuberant toddler.

"Oh, you found the beat!" he says, bopping his head along with the boy, one of thousands who benefit from Lurie's charity.

Raised in a long tradition of San Francisco philanthropy, Lurie is the son of Rabbi Brian Lurie and Mimi Haas, and the stepson of the

late Levi Strauss & Co. executive Peter Haas. At 34, he is emerging as a leader for a new generation that is tackling poverty with its business expertise as well as its dollars.

In six years, his Tipping Point organization has raised $30 million in grants, largely from young donors making their first foray into charity, and redirected it to 29 Bay Area nonprofits that provide shelter, jobs and education.

More than 1,000 donors gave $12.6 million this year alone, half of that at the annual fundraiser, where singer Beck entertained the 1,700-member crowd gathered at Pier 48. Google and Twitter are donors.

"It's hard to give away money, but even harder to do it wisely," Lurie said. "Everyone is going after these Silicon Valley folks, and it's a lot of pressure."

Lurie's group eliminates the confusion over where to donate by awarding grants to nonprofits that have clean financial records and measurable outcomes, but are also willing to admit their faults and accept organizational advice.

Tipping Point analyzes what's holding a nonprofit back, then uses its connections at places such as Charles Schwab, Hewlett-Packard and VolunteerMatch to provide executive coaching, better computer programs, legal expertise, strategic planning and marketing tips.

And in an unusual twist, each of the 15 members of Tipping Point's board, including Lurie, chips in $150,000 a year to pay all operating costs to run the organization, so 100 percent of donations go to the charities. Within the next couple of years, board members will raise their

mailto:[email protected]




Daniel Lurie, founder of Tipping Point, takes time to talk before a meeting at Glide Memorial Church in S.F. Photo: Russell Yip / The Chronicle

annual contribution to $250,000 each, Lurie said. There's no endowment; all the money raised in a given year goes out.

"Being self-funded, we can solve problems without politics," he said.

Booked

Named after the book by Malcolm Gladwell about how a small group of people can make big change, Tipping Point is like the well-connected host at the dinner party, strategically introducing guests who might one day become business partners. The painter to the patron. The retired mathematician to the parent whose child needs a tutor.

It's a full-time passion for Lurie, who has been having dinner talks with his wife recently about starting a hobby to balance his life. Last week, he complied, buying an acoustic guitar.

"Tipping Point helped us move our homeless families out of an SRO hotel they were sharing with ex-cons near Turk and Taylor, one of the most dangerous intersections in the city," said Erica Kisch, executive director of Compass Family Services, which helps homeless families.

With $750,000 from Tipping Point, 22 homeless families were relocated to a safer building, where the basement is being renovated into a kitchen, living room, laundry room and kids' play area.

Tipping Point helped place experts in finance and law on the Compass board, brought a mental health intern from UCSF's Child Trauma Research Project to provide therapy at the Compass Child Care Center and got Cisco Systems to replace the nonprofit's patchwork phone system.

"Now we don't have to search for replacements on eBay every time one of our phones breaks," Kisch said.

Tipping Point's exponential growth is pushing Lurie to look for bigger office space for his 18-member staff. At his Market Street headquarters, Lurie doesn't have his own office, preferring instead to work at a regular desk with everyone else. His work space is sparsely decorated, save for a plastic skull sporting "Fear the Beard" facial hair.

He's also drawing attention in philanthropic circles. Although Lurie eschews awards, he accepted the University of San Francisco's California Prize for Service and the Common Good this year, because the campus has a community service requirement.




Lurie walks through the Tenderloin, where one of the charities Tipping Point works with, Compass Family Services, moved families to a safer place. Photo: Russell Yip / The Chronicle

"I've seen Daniel work alongside doctors in neighborhoods that most people are not willing to touch," said pro football Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, who sits on the Tipping Point board in addition to running his own youth charity.

"Secret sauce"

"Daniel can just as easily walk in an arena where the people are really powerful and they'll ask him, 'What do you need?' It's very unique to see a person who connects to both sides - that's Daniel's secret sauce."

His chameleon skills probably formed early, when, as a child, his parents sent him to volunteer, cleaning the attic of a child care center in the Haight that his family foundation funded.

On weekends, his father, who was the executive director of the Jewish Community Federation, had Lurie and his older brother, Ari, phone members of the community to ask for charitable donations to the federation.

All that dialing for dollars taught him he could be convincing. He became president of his grade school, high school and his sophomore class at Duke University. The only election he ever lost was the Duke campus presidency - trailing behind three female candidates.

"They whooped me," he said.

While studying political science in college, Lurie attended a campus talk by then-U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley and was taken with his message that people should want to be part of something bigger than themselves. In 2000, within months of graduating, he went to Iowa to knock on doors as a field organizer for Bradley's presidential campaign.

After the election, Lurie tried New York, where he worked for Wireless Generation, a high-tech startup, then wound up with a mind-numbing job entering computer code in 12-hour stretches. A co-worker suggested Lurie would be happier at a charity like the Robin Hood Foundation, a prominent anti-poverty foundation in New York.

Lurie went to the Robin Hood offices, a block from the World Trade Center, and was hired to create a library in a public elementary school - five days before 9/11.

On the morning of the attack, he took the first subway train that came to his stop - the one that let him off on Broadway. He still thinks about the train that didn't arrive, the one that would have let him off in the base of the World Trade Center. When he emerged from his commute, he saw what looked like San Francisco fog. He heard sirens and saw people running. Then he looked up.




"I could see people falling 90 stories," he said.

In shock, he still went to work. He heard the drone of the second plane and watched with his co-workers through big picture windows as the second tower was destroyed.

Sept. 11 aftermath

In the aftermath, Robin Hood went into overdrive helping people recover their lives. Lurie and colleagues, including his future wife, Becca Prowda, put on a concert at Madison Square Garden that raised $35 million, then used the money to distribute $5,000 checks to victims. They created the Robin Hood Relief Fund to pay for mental health counseling for those affected by the tragedy.

"In New York at that time, all of us needed some lifting up," Lurie said. "The way the city came together made me realize people want their community to be something bigger than themselves."

Lurie felt that San Francisco needed the same camaraderie to tackle poverty. He shared his idea for a Bay Area-type Robin Hood with three investors: Lott, Katie Schwab Paige of the Schwab Family Foundation, and Chris James, an investment manager and generous donor to Robin Hood. The four shook hands and Tipping Point was created.

Lurie and Prowda relocated to San Francisco and were married in 2006 in a ceremony that included a bongo performance by then-Mayor Gavin Newsom. While Lurie worked on Tipping Point, Prowda took a job in Newsom's Office of Protocol, then moved into a senior management position in the Levi-Strauss community affairs office.

And now that he's a father for the first time, to 3-month-old daughter Taya, Lurie feels an even stronger need to give every kid a fair shot.

"It just hits home more, that a child born the same day as my daughter in this city, by the time they both reach 3, that child born in a different ZIP code will be (way) behind," he said. "Their futures are written for them."

Tipping Point has funneled nearly $1.3 million to the Compass Child Care Center in the Tenderloin, where there are just 12 slots for infants living in poverty. There are 5,000 kids on the waiting list.

"Whenever there's a risky decision to make, I've never once heard Daniel come down on the side of expediency or image," said Tipping Point board member Kate Harbin, a managing director at the private equity firm Source Capital LLC.

"He does what's right. It's how he lives his life. This isn't some hobby for him. It's what he does, all day, every day."

-- Tipping Point: www.tippingpoint.org. E-mail Meredith May at [email protected]. http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/31/MNM51KEO3J.DTL This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle.

http://www.sfgate.com/gavin-newsom/

http://www.tippingpoint.org/

mailto:[email protected]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/07/31/MNM51KEO3J.DTL

The Poverty Clinic: Can a stressful childhood make you a sick adult?



By Paul Tough March 21, 2011

ABSTRACT: A REPORTER AT LARGE about Nadine Burke and research on how childhood trauma affects adult health. Monisha Sullivan first visited the Bayview Child Health Center a few days before Christmas, in 2008. Sixteen years old, she was an African-American teen-age mother who had grown up in the poorest and most violent neighborhood in San Francisco, Bayview-Hunters Point. Sullivan had ailments that the staff routinely observed in patients: strep throat, asthma, scabies, and a weight problem. The clinic’s medical director, Nadine Burke, examined Sullivan and prescribed the usual remedies. But Burke, who founded the center in 2007, was having a crisis of confidence regarding her practice. At the clinic, Burke gently interrogated Sullivan until she opened up about her childhood: her mother was a cocaine addict who had abandoned her in the hospital only a few days after she was born. As a child, she lived with

her father, who also took drugs, and at the age of ten she and her brother were placed in foster care. Since then, she’s been in nine placements. Sullivan encountered Nadine Burke at a moment when Burke was just beginning to think deeply about the physical effects of anxiety. She was immersing herself in the rapidly evolving sciences of stress physiology and neuroendocrinology. What if Sullivan’s anxiety wasn’t merely an emotional side effect of her difficult life but the central issue affecting her health? According to research that Burke had been reading, the traumatic events that Sullivan experienced in childhood had likely caused significant and long-lasting chemical changes in both her brain and her body, and these changes could well be making her sick, and also increasing her chances of serious medical problems in adulthood. And Sullivan’s case wasn’t unusual. Two years after Sullivan’s first visit, Burke has transformed her practice. She believes that regarding childhood trauma as a medical issue helps her treat more effectively the symptoms of patients like Sullivan. In the view of Burke and the researchers she’s been following, many of the problems that we think of as social issues might be better addressed on the molecular level. If these researchers are right, it could be time to reassess the relationship between poverty, child development, and health, and the Bayview clinic may turn out to be a place where a new kind of pediatric medicine is taking its tentative first steps. Mentions the Adverse Childhood Experience—or ACE—study. The study’s correlations between adverse childhood experiences and negative adult outcomes were so powerful that they stunned Vincent J. Felitti and Robert F. Anda, the researchers who had conducted the study. “In many cases, what looks like a social situation is actually a neurochemical situation,” Burke stated. Mentions Bruce McEwen, Michael Meaney, and Jack P. Shonkoff. Sixty-seven per cent of Burke’s patients have had one or more ACEs, and twelve per cent have had four or more. Mentions Alicia Lieberman, Daniel Lurie, Kamala Harris, Victor G. Carrion, and Katie Albright. Burke’s goal is a treatment protocol, like the one doctors use when they’re dealing with cancer or diabetes. Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/03/21/110321fa_fact_tough#ixzz1nFJq2HfQ

Nadine Burke at her San Francisco clinic. Photograph by Alessandra Sanguinetti.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/03/21/110321fa_fact_tough#ixzz1nFJq2HfQ

Tipping Point’s 5th Raises $6.5 Million



Ron Conway, will.i.am, Nancy Bechtle, Charles Schwab

Matt Cohler and Nirav Tolia

Photography Drew Altizer Publication Date 9 June 2011

One of the Bay Area’s most prominent fundraising events, the annual Tipping Point Community benefit, raised $6.5 million this year, with 100 percent of the money raised going to local nonprofits that provide education, housing, employment and wellness services to low-income individuals and families. Over 900 guests attended the 5th annual event, which included some of the biggest figures in tech, finance and philanthropy, as well as a celebrity —

the Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am. The bulk of the money raised came from the evening’s auction, which raised $4 million from 290 donors. Google’s Sergey Brin and wife Anne Wojcicki donated $1 million. As California has now sunk to 43rd in the nation in per-student spending, and consistently ranks in the bottom quartile of student achievement, this year’s fundraising efforts are largely focused on supporting education and the most effective educational programs serving students and their families in low-income communities. “We have a responsibility to dream big for every child in the Bay Area,” said Tipping Point Community Founder, CEO, Daniel Lurie. “A college degree is a one-way ticket out of poverty. You graduate from college and you double your earnings. It’s that simple.” Daniel, by the way, is going to be awarded the University of San Francisco’s California Prize for Service and the Common Good on November 1st, 2011, for his service to the poor. You can purchase tickets and get more information at usfca.edu The benefit was co-chaired by Lisa Pritzker and John Pritzker, Katie Schwab Paige and Matt Paige, Owen Van Natta, and Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins. Comedian and Bay Area native Brad Wollack hosted the 5th annual event, while Tipping Point board

Sabrina Buell, Becca Prowda, Daniel Lurie, Yves Behar

Alexis Traina, Allison Speer, Alison Pincus, Trevor Traina




chair Alec Perkins, San Francisco Giants owner Larry Baer, and Jed York (owner of the San Francisco 49ers and also Tipping Point board member), addressed the guests as well. Beck entertained the nearly 1,700 guests who gathered at Pier 48 for the fundraiser, and DJ Ruckus spunfor the spirited after party.

About Tipping Point Community

Tipping Point screens nonprofits rigorously to find the most effective groups connecting low-income people to the services and opportunities needed to break the cycle of poverty and achieve economic self-sufficiency. Tipping Point’s board underwrites all operating and fundraising expenses so that 100% of every dollar donated goes directly toward fighting poverty. Beyond dollars, Tipping Point provides its grantees with the communications, technical and management assistance they need to grow and increase their impact. More information about Tipping Point Community is available at tippingpoint.org.

Rodman Primack, Gina Peterson, with a friend and Stuart Peterson

Katie Schwab and Michael Schwab, with friend (center)

California Leutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, Doug Hendrickson

Alison Pincus and Mark Pincus – Stuart Peterson, Vanessa Getty




chair Alec Perkins, San Francisco Giants owner Larry Baer, and Jed York (owner of the San Francisco 49ers and also Tipping Point board member), addressed the guests as well.

Beck entertained the nearly 1,700 guests who gathered at Pier 48 for the fundraiser, and DJ Ruckus spunfor the spirited after party.

About Tipping Point Community

Tipping Point screens nonprofits rigorously to find the most effective groups connecting low-income people to the services and opportunities needed to break the cycle of poverty and achieve economic self-sufficiency. Tipping Point’s board underwrites all operating and fundraising expenses so that 100% of every dollar donated goes directly toward fighting poverty. Beyond dollars, Tipping Point provides its grantees with the communications, technical and management assistance they need to grow and increase their impact. More information about Tipping Point Community is available at tippingpoint.org.

Rodman Primack, Gina Peterson, with a friend and Stuart Peterson

Katie Schwab and Michael Schwab, with friend (center)

California Leutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, Doug Hendrickson

Alison Pincus and Mark Pincus – Stuart Peterson, Vanessa Getty

http://tippingpoint.org/

Flash Mob Surprises Guests at Fund-Raising Dinner



June 13, 2011, 11:09 am By Raymund Flandez

If you want people at your gala to stop drinking the cocktails and sit down for dinner, try a flash mob.

That’s what Tipping Point, an organization that raises and distributes money to poverty-fighting programs in the San Francisco Bay area, did at its gala last month. The event raised a record $6.5-million, a half-million dollars more than in 2010.

Tipping Point has been careful to maintain an image of innovation with its annual gala, now in its fifth year. A couple of years ago, the charity showed a 30-second video in which the actor Will Ferrell admonished everyone to take a seat—or else.

The main purpose of the flash mob this year was to get some 900 dinner guests to sit down at their tables, always a bit trying with so many people, says Jen Pitts, managing director of communications.

“What could we do to kick off the night, to make it fun and get people in the right mood?” Ms. Pitts recalls thinking. “It’s about doing good and feeling good. You have to have it be a party.” Ms. Pitts says she was inspired by the band Black Eyed Peas and the flash mob routine the group performed on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show last year.

About 80 to 100 Tipping Point staff members, board members, and volunteers danced to a choreographed routine, which they had practiced secretly for a month.

This year, by sheer coincidence, one of the guests had brought a friend along: Will.i.am, who, with Fergie, sings the Black Eyed Peas hit: “Just Can’t Get Enough/I Gotta Feeling,” the same song chosen by the flash mob on Oprah.

After organizers asked Will.i.am to say a few words before the surprise flash mob, he introduced himself and said something to the effect, “I have a feeling that tonight’s gonna be a good night.” Then the music and dancing started.

As the song ended, giant curtains opened to dinner tables, and the dancers, arms pumping, led the way into the seating area. They got people to sit down in about 10 minutes, a task that would normally take much longer.

The flash mob, Ms. Pitts says, connected with donors. “It’s something that starts with one person, and you reach a critical mass. That’s what Tipping Point is about, a few passionate people that create an idea and then there’s a domino effect. You capture people’s attention and you motivate them.”

Check out the video below of the Tipping Point flash mob.

http://philanthropy.com/blogs/prospecting/author/rflandez/

http://www.tippingpoint.org/

http://youtu.be/CttB6FmMgT4

http://sfluxe.com/2011/06/09/tipping-points-5th-raises-6-5-million/

http://youtu.be/qU1MC4voURY

http://youtu.be/qU1MC4voURY�

How to Give Away Your Money More Effectively



By Robert S. Kaplan and Allen Grossman Monday November 22, 2010 "No one gives away money as intelligently as they made it," declared Andrew Tisch at a recent meeting of the Board of Advisers to the Harvard Business School Social Enterprise Initiative. That observation neatly encapsulates the biggest challenge facing the non-profit sector in the decade ahead. FORTUNE magazine's July 5, 2010, cover article describes how Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates are recruiting billionaires to take the Giving Pledge, a promise to give away at least half their net worth. If, however, too many of these donations are directed so that the donors and their family members can join prestigious Boards of Trustees or if the money gets widely dispersed to a myriad of under-performing local nonprofits, then society will not enjoy the full benefits from the funds expended and the sad truth of Andrew Tisch's observation will be re-affirmed. But if all the billionaires' bequests were to be effectively deployed through charitable organizations committed to performance measurement and accountability for outcomes, this huge wave of philanthropy could transform large segments of society. It's not an impossible challenge. As we've described in a recent HBR article the Gates Foundation, for example, conducts due diligence and subsequent monitoring of the performance of the charitable organizations it supports just as any good investment manager would. That is why Warren Buffet directed that his own enormous bequest be deployed and administered through the strong processes already existing at the Gates Foundation. Beyond the likes of the Gates Foundation, we see an emerging type of charitable organization modeled on venture capital funds, such as New Profit Inc. of Cambridge, Tipping Point Community and NewSchools Venture Fund in the San Francisco Bay Area, Venture Philanthropy Partners in Washington D.C., and Sea Change Capital in New York City. These funds pool large donations from contributors (tellingly referred to as "investors") and distribute them to a relatively few nonprofits selected through a rigorous due diligence process that identifies organizations capable of delivering outstanding social outcomes on a wide scale. The funds offer their grantees large, multi-year commitments complemented with strong governance and active support for the nonprofit's executive leadership team, board of directors, and operational management. Thanks to these Venture Funds, several nonprofits are attracting sustainable funding for programs that have clearly demonstrated an ability to effectively address social problems long considered intractable. Take Youth Villages whose programs help young people, previously mired in bureaucratic state social service systems, achieve a productive life. Its programs have a success rate three times greater than those of state-run programs, achieved at one-third of the cost. It delivers this nine-fold advantage consistently across the seven states in which it operates. But even with a recent $40 million grant from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Growth Capital Aggregation Fund, Youth Villages receives substantially less than 1% of the $20 billion

http://www.hbs.edu/socialenterprise/

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2010/07/05/toc.html

http://givingpledge.org/

http://hbr.org/2010/10/the-emerging-capital-market-for-nonprofits/ar/1

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/business/26buffett.html

http://www.newprofit.com/cgi-bin/iowa/home/index.html

http://www.tippingpoint.org/joomla/

http://www.tippingpoint.org/joomla/

http://newschools.org/

http://www.vppartners.org/

http://www.vppartners.org/

http://www.seachangecap.org/

http://www.youthvillages.org/

http://www.emcf.org/

How to Give Away Your Money More Effectively



dispersed annually by philanthropists and governments on youth services despite offering demonstrably superior results than hundreds of similar but less effective deliverers of services to the same populations. Youth Villages is not unique. Citizen Schools, an after-school program, Nurse Family Partnership, a health program for pregnant women, and Jumpstart, a program that raises the performance of kids in Head Start by an average of 30%, are but a few of the nonprofit organizations that could effectively deploy a great deal more money to extend the impact of their innovative programs. As things stand, the CEOs of these high-performing nonprofits spend much of their time going cap-in-hand to raise money each year. Why aren't the donors seeking these winners out? Society would surely be better served if the exemplary CEOs of these effective programs could spend much more of their time leading their organizations to deliver better services to more recipients. Some people from the non-profit sector object to the financial market-inspired approaches that we espouse in our article on the grounds that the "spirit" of the capital markets somehow runs counter to the spirit of the nonprofit sector. But although the private sector is not perfect, as the global financial crisis has painfully revealed, many of its practices can be productively deployed to produce a far more effective and efficient voluntary sector. The voluntary sector continually pleads for more funding to solve the nation's long-standing social problems. Their case would be far stronger if the large sums of money already deployed to this sector year were better directed to organizations, such as Youth Villages, that consistently delivered the most value for the money. Robert S. Kaplan, co-creator of the Balanced Scorecard strategic toolkit, is Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School. Allen Grossman is MBA Class of 1957 Professor of Management Practice, also at Harvard Business School.

http://www.citizenschools.org/

http://www.nursefamilypartnership.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_Start

http://www.balancedscorecard.org/

http://drfd.hbs.edu/fit/public/facultyInfo.do?facInfo=bio&facEmId=agrossman

Executive Giving Guide Tipping Point gives 100% to cut poverty



Sarah Duxbury – October 15, 2010

Daniel Lurie comes from a family of San Francisco philanthropists with names like Lurie and Haas.

But when Lurie began to think about what kind of impact he wanted to have on his community, he decided none of the old philanthropic models would do. He created Tipping Point Community in 2005.

Tipping Point is modeled on two key elements of New York’s Robin Hood Foundation: It focuses on Bay Area poverty, and its 13 board members cover all operating expenses from their own pockets. It won’t disclose the actual operating budget, but all board members contribute at least $100,000 and a 15-employee nonprofit with an $11 million grant-making budget that also does fundraising would typically have a budget over $2 million.

“People trust that when they give money to Tipping Point, 100 percent of it is going right out the door and right to work in areas where it’s desperately needed right now,” Lurie said. “We have proven time and again that we are selecting the very best organizations to support.”

If numbers tell stories, Tipping Point’s got a heck of a yarn.

It raised $6 million in 2005. This year, in the midst of a rotten economy, it raised $11 million from 800 donors.

The average donation to Tipping Point is $5,000. Some are as small as $25, and others are big, like $1 million from Google Founder Sergey Brin and his wife, Anne Wojcicki.

Tipping Point’s average grant to its nonprofits is $140,000 of valuable general operating support. This year Tipping Point added four new groups to its portfolio of 30-odd vetted organizations. All are in the Bay Area, and they range from SingleStop (which Tipping Point helped bring here) to charter school organizations like Aspire to housing and family wellness organizations like Bayview Childrens Health Center or First Place for Youth.

Where Robin Hood was nurtured and funded by New York’s hedge fund community, Lurie has strived from the start to reach supporters from a wider range of industries. The board includes Ronnie Lott, a 49er hero, Chris James, the founder of Partner Fund Management, Gideon Yu of Khosla Ventures and Facebook before that, and Jed York, president and CEO of the 49ers.

Lurie (right), with students in Year Up, says the board covers overhead so all other donor gifts go entirely toward funding nonprofits.

http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/related_content.html?topic=Tipping%20Point%20Community

http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/related_content.html?topic=Tipping%20Point%20Community

http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/related_content.html?topic=Robin%20Hood%20Foundation

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/10/18/focus5.html#ixzz12Rt7FtIM

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/10/18/focus5.html#ixzz12Rt7FtIM

Executive Giving Guide Tipping Point gives 100% to cut poverty



“Lower dollar donors who give to us are getting pooled with all these other dollars, and their investment is getting maximized unlike any other donation they can make,” Lurie said.

Tipping Point has lined up cash or in-kind support from major corporations like Hewlett-Packard and Cisco, and it has McKinsey consultants doing a project every quarter for a Tipping Point organization at no cost to donors. Tipping Point’s staff also provides technical and management services to nonprofits.

Figuring out the social return on a philanthropic gift is increasingly standard practice for organizations like Tipping Point, but there is, of course, no single metric that works for all causes, or that is universally used.

Considering its mission to fight poverty in the Bay Area, Tipping Point has recently resolved to measure its success by looking for changes in the earning potential of clients of the organizations it supports.

“In my book, $11 million, when we are looking at the need and the opportunities out there to do good, is a drop in the bucket,” Lurie said.

Read more: Tipping Point gives 100% to cut poverty - San Francisco Business Times

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http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/related_content.html?topic=Hewlett-Packard

http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/related_content.html?topic=Cisco

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/10/18/focus5.html#ixzz12Rss7Ee5

Tipping Point Awards Breakfast

Press Contact � Jen Pitts � Managing Director, Communications + Development � [email protected] 220 Montgomery Street, Suite 850, San Francisco, California 94104 P 415 348 1240 F 415 348 1237


Catherine Bigelow - December 2009

There was big news yesterday morning in the penthouse restaurant of the St. Francis Hotel at the 3rd Tipping Point Awards Breakfast. And it wasn't just that I was up, dressed and awake at 7:24 a.m.

All photos by Catherine Bigelow KIPP School honorees physics teacher Nathan Pace, student Isis Diaz and Chief Academic Officer Sehba Ali

Not only was this poverty-fighting organization handing out generous checks ($50K each) to their honorees but it was also the recipient of a major donation of moolah.

"Last week someone asked me about what 'Aha' moments I've had in terms of knowing that the work we do is having an effect," said Tipping Point founder-president Daniel Lurie as he spoke to supporters.

Fortunately for Lurie and the organizations that Tipping Point supports, there have been many. But the largest "aha" moment recently arrived in the form of a check from the personal foundation of Google co-founder Sergey Brin and his wife, Anne Wojcicki, which was signed to the tune of one million dollars.

Tipping Point was founded in 2005 by Lurie, a San Francisco native. It serves as a one-stop clearinghouse for those who wish to support fully vetted Bay Area poverty fighting organizations.

The organization's entire operating costs are underwritten by the Tipping Board of Directors (including Board President Alec Perkins, Kate Harbin Clammer, Woody Driggs, Mike Holston, Chris James, David Lamond, Ronnie Lott, Gina Peterson, Eric Roberts, Katie Schwab, Jed York, Gideon Yu and Lurie), who on average each contribute $100K annually. Every dollar raised by Tipping Point, goes back out the door to its grantees.

http://www.tippoint.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=54&Itemid=91




And those funds will allow for many more "aha" moments for the Tipping Point grantees for whom this breakfast is all about where the honorees shared amazing stories of triumph over tragedy.

"As the third in a family of 13 children," explained Homeless Prenatal Program founder Martha Ryan, "Nursing came natural to me."

Back in the '80s, the former ICU nurse spent her free time volunteering at the St. Anthony's Medical Clinic and the Waller Street Clinic. It was in these bare-bones settings where she first encountered pregnant homeless women and saw an urgent need for health counseling.

"Most pregnant women are advised by their doctor to eat well, rest and reduce stress," said Ryan. "But if you're a homeless woman without housing, battling addiction and in a bad relationship, your health and that of your baby's is at risk."

In 1989, with seed money from the San Francisco Foundation, Ryan founded her organization which strives to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty. Their first year, the program served 72 women. Today, HPP provides comprehensive services to more than 2,500 families.

With Tipping Point support, HPP convinced Accenture to provide them with a multimillion-dollar database and now provides mental health support to its staff, some of whom are former clients.

"San Francisco Foundation gave birth to us," said Ryan, in tribute. "But Tipping Point helped us grow up."

Tipping Point Board member Gina Peterson introduced the honorees from Canal Alliance in Marin county: Executive Director Tom Wilson and Canal client Gerovan Barrios-Huinil, who is his short life has traveled an amazing odyssey from poverty in Guatamala to success as a student at Marin Community College.

The Canal district is home to about 12,000 people who've immigrated from other countries. Many are poor, uneducated and don't speak English. Drugs and gang activity are rife there.

As Huinil, who originally spoke only Mayan, discovered when he was floundering in school and struggling with numerous language barriers.

Seeking protection, he joined with one of those Canal district gangs. At 16, he and two friends were attacked in a drive-by shooting. One lived, one died. The police arrived and as Huinil lay on the ground in handcuffs, he thought to himself, "If this is the life that I left my family for and struggled through the desert to get here, then I want to live on the other side."

Huinil signed on with Canal Alliance, where he is now employed, the first in his family to graduate from high school and attend college, and is working toward his citizenship.

http://www.homelessprenatal.org/index.html

http://www.canalalliance.org/




"Typically, I wouldn't pick up the phone can call a funder when I had a problem," explained Tom Wilson of his experience with Tipping Point. "But they're different. Tipping Point gives me a place to go with my questions. And they offer solutions and resources. This is cutting-edge philanthropy!"

The KIPP Schools were founded in 1994 by two teachers frustrated with the state of public education. In 2000, KIPP received a big boost from Doris Fisher and her late husband, GAP founder Don Fisher. The rigorous program asks much of its students: 10-hour days, classes on Saturday, little vacation time.

But for Isis Diaz, a 10th-grader at KIPP San Jose Collegiate, that educational challenge is preferable to the other options that engage many teenagers in the Allen Rock area of San Jose.

"I'm Latina. I come from a neighborhood of crime. People expect me to fail. Now, I understand that I have the right to get an education. I can't change all of eastside San Jose, but thanks to KIPP, I can change what I do," said Diaz, who plans to be a cop when she grows up. "I'm going to graduate from college. I'm going to succeed. Not just for me, and not just for my family, but for my community."

Shortly after the breakfast, Tipping Point received a $100K donation. Its goal is to raise $2 million in support of its 26 grantees by January 15.

Honorees Isis Diaz, Tom Wilson, Sehba Ali, Martha Ryan, Gerovan Barrios-Huinil with TP founder-president Daniel Lurie

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/missbigelow/detail?entry_id=53195#ixzz0drl5HyEd

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3 Million Reasons to Smile: Tipping Point



Catherine Bigelow – May 12, 2009

Happy faces atop the Stanlee Gatti-designed tables at the Tipping Point Gala

Cake may have been touted as the marquee headliner last week at Bimbo’s 365 Club where Tipping Point held it’s third fundraiser.

However the band’s well-deserved thunder was stolen by the stalwart supporters of Tipping Point who, in a matter of minutes, raised mega-millions.

To be exact? Three-million smackers!

“The success of tonight’s auction brings us to a total of $5.6 million raised for our fiscal year,” said Tipping Point founder and President Daniel Lurie, thrilled with the results. “And all of that money goes directly back out the door to the more than 50,000 people who are served by our Tipping Point grantees.”

Founded by Lurie in 2005, Tipping Point has raised $14 million in a mere four years.

Tipping Point serves as a one-stop clearinghouse for charitable donations by providing funds and infrastructure support to the most effective Bay Area organizations which address and deal with issues of education/youth development, employment/asset building, child/family wellness and Homelessness/housing assistance.

The organization’s operating costs (and the gala itself) are underwritten by the Tipping Board of Directors (including Kate Harbin Clammer, Mike Holston, Tracy Iseler, Chris James, David Lamond, Ronnie Lott, Alec Perkins, Gina Peterson, Eric Roberts, Daniel Lurie, Katie Schwab), who, on average, each contribute $100K annually.

“Thanks to everyone here tonight,” said Lurie, beaming, “We have three million reasons to smile!”

Perhaps smiling the most broadly? Tazo Stuart-Riascos, a client of Year Up, one of Tipping Point’s grantees which provides young adults with technical and professional skills, college credits, an educational stipend and corporate apprenticeship.

“Beginning when I was just two weeks old, I’ve lived in seven foster homes and attended six different schools,” said 20-year-old Stuart-Riascos. “I didn’t do drugs, I didn’t sell drugs. But I ended up living in my car.”

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After completing the Year Up program, Stuart-Riascos is now an apprentice with Salesforce.com. He next plans to finish school, hopefully at Harvard University.

In addition to the big bucks raised, much of what is impressive about Tipping Point is its engagement of a new, youthful demographic on the philanthropic front.

“What these young kids are doing is making a huge difference in philanthropy,” said JaMel Perkins. “I’ve been fundraising for 40 years. And these young people are already just knocking it out of the park!

“Of course,” continued Perkins, whose son, Alec Perkins, currently serves as Tipping Point Board Chairman, “I’m the mom.”

But Alec wouldn’t disagree with his mom. “Tonight we have more people than ever caring about the fight against poverty in the Bay Area. For me, that’s incredibly inspirational,” said Alec Perkins. “Maybe someday in the near future when kids are reading about the economic problems in 2008, 2009, we can tell them that we helped do something about that.”

And help, everyone did. More than 600 guests (with a waiting list, to boot) turned out for this fun-raiser -- the smiley-face shaped invite specifically instructing guests on matters sartorial: No Black-tie.

The evening featured a delish Paula LeDuc sit-down dinner (short-ribs and chocolate sundaes) for 550 folks -- the likes of which had never before fit into the swanky, old-school interior that is Bimbo’s.

“Next year we’ll just use guests as centerpieces,” cracked Tipping Point Director of Communications Jenn Pitts. “That way we can fit 60 more people!”

But event designer Stanlee Gatti simply re-imagined the club’s traditional round tables into long perpendicular rows so as to fit in all the folks. Even though gift bags awaited guests at night’s end, Gatti’s sassy, smiley-faced floral centerpieces creations proved to be guests’ favorite take-away gift.

Among those guests? Helen and Charles Schwab; Google VP Salar Kamangar; Elaine McKeon; Cathy and Ned Topham; Ron Conway; Cisco Senior VP Tony Bates and his wife, Cori Bates; VC guru Pierre Lamond; Google's Marissa Mayer and Zachary Bogue; and Joachim and Nancy Bechtle.

Becca Prowda and her husband, Tipping Point Founder-Director Daniel Lurie




The problem of trying to corral that many guests to dinner was cleverly handled with video help from Saturday Night Live cast members Kristen Wiig and Will Forte who gently shamed guests into sitting.

“MC Hammer? Please sit down. Look, we’re onto you -- we know that you only wear those big pants so you can fill them with dinner rolls. Your secret is out. Robert Mailer Anderson and Nicola Miner: Hey, loved your SFJazz event. But that is over. Tonight is about Tipping Point. Have your seat.”

Sotheby’s suave auctioneer Jamie Niven deftly dislodged dollars during the lively live auction of two knock-out packages.

Dine-O-Mite was a gourmand’s delight featuring dinner by Top Chef Jamie Lauren, barrel tastings of CADE vino, a Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market dinner whipped up by Quince chef-owner Michael Tusk, lunch at Medlock Ames Vineyard, a signature cocktail created by Tipsy Pig and a Tesla Motors three-hour test drive). In just 10 minutes, it sold for $90K.

Head for the Hills featured a dizzying trip to L.A. (aboard NetJets) that included tickets to Elton John’s 2010 Oscar Party, two nights at the Beverly Wilshire, a trip to the studio of artist Ed Ruscha, a private tour of LACMA, and couture piece of jewelry crafted by designer Irene

Neuwirth. A steal for $100K.

Giants poohbah Larry Baer offered up a Field of Dreams door prize. Inspired, 49ers Head Coach Mike Singletary jumped into the fray with his own package for 10 youths at the Niners Training Camp. Which did so well, he offered it up for auction again.

“Any more auctions like this,” teased Trevor Traina, impressed by Tipping Point’s take, “And the poverty they’ll be fighting will be for the people in this room!”

But it didn’t end there! Next up? MC Hammer took the stage leading the crowd in surprising former 49er great Ronnie Lott with the Happy Birthday ditty as the

four children of Ronnie and Karen Lott surprised their dad with a birthday cake.

And even as 300 more people were waiting in line outside Bimbo’s to hear Cake, this night belonged to guests such as Tazo Stuart-Riascos.

“Today I can walk through the doors of the San Francisco community with my head held high,” said this eloquent young man, who also poignantly recited a song-poem by Tupac Shakur. “And can I say to myself, ‘Look at how I’ve grown’.” Check out the photos http://www.7x7.com/blogs/bigelow-report/3-million-reasons-smile-tipping-point

Tazo Stuart-Riascos and Stacy Bennett

http://www.7x7.com/blogs/bigelow-report/3-million-reasons-smile-tipping-point

Nonprofit Tipping Point aims fundraising blitz at local poverty

Press Contact: Jen Pitts, Managing Director, Communications + Development [email protected]

220 Montgomery Street, Suite 850, San Francisco, California 94104 P 415 348 1240 F 415 348 1237 www.tippingpoint.org

Sarah Duxbury – May 16-22, 2008

Three-year-old Tipping Point recently wrapped up what might be the single most successful night of fundraising in San Francisco history.

The nonprofit's May 1 gala raised $3.76 million, every penny of which will go to fighting poverty in the Bay Area.

Founder Daniel Lurie based Tipping Point on Robin Hood Foundation, the New York City nonprofit that's the darling of the hedge fund set, and where Lurie worked from 2001 to 2003. Like Robin Hood, Tipping Point's nine-member board, which includes Ronnie Lott, covers all of the nonprofit's operating expenses.

"That inspires others to get involved," Lurie said. "We've relied on the same generous people for a long time, and it's time to get other people to step up."

Lurie, and some of his Tipping Point board members, are children of major Bay Area philanthropists -- Lurie's mother is Miriam Haas and his stepfather the late Peter Haas of Levi Strauss & Co., but others are relatively new to the philanthropic scene.

Between its promise to funnel every penny donated to 20 pre-vetted, poverty-fighting charities and its desire to fund general operating expenses -- key dollars that often are hard for nonprofits to come by -- Tipping Point has developed appeal for both donors and nonprofits. In just three years, Tipping Point has quadrupled the number of donor gifts and increased the amount it gives away from $450,000 two years ago to $5.5 million this year. This year's contributions are about what a private foundation with a $100 million endowment would give.

Some $1.5 million of the funds raised on May 1 will go to opening SingleStop sites in the Bay Area. Developed in New York by Robin Hood Foundation, SingleStop brings together in one location all available tax breaks and public benefits, like earned income tax credits, food stamps and MediCal, to which low-income people are entitled but may lack the time or resources to find. The one site will have all necessary forms as well as someone to help people understand and use them.

Last year, $300 million in public assistance went unclaimed in San Francisco, and $65 billion went unclaimed nationwide, according to SingleStop, and SingleStop could help remedy that. Four sites will be open by the end of the summer, and four more will open by early 2009. It costs $250,000 to open a SingleStop and run it for a year, and Sergey Brin, a Google co-founder, and Paul Tudor Jones, who founded Robin Hood Foundation, each committed $250,000 to open SingleStops.

One of Tipping Point's first nonprofit partners is Richmond-based Rubicon, a $16 million nonprofit that operates a bakery and provides services to help people move out of poverty.

Nonprofit Tipping Point aims fundraising blitz at local poverty

Press Contact: Jen Pitts, Managing Director, Communications + Development [email protected]

220 Montgomery Street, Suite 850, San Francisco, California 94104 P 415 348 1240 F 415 348 1237 www.tippingpoint.org

"We get funding for housing and job training, but nobody pays for the connecting tissue that makes it all work," said Rick Aubry, Rubicon's president. "Tipping Point makes our idea possible by paying for mundane things like management information systems or H.R. departments."

Aubry also credits the $200,000 he has received from Tipping Point for making possible an expansion into San Francisco.

"For an area as wealthy as the Bay Area, there is still an incredible amount of need," said Lurie, rattling off statistics: 25 percent of the population here is too poor to meet basic needs; more than 600,000 people live in poverty; 71,000 people are homeless in the Bay Area, and 40,000 of those are families.

"Those numbers are in my mind unacceptable, and they're unacceptable to our board and donors," Lurie said.

“It’s time to get other people to step up,” says Lurie, right, with Dr. Nadine Burke.

SWELLS



Catherine Bigelow – April 15, 2007 Tip-top: It was, we thinks, a philanthropic torch pass at Bimbo's 365 Club for the Tipping Point Community's inaugural Give*Get Benefit. The event raised $1.2 million for this foundation, which serves as a clearinghouse for organizations (such as Rubicon, the Homeless Prenatal Program and First Place Fund for Youth) that tackle homelessness and housing, youth development and unemployment.

"That's $1.2 million going straight back out the door," said Tipping Point founder Daniel Lurie. "We had great sponsors like Levi's, Fiji Water, Equinox, Krug Champagne and PlumpJack Wines. The party was paid for by our board."

And what a swell board it is: Lurie, Chris James, Ronnie Lott, Eric Roberts and Katie Schwab, who serves as board chairwoman.

"I'll be the first one to ask, how do you say 'no' to Daniel?" joked Lott. "More important, how do you say no to the work we are trying to accomplish?

"The universe is calling for all of us to serve those less fortunate. We see it here in the city and all the way down to Silicon Valley," said the former 49er, who also directs his All Stars Helping Kids foundation. "The energy here is great, with so many young people getting engaged and helping make the world a better place. Their involvement does make a difference in people's lives."

The sellout crowd of 450 (with a waiting list to boot) was peopled by longtime community leaders and philanthropists (Charles and Helen Schwab, Mimi Haas, Don and Doris Fisher, Dede Wilsey, Susie and Mark Buell, Tom and JaMel Perkins, Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein, and Mike and Cathy Podell) as well as a new breed of hip and happening philanthropists in their 30s and 40s (Nicola Miner and Robert Mailer Anderson; David Lamond; Trevor and Alexis Traina; Jad and Christina Dunning; Chris and Bradley James; Lurie and his wife, Becca Prowda).

$50K tables went like that. But with $250 and $500 individual tickets, an even younger philanthropic subset was on the scene, too. The supper club setting perfectly suited the sumptuous Paula LeDuc supper. And Stanlee Gatti created clever teeter-totter-esque centerpieces that read "Be a Tipping Point."

Scanning the room (and perhaps calculating the accumulated net worth gathered in Bimbo's ballroom), Trevor Traina observed: "It's amazing what Daniel has accomplished. He's gone from zero to 60 in just one year."

Although Stephan Jenkins and Third Eye Blind (decked out in Levi's labels) belted out their best, the rockers were outgunned by students from the KIPP Summit Academy in San Lorenzo, one of Tipping Point's grantees.

The charter school is building a new campus for the first Bay Area KIPP high school. But success meant the KIPP Orchestra would lose its music building -- until this non-gala gala's live auction kicked into high gear.

SWELLS



In the end, dueling $100K donations (Dede Wilsey, Charles Schwab, Mimi Haas) were added together for a whopping $300K building fund, which received an in-kind architectural design donation from Gensler.

Another give/get for Tipping Point? A raffle for a Prius, won by Brent and Mary Johnson, who immediately returned it to the pot, whereupon it was won by Bill Edwards, who kept the luxury package at the Carneros Inn accompanying the car, but donated the car to Tipping Point, where it will be used by the foundation's grantees. Phew.

"Tonight felt like our 'coming-out' party," enthused Lurie. "We want to engage young philanthropists to step up and take a leadership role. Tipping Point shines a light on agencies that are not always high profile but at the end of the day are doing the hard work that makes a difference in people's lives."

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