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Mission
The Family Giving Tree is a 501c(3) nonprofit, based in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, dedicated to fulfilling the holiday wishes of children who would otherwise go without gifts and to providing backpacks filled with school supplies to low-income children.
The goal of The Family Giving Tree is to offer assistance to as many low-income people as possible through the Giving Tree programs, by creating a simple and effective way for anyone to enrich their own life by helping others.
You may have seen our brightly colored wish cards displayed on trees or clipped to a school bus poster in stores or in company lobbies.
The Family Giving Tree runs two highly successful programs:
1) The Back-to-School program, which is held in the summer, gives supply-filled backpacks to thousands of low-income children. In 2008, FGT donated 15,000 backpacks.
2) The Holiday Wish Program, which is held during the December holidays, gives personalized gifts to thousands of low-income children and seniors. In 2007, FGT donated 63,000 gifts.
The Family Giving Tree program began in 1990 as a San Jose State University MBA class project. Jennifer Cullenbine and Todd Yoshida were asked to “create a program that adds value to someone else’s life.” They created the Family Giving Tree with the hope of providing Christmas gifts to 300 children in East Palo Alto. Encouraged by the success of the first year, Jennifer decided to continue the program.
In 2007, Family Giving Tree expanded to five new states and passed an impressive landmark by serving more than 500,000 individuals since the program began in 1990.
The Family Giving Tree’s National Expansion Holiday Wish Program works with social service agencies in five cities outside California: Austin, TX; Phoenix, AZ; Pittsburgh, PA; Portland, OR and Seattle, WA. These agencies supply us with the names and wishes of the children they serve year-round.
The holiday wish program offers private giving trees, both physical and virtual, for companies and organizations to encourage employee giving by displaying posters in their lobbies and by promoting the program in their newsletters and on Web sites.
By selecting an individual child’s gift wish online, or by putting up your own giving tree, these individuals pledge to make that wish come true. With the online version, the Family Giving Tree will purchase, wrap and send the gift to the agency, which will present the gift to the child. Or, your company may choose to ‘adopt’ an agency in your city and buy, wrap and deliver the gifts yourselves.
FGT has been given a 4-star rating (the highest rating) by Charity Navigator, America’s premier independent charity evaluator.
Key Staff:
Executive Director and CEO: Jennifer Cullenbine; Development Director: Jeanne Clabaugh; Director of National Expansion: Julie Davis Berry
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.JPG "A student at East Palo Alto Academy poses with her new backpack.")
Key Facts
Geographic areas served:
Silicon Valley/San Francisco Bay Area, CA; Austin, TX; Phoenix, AZ; Pittsburgh, PA; Portland, OR; Seattle, WA