Nationally Renown Speaker for Annual Meeting
Bill Somerville
President and Founder, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation
Bill created Philanthropic Ventures Foundation in 1991 in an effort to try new, more responsive approaches to grantmaking, and has served as its Executive Director and President. PVF serves as a model foundation with initiatives such as “paperless” discretionary grants to outstanding nonprofit directors, and giving grants in a 48 hour turnaround.
Bill has over 47 years of experience in non-profit work, including 17 years as Executive Director of the Peninsula Community Foundation (now known as Silicon Valley Community Foundation).
Grassroots Philanthropy: Field Notes of a Maverick Grantmaker, by Bill Somerville with Fred Setterberg, published in February 2008 by Heyday Press, is a guide to decisive, hands-on grantmaking, to energize and motivate individual donors, foundation grantmakers, and nonprofit leaders alike.
Bill is nationally recognized as an expert on creative grantmaking. He has consulted at over 350 community foundations in the United States, Canada and the U.K. on innovative grantmaking and effective operations. Bill publishes two periodicals: Building Community Foundations, distributed to all community foundations worldwide, and Dialogue, to non-profit organizations on fund development. He has taught courses on philanthropy at both Stanford University and a local community college.
Bill is a recipient of the 2004 Gerbode Fellowship Award in recognition of outstanding achievement as a non-profit executive. He is a founding member of the National Advisory Board, Haas Center for Public Service, Stanford University, and a member of the University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare Advisory Board. Bill has a Bachelor's and Master's degree from the University of California at Berkeley.
Bill can be contacted by email: bsomerville@venturesfoundation.org or phone: 510-645-1890
