Interview with the Funder

Corporate giving has fallen on hard times in California, with many corporations ending or greatly reducing giving programs. We recently conducted an interview with one company that is still giving. 

Larry Goldzband is the Director of Charitable Giving for the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. This year PG&E’s giving budget is $3.3 million. Read on to learn more about PG&E’s giving philosophy and see where your program fits in.

 
What is PG&E’s giving philosophy?

Our philosophy is to work hard to develop relationships with the organizations and efforts we fund.  We don’t want to give a grant and say goodbye. We like to stay involved with the grantees and stay involved with the issues we are trying to address. 

A perfect grant to us has three parts. It meets community needs, fits our local goals and provides PG&E with recognition in that community. PG&E is what we describe as a “multi-local” company.  We cover a large area, but most of our business activities happen at the local level with our services reaching millions of people. We are in 48 of California’s 58 counties and have a giving presence in almost all of them. 

Give us an example of the issues PG&E wants to address.

Clearly there a need in education is to help low-performing schools and the youth who attend them.  Afterschool programs fit into our view of education because we see learning happening both in and out of school. 

Our view is that education and economic development go hand-in-hand.  Education ensures a skilled workforce, and we want to contribute to support literate, active and economically robust communities 

What happens in your grantmaking process?

The grantmaking process can be very mysterious and is as much an art as it is a science.  We make our application process as clear and explicit as possible. In many cases, we can talk through a grant idea first to get closer to a match for both the applicant and PG&E. 

Pacific Gas and Electric Company has a long history of making charitable grants tailored to the needs of the wide variety of communities it serves.  The company's charitable contributions program provides cash grants, in-kind contributions, and volunteers for community-based nonprofit organizations, and for schools and other governmental programs throughout northern and central California.  All charitable contributions are entirely funded by the company's shareholders.

To find out more about PG&E’s giving guidelines visit www.pge.com