The foundation has offered me and several of my clients incredible stewardship and philanthropic partnership. So much so that my own family and I opened our own donor advised fund at the foundation.
For more than 20 years, I’ve had the pleasure of partnering with the San Francisco Foundation as the go-to community foundation of the Bay Area. Their ability to seed innovative solutions has translated into some of the most remarkable Bay Area institutions we love and treasure today, including the Exploratorium and KQED. Bold initiatives, such as HOPE SF and the Great Communities Collaborative continue to be led by the foundation as part of their agenda to advance racial and economic equity for all in the Bay Area.
Working alongside my parents when they opened their first donor advised fund at the San Francisco Foundation in the 1990s, to co-chairing the inaugural Professional Advisors Council that launched in 2013, the foundation has offered me and several of my clients incredible stewardship and philanthropic partnership. So much so that my own family and I opened our own donor advised fund at the foundation.
The benefit of giving ourselves the time to consider, evaluate and plan our grantmaking, while availing ourselves of the expertise the foundation offers, makes our giving more effective and rewarding. Likewise, several of my clients with large and small funds at the foundation have also benefited from working hands-on with the donor relations and planned giving staff, who offer guidance on how to structure your clients’ philanthropy.
As a native San Franciscan with a deep connection to music, I was the volunteer head of the Youth Orchestra Committee for the San Francisco Symphony in the 1990s. Today, through our donor advised fund, we are able to give to the issues we care about: education, the arts, and empowering young people to access opportunity.
When it came time for us to name our fund, we chose “The Trellis Fund” out of inspiration from my family’s history as winemakers. A trellis is the structure that is needed for a vine to grow and flourish. We wish to give to charities providing such structure to youth. Moreover, I think this is a fitting definition of what working with the foundation offers to its donors, by providing them the strong and informed structure with which to grow their philanthropy.
It’s been my privilege to work with the San Francisco Foundation both as a donor and as a professional advisor. I hope you’ll consider joining us in this great work, too.
Keith McWilliams, CFA, CFP®
Partner, Head of West Coast Region, Evercore Wealth Management
Member of the foundation’s Professional Advisor Council
