By Lora Oehlberg

Photo by Monique Schoenfeld, Town Crier

Town Crier Editorial Intern

Residents offer $100,000 challenge grant to encourage membership

Dinesh Desai and his wife, Joy, members of the Los Altos Community Foundation, have pledged $100,000 to the organization as a challenge grant for new founders.

The grant will donate an additional $250 for each new minimum donation of $1,000. To receive the full $100,000, the Community Foundation must enroll 400 new members by Dec. 31.

To date, the Community Foundation has added 24 founder families eligible for the offer. The foundation has begun a campaign to encourage more membership while the grant is still active.

“We will be sending letters to prospects and asking existing founders to issues invitations to those friends and neighbors whom they know have an interest in supporting the community,” said Roy Lave, president of the Los Altos Community Foundation.

To alert the community of the foundation and its challenge grant offer, the Community Foundation will visit the home of each new founder and present the tokens of foundership. The walk is scheduled over several weekends in late September or early October.

Desai proposed the matching grant last May to encourage community members to become founders.

“We have lived in this town for over 25 years and truly feel privileged to be able to enjoy all that it has to offer. We want to do our part to keep Los Altos the wonderful town it is,” Desai said.

The Los Altos Community Foundation is chartered to support community building activities and community organizations, foster communication among citizens and organizations and encourage broad citizen involvement in the community.

Areas of involvement include funding the Los Altos Mediation Program, supporting the Bus Barn Stage Company and creating the Leadership Education ADvancement (LEAD) program to encourage community volunteerism.

For more information, call 949-5908 or logon to www.losaltoscf.org.