Parker Foundation President’s Message

September 23, 2009

It is an honor to be elected and serve as the President of the Parker Foundation since the beginning of this year. I am the fourth president in the history of this organization. For 38 years the foundation has made serious, deliberate, considered and major contributions to the lives of San Diegans.

Despite the decrease in our corpus, the board has decided to stay the course in our community investment policy. We respond as best we can to requests from a myriad of organizations, and we make conscious decisions to invest in areas we deem crucial for the advancement and improvement of our region. Although our decision making process is not open to the public, I am very proud to say that all Parker Foundation board members are available for consultation and our wonderful staff person, Robbin Powell always responds to inquiries in a timely and cordial fashion.

Several members of the Parker board were instrumental in the beginnings of the San Diego Grantmaker organization and we continue to be supportive of collaborative efforts staffed by Grantmakers; we are participants in Coming Home to Stay, the Homeless taskforce, and the education group. We believe that working together with the philanthropic community is the best chance to leverage the scarce discretionary dollars in the San Diego region.

There is no reason to expect major changes from the Parker Foundation. We continue to believe that a responsive, nimble, involved and caring board will make good decisions for the people of San Diego.

Judy McDonald,
President