January Letter from the Editor
This past year alone, Ernest Rady and family donated $120 million to the Rady Children’s Hospital Foundation, Conrad Prebys donated $25 million to the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and an anonymous donor gifted $275 million to the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institue. Philanthropy is alive and well in San Diego, and in service to that effort, we have produced an annual registry of the year’s upcoming charity events, fundraisers, galas, and the like. We heard it helped givers plan their donations and attendance, and organizations plan their events. When I first joined the magazine and learned of this special publication, I remember thinking, Wow, what a philanthropic town we must be to utilize an annual advance listing of charitable events.
This year, we’ve revamped the registry. We aimed to make it more of a guide to giving: “News you can use.” Our online calendar of charitable events has emerged as a superior place to keep track of upcoming fundraisers. Organizers can upload and update events throughout the year, making them much more accurate. Not only can we include more events that way, but we can also slice and dice those listings into blog posts, print stories, and “party pages,” throughout the year.
But we still wanted a provide a service-oriented guide to giving. We have this philanthropically inclined readership (73 percent of our readers sit on nonprofit boards). So what to do?
Tell stories.
We filled this issue with stories ranging from the nonprofit newspaper trend to how Millennials give back, to what it means for kids to pursue a natural high instead of drugs. We asked five local charities how they would spend your money, and talked to three leaders of local nonprofits about the state of giving in San Diego. We talked to CEOs, surfers, animal lovers, and party people. And, of course, there’s information on important fundraisers in galas in the coming year (and many more online). Long live the silent auction!
With a nod to Joyce Glazer for her hard work in generating support and readership for this special publication, I wish you all good giving this season and throughout the coming year. If you love San Diego like I do, I’m sure you feel compelled to give back to this community.
2015 Letter from the Editor
Erin Chambers Smith
Editor
