Among the many low-key tech funders operating in the California Bay Area is the Jean & E. Floyd Kvamme Foundation, which has been around since the early 1990s. E. Floyd Kvamme is a tech veteran who made his fortune co-founding and holding leadership roles at National Semiconductor. He later worked at Apple and co-chaired the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology during the George W. Bush administration. He and his wife, Jean, created their own philanthropic foundation, which offers limited transparency but is still worth a place on grantseekers’ radar due to its targeted interest areas.
Here's a look at the Jean & E. Floyd Kvamme Foundation’s grantmaking and its local commitment in Northern California.
Major funding interests
The Kvamme couple met at a church in San Francisco and had their first date at a Billy Graham crusade event. Religion has always been important to the family, and that comes through in their foundation’s grantmaking. The Kvamme Foundation frequently gives to Christian organizations and churches, including Gateway Bible Church, City Team Ministries and the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association.
Aside from their Christian giving, the Kvammes also give to conservative and libertarian policy groups such as the American Enterprise Institute.
The needs of people with disabilities are another philanthropic interest, and the foundation has steadily supported therapeutic horseback riding and other disability-related programs. To some extent, the Kvammes have also supported higher ed institutions that the family is personally connected to as well as global health organizations that help mitigate diseases.
Typical grants
According to the most recent tax records available, the Kvamme Foundation has mostly been awarding grants in the range of $2,000 to $80,000. An exception to this is Gateway Bible Church in Scotts Valley, California, which recently received a $710,000 grant and has a longstanding relationship with the Kvamme couple. Annual grantmaking has hovered between $1 million and $2 million in recent years.
It’s worth noting that the foundation, based in Saratoga, California, keeps most of its grants close to home in northern California and only makes a few exceptions — for organizations with personal connections to the family and some large organizations with a nationwide reach.
Unsolicited requests are unwelcome
Unfortunately for Bay Area grantseekers, the Kvamme Foundation is not open to receiving unsolicited requests for funding. It only funds preselected organizations and tends to support many of the same groups year after year. Yet there is definitely some variety among Kvamme grantees and a significant amount of money to go around for groups that share the Kvammes’ values.
For more information about this foundation, check out IP’s full profile of the Jean & E. Floyd Kvamme Foundation, which is part of our Bay Area & NorCal Funding Guide.