The McCarthy Family Foundation enhances the health, welfare, education and safety of the community through family philanthropy.

2010 was our twenty second year of grantmaking in San Diego and elsewhere in California. Our geographic and programmatic areas have undergone some changes throughout the years but our goals and purpose have remained steady.

McCarthy Family values have always included sharing within our community, giving back and reaching out. Creating this foundation was a purposeful decision of the original donors with clear goals and intent, both external and internal. Our family wants to give back to the community by supporting a healthier, safer, educated society. As a family, we hope to challenge succeeding generations and encourage members to consider philanthropy as an important, necessary part of their lives. The McCarthy Family Foundation seeks to serve as a catalyst for the family to act collectively in philanthropic endeavors and collaboratively with others in our community.

In recent years, we have taken steps to improve our grant application process. This includes working with the Foundation Center on this web site and also adopting the Common Grant Application (CGA) of San Diego Grantmakers. In the granting of our resources to serve our mission, we give high priority to the realization of equality of opportunity for all members of society. We expect organizations and programs that we support to take appropriate affirmative steps with respect to women and disadvantaged minorities. We have continued collaborative funding with the San Diego HIV Funding Collaborative and with partners at the San Diego Grantmakers Homelessness Working Group. In 2010, we made our first co-funding grant with the Child Welfare Funders Group, also sponsored by San Diego Grantmakers.

Our Board of Directors is comprised of immediate family members of the two founding donors. All directors fully participate in the proposed grants evaluation process. This includes reviewing and researching proposals and making site visits to applicant organizations. The foundation is grateful for the opportunity to serve many important needs in San Diego.

The Foundation’s assets continued to recover during 2010. As indicated in the Financial Summary for 2009/10 (2010 Annual Report), we began 2010 with a fund balance of just under $9 million and ended the year at about $9.6 million. This represents an increase of about 32% from the low reached at the end of first quarter, 2009 and is still approximately 16% below the peak balance of $11.5 million at the end of 2007 before the recession began.

The foundation’s grantmaking increased modestly in 2010 to about $370,000.