Kimberly Wright-Violich is president of Schwab Charitable, a leading national provider of philanthropic services. Schwab Charitable offers donor-advised funds and charitable trust services. It has attracted over 13,000 donors, and issued over 270,000 charitable grants to 50,000 US-based charities totaling more than $1.4 billion.
Wright-Violich has introduced numerous innovative programs to facilitate grant making and charitable asset management resulting in over $3.6 billion in contributions. In her eight years at Schwab Charitable, Wright-Violich has guided the organization’s growth from a six-month-old non-profit start-up to the largest fundraising charity in California1 and one of the top ten in the US2. In 2008 she pioneered a program to enable Schwab Charitable donors to use charitable assets to guarantee microfinance loans while their assets are waiting to be granted. She pioneered the Schwab Charitable Microfinance Program—the first program of its kind. It allows donors to use charitable assets in their accounts twice: first to guarantee small business loans to the world’s poor, and then after the guarantee period, for granting to other charities.
Wright-Violich is a sought-after thought leader on the topic of charitable giving. She is published and widely quoted, including in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, MSNBC, Investment News, Stanford Social Innovation Review and Trust and Estates Magazine. She has been the recipient of many awards and recognitions including: being named one of San Francisco Bay Area’s 100 Most Influential Women in Business by the San Francisco Business Times (2006, 2007 and 2008), receiving a WATCH award (Women at the Center of Leadership and Vision) from the Junior League of San Francisco, and being named one of the 50 most influential women in the US in wealth management by Wealth Manager magazine.
Since beginning her career in 1989 in San Francisco, California, Wright-Violich has held a series of leadership positions at major non-profit organizations in Northern California, including on the Board of Directors of Northern California Public Broadcasting, Inc. (2007-present), the Non-Profit and Public Management Program of the Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley (2006-present), Volunteer Center of San Francisco (1992-97), Marin Youth in Arts (1990-96), President of the Junior League of San Francisco (1993-1994), and the San Francisco Ballet Auxiliary (1987-93). Also in 2006, she helped lead a group of international executives in the founding of an orphanage in Kericho, Kenya for children of parents who have died of AIDS.
Wright-Violich received an undergraduate degree in Human Biology from Stanford University. She completed the Business School Executive Program at Stanford Graduate School of Business, post-graduate work at the Mass Media Institute at Stanford, and course work at Harvard Business School in Governing for Non-Profit Excellence Program.
Schwab Charitable is the operating name of the Schwab Charitable Fund®, an independent nonprofit organization. Schwab Charitable Fund has entered into service agreements with certain affiliates of The Charles Schwab Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHW) – Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (member SIPC) and Charles Schwab Investment Management, Inc. (0509-8893)
1 Chronicle of Philanthropy, 2008 2 Chronicle of Philanthropy, 2008 |
