FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Terry Nagel, 650-678-7082 or 650-347-3576
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BURLINGAME, Calif. – December 1, 2008 – Times are tough for local nonprofits. Donations are down and more people than ever are seeking help.

When Emmett Carson, CEO and president of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, recently toured the Second Harvest Food Bank in San Carlos, he heard the director say she was seeing former donors and former employees come in for help. “That was a pretty telling statement,” he told San Francisco Chronicle writer Julian Guthrie.

The Community Wish List for San Mateo County offers a way for people to help local nonprofits, even if they can’t afford to write checks. The Community Wish List is a free service that connects people who have goods to donate with local nonprofits that need them via a Web site at http://www.communitywishlist.org/.

“The idea is simple,” said Burlingame Council Member Terry Nagel, who started the Community Wish List in 2004 with a group of volunteers. “Chances are you have things in your closets or attic that you no longer need. You can find a local nonprofit that will put those items to good use on the Community Wish List, and you can claim a tax write-off. We all benefit by keeping things out of the landfill.”

Thanks to a grant from the Shinnyo-en Foundation, the Community Wish List is being widely promoted in San Mateo County this holiday season. Fifty-five organizations have listed items and services they would like donated on the Wish List, which includes a page on each organization that lists their mission, services and contact info.

Items requested range from nightlights and batteries to LCD projectors and used cars. Among the more unusual items sought are new feather dusters for the Peninsula Humane Society (“to give orphaned baby birds a place to snuggle”), “tush cush” wheelchair cushions for people near the end of life served by Mission Hospice and dress-up clothes for the Children’s Center at the Women’s Recovery Association. There also is a section seeking volunteers.

Nagel said goods valued at thousands of dollars have been donated to local nonprofits in the past, including computers, printers, an LCD projector, appliances, towels, linens, toys, books, sports equipment, a copy machine and a car. She said some people have donated services, such as redesigning a Web site or stuffing goodie bags for a fundraiser.

The Community Wish List was started in 2004 as a printed booklet of items needed by local nonprofits. Now organizations do their own data entry online via an open source content management system. Volunteers are documenting the Community Wish List concept with the aim of making it available to other cities and counties at no charge.

For more information, visit http://www.communitywishlist.org/ or contact Terry Nagel at (650) 347-3576, This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . Nonprofit directors desiring to post items on the Community Wish List should follow directions on the Web site. If they have technical questions, they can email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or call Patty Poggetti at (650) 347-0987.

To post a Web link to the Community Wish List on your Web site or blog, please follow these linking directions.