Sobrato Family Foundation

The Sobrato Family is committed to building a strong and vibrant Silicon Valley community through business and philanthropic leadership. The Sobrato Family Foundation (Foundation) operates primarily as a place-based grant maker that invests in organizations serving the residents most in need in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Southern Alameda counties. The Foundation utilizes both real estate and cash to achieve a positive local impact, by providing in-kind office and meeting space at its three nonprofit centers in Redwood Shores, San Jose and Milpitas; awarding multi-year grants for general operating support to a wide-range of Silicon Valley nonprofits; and implementing two place-based strategic grantmaking approaches focused on expanding opportunities for low-income beneficiaries: the 21st Century Education and the Pathways for Success programs.

In addition, the Foundation developed the Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL) model, to accelerate the success of English Learner (EL) students in preschool and elementary school. The model was developed in 2007-2008, piloted in three schools in 2008-2013, and has been rapidly replicating since 2013 – with over 100 active sites that are located in Silicon Valley, other parts of the Bay Area, the Sacramento region, the Central Valley, and in Southern California.

Over the next 12 months, SEAL is launching as an independent nonprofit organization with a focus on research, policy/advocacy, and practice. As a complement to SEAL’s growth, the Foundation has begun to pursue opportunities for statewide advocacy around the needs of English Learner students, and for advancing research-based education policy that will better support this critical, rapidly growing population of children in California.