John A. and Susan Sobrato
...our entire family is now in a position to engage in philanthropy at a relatively young age. Thus John Michael has decided to join Susan and me in making this commitment. Each of us has provided that 100% of our wealth will be given away during our lifetimes or left to the Sobrato Family Foundation....We would hope that this legacy of giving would encourage others to commit their financial resources to worthy non-profit institutions."
Pledge letter
Giving Pledge Team: 7/14/18
My wife of 58 years, Sue, and I were very pleased to have been asked by Warren in 2012 to join the Giving Pledge. We have learned about the philanthropic endeavors that other members are interested in and ways to better measure the impact of our giving. We have enjoyed the comradely at the annual gatherings and have established many new friendships.
Our children and adult grandchildren are members of our family foundation and derive great satisfaction participating in our Silicon Valley focused grant making instead of spending vast amounts of money on themselves. We see Sobrato Family Foundation as a wonderful tool to keep our family together.
Over 20% of the population in Silicon Valley lives in poverty and although there is a great deal of wealth in the Valley, the disparity between the rich and poor is dramatic and growing. Many people don’t have the needed skills and education to succeed in today’s economy or have other challenges that hold them back. Consequently, our family foundation’s priorities are pre-school thru high school education and career training.
In the 1960s, we were fortunate to have established a family real estate development business in Santa Clara County long before it was to become the area known around the world as Silicon Valley. Over the years we have developed and leased office campuses for most of the prominent technology firms in Silicon Valley including recently Amazon, Sony, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Nvidia & Apple and others over the years totaling over 15 million square feet. We have also developed or acquired over 10,000 apartment units.
Because our children and grandchildren are partners in our family’s real estate development business, Sue and I and our son, John Michael, are able to designate that 100% of wealth will be given to charity upon our death or during our lifetimes.
All our family members have additional resources outside of the Family Foundation corpus to pursue national and international causes that they are also passionate about.
We believe that wealth creates responsibility to share that wealth with the world’s less fortunate and wholeheartedly encourage others to join the Giving Pledge.
Very Truly
John A and Sue Sobrato
