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• Meet John Sobrato, Sobrato Organization

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Chairman, sobrato development companies and joint venture board member.

By Duffy Jennings | Published: October 2009

On a polished credenza in John A. Sobrato’s corner office in Cupertino sits a scale model of his 147-foot yacht, the only item on the eight-foot-long sideboard. The modern white craft’s long sleek lines and pointed bow make it easy to imagine the boat cruising on the high seas, destined for exotic ports, Sobrato at the helm.

But that’s not much of a stretch. John Sobrato has been the captain of his own ship for more than fifty years, ever since he began selling homes while he was an underclassman at Santa Clara University. Today he pilots a family real estate development organization now known as much for its philanthropic work in Silicon Valley as for its vast property holdings.

A charter member of Joint Venture and a longtime board member, Sobrato feels strongly about the organization’s regional education programs, and has contributed both time and dollars to the Alliance for Teaching initiative that works to develop, recognize and reward teachers in Silicon Valley.

“That’s what we really need in this valley,” he says. “Teachers are the most important asset we have, and our education system in this state is failing them and our students. Colleen Wilcox is doing a great job with that program.”

Joe Parisi, CEO of Therma and a fellow Joint Venture board member who has been Sobrato’s friend for some forty years, says Sobrato is “always fair-minded, very generous, easy to get along with and very community-oriented.”

“John is probably the most organized person I know,” Parisi says. “He is so focused on whatever he is doing. He can get more done is less time than anybody.”

Sobrato, now 70, was born in San Francisco, the only child of Ann and John M. Sobrato. His father had emigrated from Italy after working as a chef for the American army during World War II. Starting as a dishwasher, the elder Sobrato eventually saved enough to open his own place, which became renowned as John’s Rendezvous in North Beach.

“John’s Rendezvous and Bimbo’s were the two most popular places in town,” Sobrato said. “My father’s restaurant was Herb Caen’s favorite place to go. I worked there sometimes, but my father told me not to go into the restaurant business. It was so hard.”

The family moved to Atherton when John was two, but he was only twelve when his father died of cancer in 1952. With a young son to support, Ann Sobrato took English classes, sold the restaurant and went into real estate on the Peninsula.

Young John went to Bellarmine Prep then enrolled at Santa Clara as an engineering major. “But I quickly found out I wasn’t cut out for it,” he says, “and I switched to business.” That turned out to be an understatement. By his junior year, he was working three days a week selling modest homes in Palo Alto.

“I thought real estate would be interesting,” he says. “Back then, three-bedroom, one-bath homes cost around $20,000. With ten percent down, almost anyone could afford to buy a house.”

John graduated from Santa Clara in 1960, the same year he married his wife, Sue, whom he met at a wedding at the Palo Alto Elks Club. They will celebrate their golden wedding anniversary next year.

After graduating from Santa Clara, Sobrato founded Midtown Realty, specializing in the resale of popular Eichler homes, and then expanded into commercial real estate, working with his mother and partner Carl Berg. In 1974, he sold Midtown Realty to concentrate on the commercial development of properties in the rapidly emerging high technology industry.

Sobrato has been responsible for the development and construction of more than 250 office and R&D facilities totaling in excess of 15 million square feet. Today the Sobrato Development Companies owns a portfolio of properties encompassing eight million square feet and 7500 apartments in California, Oregon and Washington without institutional partners.

The portfolio includes the corporate headquarters of Apple Computer, Netflix, BEA, Siebel Systems, EMC, NVIDIA and Verisign as well as buildings housing offices for Yahoo!, the County of Santa Clara and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

In 1998, Sobrato created the Sobrato Family Foundation to provide philanthropic support to non-profit organizations and projects. Nearly forty-five non-profit service providers receive rent-free office space in two of Sobrato’s office parks in Milpitas and San Jose. Since 2000, the year Ann Sobrato died, the family has donated nine buildings and 124 acres of land valued at $312 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

“My mother was the one who started the family on the concept of giving back to the community,” says Sobrato. “She was a pink lady at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Menlo Park and volunteered in many other community activities.”

In 2007 the Society of Fundraising Professionals recognized the Sobrato Foundation as the Foundation of the Year from a field of 175 international foundations..

John and Sue Sobrato have three children, John Michael, Sheri and Lisa, and seven grandchildren. John Michael, a 1983 graduate of Santa Clara University, is now the CEO of the family business.

John A. Sobrato is a member of many business, education, civic and community boards and foundations, and has received numerous honors and awards for his contributions to Silicon Valley’s business and non-profit communities.

John comes to the office weekly and travels frequently up and down the Pacific Coast for business, but in spite of his busy schedule, he plays tennis three or four days a week and finds time to ski – on both water and snow.

“I love to be active,” he says, looking fit and tanned. “I had a heart attack when I was 37 and it changed my life. I lost 50 pounds, quit smoking and got in shape.”

When he’s not working, you can find him and Sue spending time with family and traveling.

“We take the boat all over the world,” he says, nodding towards the model. “I love that boat. We spend a lot of time on it, sailing everywhere.”

• Meet Rebecca Unitt, City of Santa Cruz
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Copyright © 2009-2024, Joint Venture Silicon Valley. All rights reserved.

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Yachts, parties and private islands: The indulgences of real estate’s richest

From floating mansions to private Drake performances, here's how the industry's 1 percent spend their millions

R e member the bad old days in New York? The 1970s had the city on the precipice of fiscal ruin, but a mouthy tax attorney named Steve Ross bet big on the metropolis that many landlords were ready to give up on.

R oss’ Related Companies was part of a class of modern-day real estate titans that would emerge from those ashes, but once you’ve transformed the skyline of a city often described as the capital of the world, what else is there to do? With a net worth of $4.5 billion and a place in real estate lore, Ross thought he’d buy himself a football team.

A decade after Ross spent more than $1 billion to acquire the Miami Dolphins, America has entered a new era of property titans. Real estate’s elite have always loved shiny toys and flashy parties. Now, some of the richest among them are turning the world into a playground for the ultra-wealthy.

Y ear of the yacht

I n the rich folks’ toy box, the superyacht is nothing new. What is new is an unprecedented surge of purchases. Some 887 of them were sold last year, almost double the number sold in 2020, leaving the wealthy to contend with a shortage and seemingly endless waiting lists.  

B ut before taking a look at the boats of the yachted gentry, let’s consider the yachtless among us — including Linda Macklowe, who lost hers in her divorce from 432 Park Avenue developer Harry Macklowe.  

W hen the former couple couldn’t agree on the value of their art collection, accrued over the course of their marriage, a judge decided it should be auctioned off. After the second round of bidding in May, it brought in a record $922.2 million.

Y ou can split money in half. You can’t split a boat. Long rides on the yacht, named “Unfurled,” were once a passion the Macklowes shared. “Unfurled“ now belongs to Harry.

W hile some go for the latest and greatest, luxury spec home developer Todd Michael Glaser’s tastes skew more vintage. Glaser and his 62-foot “Sea Tabby,” built in 1938, have been together for nearly 12 years. It still has all the original furniture, along with three state rooms and a full kitchen.

F lorida kingpin Jeffrey Soffer is willing to share his superyacht, “Madsummer” — for $1.6 million a week, according to a rental listing. NFL legend Tom Brady and his supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen, were spotted on it last year.

A t that price, “Madsummer“ may be the superyacht to end all superyachts. It boasts a beach club, helipad, daycare center, spa and indoor and outdoor cinemas — a “floating mansion” in every sense of the word.

O stentatious bashes   and personal playgrounds  

B rady hasn’t just taken Soffer’s yacht for a spin — he’s next-door neighbors with the developer on Indian Creek, a 300-acre Miami island where other high-profile residents have included models Adriana Lima and Soffer’s ex-wife, Elle Macpherson, as well as Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

O racle co-founder Larry Ellison is playing landlord to the people of Lanai, the Hawaiian island he bought 98 percent of in 2012 for $300 million.  

E llison moved to Lanai full-time during the pandemic, and he’s quickly turning it into a playground for other big-name billionaires such as Elon Musk and Tom Cruise, who fly or sail in, coming and going as they please.

E llison also owns Lanai’s grocery store, gas station, newspaper and the Four Seasons resort, which employs most of the island’s population.

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E xpensive boats and private islands are nice, but there’s nothing like a party. Anyone in the industry can tell you that real estate wealth shines most when the elites put on a night to remember.

N ew York retail magnate Jeff Sutton reportedly spent $25 million on his daughter’s wedding in Puglia, Italy, including $5 million on chartered jets to transport guests (Editor’s note: Sutton claims it was $12 million for the wedding and $1 million for air travel). When the big day came, the billionaire father of the bride made a grand entrance in a horse-drawn carriage.

F or his daughter’s bat mitzvah at the Rainbow Room in 2016, developer Ben Ashkenazy hired rapper Drake, who performed his then-hit song “Hotline Bling.”

T he old guard and the new

Cars aren’ t just a way to get from A to B. Glaser loves his antique cars, especially his old Ferrari and Land Rover, and he relishes early morning drives on the weekend.

B lackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman, who said his father was always happy with just two cars, has a Porsche 911, an Audi A4, a Mini Cooper and a BMW 645 CI that goes from 0 to 60 in 5.6 seconds.  

T hese collections are impressive to most, but they’re modest compared to that of Southern California real estate tycoon and social media sensation Manny Khoshbin.

T he Khoshbin Company specializes in retail and office properties, although you wouldn’t know it from Khoshbin’s internet presence. The super car connoisseur’s YouTube channel is all automotive content, the thumbnails a gallery of his many expensive rides — s o many, in fact, that l ast year he bought a 70,000-square-foot p roperty to store them.  

T he “House of Khoshbin” is a palatious monstrosity of mirrored walls, Roman columns and gilded murals of cherubs on every floor. The garage is still unfinished, but it will house Khoshbin’s Bugattis, Porsches and the rest of his fleet.

I n an industry where showy displays of wealth are the norm, fleets of sports cars or superyachts make for a great flex. But some billionaires prefer not to showboat.  

W est Coast developer John Sobrato, who spends up to 18 weeks out of the year on his yacht, said he sees it not as a luxury asset but as an extension of his home.  

“ We’ve had the same boat now for 17 years, which is unheard of in the industry,” he told the Nob Hill Gazette in a 2019 interview.

L arry Silverstein’s elusive, 175-foot “Silver Shalis” tends to generate local headlines when it makes a rare appearance. It was spotted in Maine last summer, and it popped up in Fort Lauderdale in January.

T he “ Silver Shalis ” is an oasis of luxury, with a glass elevator, a swimming pool, a dining area and an art collection. Silverstein purchased it in 2010, reportedly for more than $30 million.  

A sked by TRD about the yacht’s price in a 2011 interview, Silverstein demurred.

“ That’s irrelevant,” he said.

John Sobrato's $15 million GRAN FINALE yacht

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San Jose Legends: John Sobrato’s generosity is everywhere

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Editor’s Note: San Jose Legends is a new series that tells remarkable stories of the historic and legendary people who helped shape and transform our city.

Silicon Valley philanthropist John Sobrato is aware that wealth has the ability to change people.

For Sobrato, 82, the son of Italian immigrants who first settled in San Francisco, it’s changed him for the better. In fact, he said, it’s part of his family business just as much as real estate is.

His parents began their foray into real estate when they sold an Atherton property purchased during World War ll to raise chickens and grow vegetables that were rationed for their San Francisco restaurant known as John’s Rendezvous. The sale made them more money than they earned when his father worked 18 hour days at the restaurant.

“That’s why I’m in real estate, and not the restaurant business,” Sobrato joked.

Sobrato began his career in real estate in 1957 in Palo Alto while a sophomore in college at Santa Clara University, following in his mother’s footsteps. Just three years later and fresh out of college, the mother-son duo landed their first big investment: a 14,000 square foot building for aerospace company Lockheed.

His real estate empire soon expanded when he partnered with longtime friend Carl Berg, 83, himself a Silicon Valley powerhouse real estate investor. They worked together in a Palo Alto firm called Midtown Realty that John founded in 1960 the same year he graduated from Santa Clara University. Berg has since moved on to venture capital while Sobrato has stayed in real estate development, an area he considers his career passion.

Sobrato’s firm has built or developed dozens of now well-known Silicon Valley buildings, such as Apple’s former Cupertino campus, the 500,000-square-foot Nvidia campus and the 18-story, 388,000-square foot Sobrato Office Tower, and offices for Netflix, EMC, VeriSign, Yahoo! and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

Sobrato is the  297th richest person  in the world in 2021 according to Bloomberg and the  14th richest person  in Silicon Valley in 2019 according to numbers from Forbes. His family’s net worth is an estimated $8.8 billion.

“We were in the right place at the right time,” he said.

Giving back

Sobrato has used his massive wealth to do a world of good in Silicon Valley. He founded the Sobrato Organization , a real estate and philanthropic firm, in 1979.

Sobrato’s daughter, Lisa Sobrato Sonsini, spun off a charity, Sobrato Philanthropies , from the original organization with her father’s blessing in 1996. According to its website, Sobrato Philanthropies has given away more than $644 million. It leases office space in San Jose, Milpitas and Redwood City to other Bay Area nonprofits.

“The design of the organization from the beginning has always been a way to bring our family together,” Sobrato Sonsini said.

He has also sponsored different hospitals, including a pavilion at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose which opened in 2017 and a prominent Sobrato Pavilion at the Lucille Packard Childrens’ Hospital , which opened in 2018.

Sobrato’s organization dabbles in many different causes, from homelessness to education.

One of the Sobrato Organization’s signature programs, the Sobrato Early Academic Language model, or SEAL, teaches English to Spanish-speaking elementary school kids to ensure they’re academically literate by third grade.

SEAL started in 2012 in five schools and has now expanded to more than 50,000 students in 100 schools across the state. Schools foot two-thirds of the bill—$3,000 per student—while the Sobrato Organization pays the rest.

“It’s a very lively, active classroom,” Sobrato said.

The surest way out of poverty

Sobrato has increased his education advocacy over the years, including an investment in Cristo Rey San Jose Jesuit High School , a private Catholic high school in San Jose’s east side.

There, students not only get a classroom education but are also given internship and trade opportunities with some of Silicon Valley’s biggest tech names like HP and Cisco.

“I really think education is the surest way out of poverty,” Sobrato said. “We’ve been very involved in charter schools. It’s something that I enjoy doing and it’s great to see these kids advance.”

Much of the proceeds from selling real estate has gone into the business’s charity work, which in turn gives the organization more money to give out as grants and donations.

“Now that we’re comfortable, the entire family believes that it’s our obligation to give back to our communities any way we can to make it a place of opportunity for everybody,” Sobrato said.

Helping the less fortunate

Sobrato said his other big philanthropic passion is helping people get housing.

He currently sits on the board of Destination: Home, a San Jose-based nonprofit committed to ending homelessness. While the homelessness crisis in the region can’t be solved in his lifetime, he said, it’s up to him and other philanthropists to ensure every homeless person is eventually housed so the region doesn’t remain “an area of haves and have-nots.”

“I don’t think we can only build our way out of the problem,” Sobrato said. “Philanthropy has to step up and help these people. We also need to move those with substance abuse and mental issues off our downtown streets because they are driving away customers. Our elected officials need to utilize Laura’s Law and obtain conservatorships to force these folks into treatment facilities where they can receive the care they need.”

Sobrato serves on a variety of boards, including Joint Venture Silicon Valley , a policy and economic think tank.

Russell Hancock, Joint Venture’s president and CEO, has known Sobrato for decades. Hancock said Sobrato is a “fixer,” and his passion to solve problems is what drives him.

“He’s moved by compassion,” Hancock said. “His Catholic faith means a great deal to him, and he understands his discipleship as a call to give, as a call to relieve the plight of the suffering and the poor.”

Sobrato lives with his wife Susan. They have three children: John Michael, Sheri Sobrato Brisson and Lisa Sobrato Sonsini, who are all active philanthropists and seven grandchildren.

“A lot of what my grandmother brought up my father with—displaying a strong work ethic, being responsive to the needs of those around you, volunteering in soup kitchens — it was always made very clear that having both resource and opportunity, it’s our responsibility to give back,” Sobrato Sonsini said.

Sobrato has one more act of philanthropy in him.

The Sobrato family, along with over 200 other individuals, have signed The Giving Pledge , a promise among extremely wealthy individuals to donate most or all of their wealth to charitable causes once they die. Fellow billionaires Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett started the campaign in 2011 in hopes of encouraging more wealthy people to donate to charity.

Sobrato said he’s happy to do so, just like his parents and grandparents taught him.

“You get to a point where you go, ‘What are you going to do with all your money?,” he said. “Do something for mankind and reduce human suffering.”

Contact Lloyd Alaban at [email protected] or follow @lloydalaban on Twitter.

Read about other San Jose Legends:

• Rod Diridon
• Blanca Alvarado
• Norm Mineta

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Inside Philanthropy

Who's Funding What & Why

How the Billionaire Sobrato Family Got Started in Climate Philanthropy

Michael Kavate | April 18, 2022

Late last year, a pair of major climate pledges marked a public coming-out for one of the sector’s newest entrants. 

In October, among the 20-plus funders that committed more than $300 million to a global effort to reduce methane emissions was a name not before seen on such lists: Sobrato Philanthropies.

The next month, it happened again. Five nations and 17 foundations pledged $1.7 billion to support Indigneous land rights in tropical forests. Again, the Mountain View, California-based grantmaker was among the signatories.

The two commitments were not spur of the moment. They grew out of a nearly year-long process driven by a new generation of the real estate clan, who have been pushing the family’s foundation to move beyond funding in the Bay Area to directly address complex global challenges. 

“As a place-based funder, we had been more reactive,” said John M. Sobrato, who chairs the family’s business. “It was really the third generation, but certainly, the second generation, too, that felt we should broaden our aperture and look beyond Silicon Valley… at some of the broader, more systemic problems — and take more of a strategic approach.”

With that goal in mind, climate change quickly emerged as a priority shared by the whole family. The Sobratos — who my colleague Ade Adeniji profiled earlier this year — put half of their philanthropic dollars in a collective pool and reserve the rest for individual giving. Some members had funded climate on their own in the past, but the family is now directing joint resources to confronting the global emergency. They have committed $23 million over three-plus years to their family philanthropy’s climate portfolio, including making nearly $7 million in grants since last November. 

Those figures are quite small next to the Sobratos’ overall fortune. They also represent only a ripple in the climate funding sector, which counted $1.9 billion in foundation funding in 2020, though it only accounted for 2% of global philanthropy that year.

But there’s a lot of wealth waiting in the wings, here. With a family fortune estimated at nearly $6 billion, thanks to a business that reached $10 billion in assets a few years ago, plus a commitment from John M. and his parents, John A. and Susan Sobrato , to donate 100% of their wealth during their lifetimes or upon their deaths, these could be the first steps of a family of climate mega-donors. 

The Sobratos have plenty of company there. They join a list of uber-wealthy individuals and families who, over the past year or so, have made steps to grow their climate grantmaking, or promised to do so. That includes Laurene Powell Jobs’ 10-year $3.5 billion climate pledge and Arthur M. Blank’s new commitment to make environmental philanthropy a core priority. And for least one expert, the Sobratos’ moves reflect a wider expansion of climate grantmaking throughout the ranks of family philanthropy. 

Here’s a look at what this billionaire family chose to support in the climate field, and whether that support might grow further.

What are the Sobratos funding, and why?

Once the family had committed to growing its grantmaking and chosen climate as a new focus, it had to choose where to send its checks. 

Buildings and construction — which account for roughly 40% of carbon dioxide emissions — seemed like an obvious choice for a family that made its fortune building offices and homes for Silicon Valley’s techies. But they ended up concentrating on sustainable building efforts within their for-profit business, which is now headed by a non-family member, and address areas they saw as more impactful through their philanthropy.

Sustainable building “was one of the first things that naturally came to mind,” John M. told me. But the principles of effective altruism led him and his wife, Timi, to consider other areas. “We didn’t see as clear a path to effective change as we did in methane and deforestation,” he said.

With help from the Climate Leadership Initiative and CEA Consulting, the family and its foundation team spoke to nearly 50 experts last year as they honed in on those two broad topics: (1) methane, oil and gas and (2) deforestation and Indigenous and local communities. It was a desire to respond to urgent and underfunded needs that led to those selections, said Prithi Trivedi, director of family initiatives and new opportunities at Sobrato Philanthropies.

By chance, the family’s initial grantmaking coincided with last year’s big pledges on methane emissions and Indigenous land rights. The family finalized its focus areas in September, the first pledge was announced in October, and the foundation issued the first slate of grants in November, when the second pledge also came out. “It’s all been very rapid,” Trivedi said.

The portfolio’s two biggest grants to date are a pair of multi-year commitments to organizations associated with the two major pledges: one to the Methane Hub, and another to the Tenure Facility, which works directly with Indigenous communities on land rights. (Sobrato Philanthropies requested that I not release grant amounts because it had not asked permission from grantees.)

The Sobratos have also sent one-year grants to a range of organizations across the climate movement, including a philanthropic group (Funder Collaborative on Oil and Gas), a top climate justice intermediary (Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice) and a major green group (Environmental Defense Fund). A smaller, final grant went to the Methane Partners Campaign, which is run by a coalition of 20 of the nation’s largest environmental organizations. Investments are also in play, with the family taking a $1.5 million stake in Aclima, an emissions and pollution measurement platform.

The Sobratos’ varied mix of funding strategies is an approach that seems to be growing more common among climate funders. Although some new entrants have taken a narrow tactical approach (such as the climate-related grants from Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan, which have primarily gone to technology and research), many are heeding long calls for a diversity of tactics.

For instance, funding for climate justice and movement building made up a substantial portion of a recent round of climate grants from Builders Initiative, Lukas Walton’s funding outfit, though its biggest checks went to research and policy. Bezos Earth Fund has also adopted varied tactics, beginning with its first grants . The question remains whether funders are getting the balance or amounts right, particularly given historic inequities.

Climate philanthropy is increasingly a family affair

The Sobratos are far from alone in the wider world of family grantmaking, according to Nick Tedesco, president and CEO of the National Center for Family Philanthropy. 

“Many families are expanding their portfolio on climate, or accelerating their rate of spend,” he told me. (The Sobratos have been part of NCFP for many years, he noted, but the network has a policy about not speaking specifically about its members.)

Tedesco finds that most family donors choose their focus based on four factors: interest, experience, observation and opportunity. For example, a donor’s personal battle with cancer might lead them to support treatment and research. Tedesco sees climate support rising as families witness the growing impacts in the U.S. and abroad — and see the dire need for additional funding.

It is also increasingly impossible for any funder to ignore the wide-reaching impacts of a warming world. As a recent NCFP blog post noted, climate is a health issue, an education issue, an economic issue, a social equity issue and more. 

“The climate crisis is at the nexus of nearly all of the most prominent issues that family philanthropies prioritize,” wrote Katherine Lorenz, a senior advisor to NCFP and president of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, in the post.

Will the Sobratos ramp things up on climate?

In a 2019 interview with the Nob Hill Gazette , patriarch John A. Sobrato was asked what’s next for the family’s giving. He spoke about the family’s desire to send funding outside the United States, noting that he believed there was greater impact to be had abroad. He also said a whole lot more money was on the way.

“Over the next five years, every time we build another project, we’re going to sell an existing project in the same dollar amount and put those funds in the foundation. This means that over the next five years, we’ve got a pipeline of about $2 billion worth of new business. We’ll be selling off $2 billion over the next five years,” he told the publication.

I asked the foundation if that plan was still underway. 

“John Sr.’s comment was based on estimates and plans at that time, before the pandemic and many other developments,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “While those numbers have inevitably fluctuated with shifts in the economy, the Sobratos have remained committed to increased grantmaking and plan to accelerate the pace of their giving.” 

The spokesperson declined to share specific figures on what that might look like, but did note the foundation and family granted a total of $161 million in 2020, nearly twice its projected amount, and committed another $160 million last year. The family gives through a variety of vehicles, including donor-advised funds and personal gifts, and its foundation grantmaking typically exceeds the 5% payout rate. For instance, the Sobrato Family Foundation, which had $577 million in assets in 2019, distributed between 7% and 20% of its assets in prior years.

The Sobratos are active philanthropists, much more so than many at their financial altitude. Yet if the family wants to fulfill its Giving Pledge commitment to give it all away, a whole lot more money needs to go out the door. If Forbes ’ estimate of the Sobratos’ wealth ($5.8 billion) is accurate, back-of-the-envelope math suggests that their current rate of giving (roughly 2.8%) barely keeps up with historic U.S. inflation, let alone modest investment returns — or the Bay Area housing market. 

They might take a page from another recent entrant to the climate space, MacKenzie Scott, who has set a whole new standard for billionaire philanthropy. Pace of giving aside, they already share some priorities, including one grantee: the Tenure Facility. Scott recently sent hundreds of millions of dollars to such regranters, including many others also led by or working directly with Indigenous communities.

Regardless, it’s encouraging to see families like the Sobratos start making climate grants. But with the world’s top climate scientists warning that it’s “ now or never ” to act on the emergency, as laid out in detail in the latest report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it’d be much more encouraging to see the Sobratos, their fellow Giving Pledge signatories and other mega-donors spend with even more urgency.

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