SPokesResponding to recent incidents of financial malfeasance in the nonprofit sector, The Shanbrom Family Foundation, through Xiaoping Cheng and Bob Shanbrom, has increased its support of Spokes, a nonprofit management support organization that helps ensure the legal and financial integrity of nonprofit organizations.

“When one of the organizations I supported was embezzled, I set out to make sure that any further money I invested in our community was safeguarded. That’s what lead me to Spokes.
These recent allegations of embezzlement remind me of how much more work there is to be done safeguarding the organizations and people who work so hard to make this community all that it is,” said Bob Shanbrom.

With this latest gift, the Shanbrom Family Foundation has become the newest and final member of Spokes’ Founders Circle, a group of community-minded and philanthropic organizations and community leaders who have provided seed money for Spokes to create a strong foundation in its critical founding years.

The Shanbrom Family Foundation, through Xiaoping Cheng and Bob Shanbrom, has provided more than $7,000 in cash donations to Spokes and has made commitments to gift another $7,000 this year. In addition to its direct support of Spokes, The Shanbrom Family Foundation also provides $3,000 in grant awards to support Spokes Medal of Merit Awards. The Medal of Merit Awards are $1,000 grants given annually to three Spokes member organizations that have demonstrated improved governance and management practices. The first year of the program was 2014 and grants were awarded to The Wellness Kitchen, Opera SLO and the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center.

Continuing, Shanbrom commented, “I would never consider contributing to any organization that wasn’t a member of Spokes and that hadn’t completed Spokes’ financial benchmarks.”

“But it turns out that Spokes is so much more than insurance on your investment. In every possible way Spokes is helping wonderful people with deep commitments work and grow together. Whenever I think of Spokes I think, “Give an organization a donation, feed it for a day. Teach an organization how to run itself, feed it forever,” he added.

“Whatever your causes, Spokes is the organization that will give you the best return on your investment in those causes. It’s an absolute joy to work with Lesley Santos Dierks and her staff,” he concluded.

“We are deeply grateful to have The Shanbrom Family Foundation as such a generous and committed ally of Spokes,” said Lesley Santos Dierks, CEO of Spokes. “We seek to strengthen the entire nonprofit sector through individual skill building and organizational development. It’s a big and challenging goal and our ability to achieve it relies heavily on pragmatic donors like Xiaoping and Bob who are willing to work side-by-side with us to foster behavioral change. It’s an honor to include them among our earliest investors.”