donor profile

Sempra’s growing partnership with ICF helps energize communities along the border. In 2000, Sempra Energy created the International Community Investment Fund at ICF to research and make grants to local non-profits making a difference in their communities. Since that time, Sempra has granted over $530,000 to projects in Baja California, Chihuahua, and Coahuila. These projects have also benefited from Sempra’s employee-matching program at ICF which encourages individual philanthropy.

Because Sempra’s philosophy is to participate in the communities where it conducts business, Sempra partnered with ICF to identify and research interna- tional giving opportunities when its international business began to grow. In 2001, this survey evolved into two ICF research publications, which Sempra helped to fund: "Baja California’s Community Based Needs" and a "Survey of Baja California Non-Profit Organizations."

According to Cathy Lavín, Sempra’s International Public Affairs Manager, “the first thing donors have to understand are the needs of the community and their priorities. The needs assessment is a tool whereby we have been able to develop partnerships with other donors to address local or regional challenges.”

“We are pleased to partner with ICF because they can involve other donors,
adding to the credibility
of Sempra’s efforts.”

Today, through Sempra Energy’s fund at ICF, a wide range of projects have been funded in Baja California, Chihuahua, and Coahuila, including a grant to Pro Música, a civic association in Ensenada focused on stimulating community interest in classical music. Sempra’s grant covered the enrollment fees for 20 students to attend the Academia de Música and their subsequent graduation ceremony.

Sempra Energy also helped build a therapy room with a two-way mirror at “Casa Hogar para Varones” (CAHOVA), an orphanage for homeless or abused boys in Mexicali. The two-way mirror is a teaching tool that enables patients to participate in a therapy session, while “therapists in training” are coached and evaluated in another room.

Also in Mexicali, Sempra Energy sponsored over 300 scholarships for student-intern guides, a model program, which is key to the success of the Museo Sol del Niño, the local children’s science museum. Other grants include a visitors’ center exhibit in Parque Nacional San Pedro Martír and a grant to the Loyola Public Library in Tijuana.