Peninsula Family Service
Opening Doors, Changing Lives
Learn how to support this organization
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Peninsula Family Service provides comprehensive services that support individuals and families at various stages of life. Originally a small organization founded in 1950, Peninsula Family Service has grown to recognize the need for innovative, professionally-led, locally-targeted solutions to secure the wellness and stability of our neighbors. The community has rallied behind this mission, providing fundraising support and volunteers to establish and grow expert-led programs. The Bay Area has grown and evolved over many decades, and we have been there every step of the way – providing support, caring for our neighbors, and becoming a deeply trusted part of this community. We are grateful to share our legacy and ongoing mission with so many members of our community, as we continue to bring support, education, and resources to those who need it most.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Early Learning
Our programs provide children (ages 0-12) from low-income and homeless families including those who are homeless, with a safe, nurturing environment where they can learn, socialize, and thrive. Our programs focus on children at a critical growth stage when more than 80 percent of their brain development occurs. We fuel that growth by offering nutritious meals, high-quality curriculum, and targeted therapeutic interventions for children who have experienced trauma.
We also support their development at home by educating parents on the latest early childhood development techniques. To achieve our goal of securing the right to opportunity for every child in our community, we concentrate our early learning efforts on the neighborhoods and populations that need it most. Our eight Early Learning Centers are located between Menlo Park and Daly City, with two centers dedicated to children living in transitional or emergency housing.
Financial Empowerment
We are working to permanently break cycles of debt and vulnerability through financial workshops, asset and credit-building tools, and alternatives to predatory lenders.
We provide:
Financial Education Workshops: no-cost, three hour workshops that cover the important topics of budgeting, money management, and ways to build credit.
DriveForward: provides affordable loans to help participants purchase reliable used vehicles and begin the process of improving their credit.
Lending Circles: With Mission Asset Fund, we offer Lending Circles, an innovative program that turns peer-to-peer lending into a formal credit-building opportunity by reporting monthly loan payments to credit bureaus. As a result, participants gain access to more affordable loans, join the financial mainstream, and build up emergency savings.
Banking alternatives: Partnering with Community Financial Resources, we offer a prepaid VISA card to give participants access to immediate funds with no monthly fees.
Older Adult Services
Through our programs we promote health, mobility, independence, and we reduce rates of illness and injury, as well as ensure that aging members of our community live better, together.
We offer Peer Counseling in many languages for our diverse community members (aged 55+) with trained volunteer counselors for one-on-one and group support.
The Fair Oaks Adult Activity Center offers a broad range of programs and services that enrich the social lives and community of older adults. Participants have access to groceries, meals, and resources to improve their health and wellbeing.
Help@Hand: Weekly technology classes and workshops aimed to connect older adults and help them overcome loneliness and isolation.
You Talk, We Listen: Short-term counseling in English or Spanish for 55+ San Mateo County residents with a licensed therapist. Available at a $15 co-pay per visit.
Got Wheels: Provides participants (ages 70+) with six, on-demand, rides at a low cost within the Peninsula per month.
Employment Services
PFS offers employment services for adults ages 50+ with two unique programs: Senior Community Service Employment in San Mateo County and Mature Worker in Santa Clara County. Both programs offer skill building, resume development, paid internships, job search coaching, specialized workshops, and networking opportunities.
The Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) program assists adults age 55+ living in San Mateo County in their search for employment by providing guidance, direction, resources, paid classroom training, job match up, and placement.
The Mature Worker Program is for adults age 50+ living in Santa Clara County in collaboration with NOVAworks. Participants learn age-neutral resume writing and interview strategies, have opportunities to network, and attend specialized workshops.
Where we work
Affiliations & memberships
Alliance for Children and Families - Member
National Council on Aging
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of Drive Forward participants
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Financial Empowerment
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The 2022-2026 Strategic Plan outlines the following goals:
High Quality Programs: This goal reflects growth in the number and quantity of tools and support we provide. In addition, we know we can do more for our existing participants. This includes expanded and systematized resources, referral and follow up, as well as supporting civic engagement and advocacy teaching participants to support themselves and their communities.
Financial Resources: Reflects that we need additional revenue to accomplish our goals. The Advancement team is excited to increase their fundraising results and number of donors. The team is confident that there are additional fundraising opportunities, especially in legacy giving.
Marketing & Communications: To increase revenue, as well as to respond to the staff and participant input around communication, we will focus on marketing and communications. These efforts will not only inspire increased utilization of PFS services, but they should also increase engagement with PFS by staff, donors, funders, community leaders and volunteers.
Inclusive, Diverse, and Equitable Culture: We know to do this work to the best of our ability we need to focus on our internal culture ensuring staff and participants feel a sense of belonging. To highlight this effort, we built off our 2021 DEI statement ensuring that PFS is an inclusive, diverse, equitable, anti-racist and anti-oppressive organization, and that every staff embodies these values and every participant and volunteer benefits from these values. Part of this effort will be transforming our organizational process to reflect our values.
Organizational Effectiveness: The organizational effectiveness goal reflects our need to optimize our service model to better serve participants, operate more efficiently, and develop staff potential. Engaging and rewarding staff is a key feature of this plan, we need to be competitive in our market. These goals also include expanded professional development opportunities and more formalized career advancement pathways. This also involves fostering a data culture with integrity, and IT quality and safety improvements.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
High Quality Programs: We will focus on growing our programs to align more closely with our mission, strengthen our ability to meet gaps in services, and increase our funding.
Financial Resources: We will continue to increase our annual fundraising, develop our Next Gen Associate Board, and strengthen our Legacy Giving Program.
Inclusive, Diverse, and Equitable Culture: Uplift DEI at all Staff events, provide education and training around DEI, have the DEI Committee become a core support to all PFS Teams. Update policies related to accessibility accommodation.
Marketing and Communicates: Continue to enhance internal communications and knowledge, facilitate connection between different teams, standardize access to marketing resources, and create data-informed customized content messaging.
Organizational Effectiveness: Create professional development and career advancement pathways, streamline SOP and processes, and foster a data-driven culture.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Peninsula Family Service
Board of directorsas of 09/05/2023
Mr. Ron Lynch
Finite
Term: 2020 - 2024
Shelia Canzian
Parks & Rec for the city of San Mateo
Perla Garcia
Vocational Nurse
Sharon Hartley
Kaiser Permanente
Elizabeth Jenson
Community Volunteer
Lisa Kearns
Marriage & Family Therapist
Euree Kim
Stanford ACT
Debbie Harrison
VP of Marketing & Business Strategy
Monique Spyka
PFM Asset Management, LLC
Bennett Surajat
Venture Capitalist
Suzanne Boutin
Keesal, Young, and Logan
Elenoa Fuka
Science Philanthropy Alliance
Philip A McLeod
Keesal, Young & Logan
Maria Teresa Sanchez Palma
Heidy Pelaez
Ruth Wisnom
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 08/14/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.