2022 Giving Report

2022 GIVING REPORT

College of Adaptive Arts

Photographer: Luis Castillo

“ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

– MARGARET MEAD “

Ryan Iwanaga & Chris Trapani Rebel Founders

Dear Friends,

It is inspiring to think that now, at the close of its 10th year, Sereno 1% For Good Charitable Foundation continues to evolve and eclipse our highest expectations as a community minded organization. We have much to be grateful for and each new year opens to more and more possibilities and opportunities.

Our fidelity to civic mindedness and obligation to community has always been our North Star. It has guided us through prosperous and challenging times, providing breadth and dimension to our perspective that has allowed us to always strive for things greater than ourselves.

Along the way, we have come to understand that our company’s best interests are always served when we anchor in our commitment to the greater good. We strive to be active participants and good citizens within our communities because it is the right thing to do.

It is a simple idea that, unfortunately, can often become complicated or forgotten altogether in the world of business. Fortunately for Chris and me, our families and key people in our lives have influenced us and created a sense of responsibility that guides us today.

When we founded Sereno Group in 2006, one of our main goals was to create a company that strived to make meaning; to push beyond our role as a business and find ways to contribute to the positive progress of our communities.

When our Sereno 1% For Good Charitable Foundation started 10 years ago, our main vision was to find ways in which to contribute to the communities we served. What started as a $5,000 check to Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue has evolved to over $5,000,000 in support of over 400 community minded organizations and causes throughout our brokerage’s local markets.

It is important to understand that these numbers reflect the tremendous effort and support of everyone within our company. Each individual regardless of responsibility or role has in some way contributed to our charitable efforts.

Our Sereno 1% For Good Charitable Foundation represents the spirit of who we are and defines us more than any other aspect of our company. We are fortunate to be a successful sales organization with a team of tremendous professionals, but we hope that our legacy will be the positive difference we make in society.

One of the tenets we live by is the belief that better companies make better communities. It is a wonderful concept that continues to drive and inspire us everyday.

We have so much yet to do, and the unknown opportunities that lie ahead are what makes this life so important and special.

Gratefully,

Ryan Iwanaga

We believe in giving back to the communities we call home.

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR 2022 GIVING

Community Impact Fund

In 2022 we donated $230,000 to 26 local organizations such as RAFT Resource Area for Teaching and Hunger at Home.

Culture Fund

In 2022 we donated $46,000 to 23 local organizations such as Ensamble Folclorico Colibri and The Crayon Initiative.

COVID-19 Relief Fund

In 2022 we donated $84,000 to 42 local organizations such as Peninsula Humane Society and Food Bank of Contra Costa & Solano County.

Equity and Access Fund

In 2022 we donated to $54,000 to 27 local organizations such as Teen Kitchen Project and Morgan Autism Center.

And numerous additional grants to local organizations fighting the good fight.

2014 2015 2013 2012

SVBJ Top 50 Givers #48

Sereno 1% For Good movement is established by a group of SCZ agents.

SVBJ Top 50 Givers #32

SVBJ Top 50 Givers #31

SVBJ Top 50 Givers #32

2016

2017

SVBJ Top 50 Givers #32

SVBJ Top 50 Givers #29

Sereno volunteer hours 5,084.

SVBJ Top 50 Givers #26

Sereno volunteer hours 4,187.

SVBJ Top 50 Givers #21

Sereno 1% For Good Charitable Foundation is created.

Sereno volunteer hours 8,885.

SVBJ Top 50 Givers #34 Covid-19 Relief and Equity & Access Funds are created.

SVBJ Top 50 Givers #24

$5,000,000 $4,000,000 $3,000,000 $2,000,000 $1,000,000

COLLEGE OF ADAPTIVE ARTS

Jeana Marie Pizzo-Maggio is a graduate student at College of Adaptive Arts with an emphasis in communications and is a gifted performer, comedian, and artist. One of the first interactions we had with Jeana Marie was when she was watching a parade in downtown Willow Glen. When she saw the College of Adaptive Arts students march past, she shouted out, “Hey – there’s my college!” It was *one proud moment* for our community to know that another adult out there felt accepted and welcomed into a safe and adaptive collegiate environment to learn and flourish for as long as they’d like at their own pace and rate.

Although she happens to have an intellectual disability and epilepsy, which keeps her from pursuing a traditional college degree at a typical institution of higher education, Jeana Marie has helped everyone at the College of Adaptive Arts be more understanding, empathetic, and supportive of individuals who experience seizures. She has helped to teach us that epilepsy does not define an individual, and she continues to shine her bright and vibrant energy each day as she attends classes in person or over Zoom. She has helped the

community to understand that having a seizure is like sneezing or coughing in that you don’t know when it might come on, and when it’s over you resume being the same person you are independent of this event. Her quips keep our professors on their toes and the class often in stitches. She demonstrates a kindness, empathy, and intellectual curiosity that transcends all artificial barriers that are often constructed in traditional learning spaces. Those barriers keep so many adults with differences marginalized and sidelined in the community.

Jeana Marie absolutely loves performing and has always wanted to be our cardinal mascot. With the incredible help and support of Sereno’s 1% For Good Charitable Foundation grant, as well as the steadfast support of her amazing mom, Mary, a longstanding CAA parent volunteer and supporter, we were able to secure a professional cardinal mascot costume that is open and airy and lends itself easy access for persons with differing abilities such as epilepsy. Indeed, Jeana Marie sported her cardinal costume at our first Inaugural Inclusive Collegiate Partnership

gala at West Valley College this past September. CAA is now positioned on its college campus to offer a lifelong, expanded layer of adaptive education to adults who historically have not had access to these resources.

The College of Adaptive Arts’ vision is to show how this layer of expanded education can be positioned on every campus of higher learning around the world to be a value-add to any hostcampus by providing leadership, work-study, and service learning opportunities to students who

historically have not had access to a college education or the ability to proudly walk on the campus and learn alongside their fellow peers. Jeana Marie is one of over 200 currently registered students who have been given an opportunity to thrive beyond age 22, thanks in part to Sereno’s 1% For Good Charitable Foundation underwriting.

Thank you so much to Sereno’s 1% For Good Charitable Foundation for believing in this lifelong model and being a steadfast community partner over the years.

THE BEAT WITHIN

The Beat Within’s mission is to provide incarcerated youth with a consistent opportunity to share their ideas and life experiences in a safe space that encourages literacy and self-expression. They accomplish their mission by encouraging healthy, supportive relationships with adults and their community.

Today, The Beat Within staff and volunteers serve over 5,000 youth annually through workshops operated across California county juvenile halls: San Francisco, Alameda, Monterey, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz to name only a few.

Read their stories below.

Advice To My Ten-Year-Old Self

What advice I would give myself is everything happens for a reason. But that’s on me because I could have been doing different words is because life is crazy. You gotta go through things to really help yourself out and to find yourself.

I think that happens to everybody. You gotta know what’s right for yourself. These words And what I know today I’ve been through, and I know that people have their own ways of growing to think in their own way.

- MulyMal, San Francisco

The Beat Within is committed to being an effective bridge between youth who are locked up and the community that aims to support their progress towards a healthy, non-violent, and productive life.

Success Is Different For Everyone

- Nikk, Santa Clara

The dictionary defines success as the gaining of wealth and fame. I don’t agree. I agree that for some people, that is what success looks like, but success in reality is subjective. The opinion.

To me, success is dependent on one’s own goals and happiness. [...] Moving forward as fit and healthy, doing things I enjoy, start a family and help as many people as I can, I’ll be successful in life. I may be locked up, but every day that I don’t let these things hold me back is a success in my book.

The World We Live In

We are the future for this world, everyone is. We all just have to do the work and make the world a better place, so everyone in this world can live better lives, greater lives. We all have people that we love, people that we have great bonds with. I know we want to the painful truth is we can’t. No matter what we do, life will end up finding a way to hurt us happens, happens. The only thing we can do is keep our heads up and move on.

[...]This world needs our help, so we should go and help out the world because without her, we wouldn’t even be here in the first place. All I want is for people to live in peace with each other because we are all freaking the same, so what makes us any different? We all act up time to time, make mistakes throughout our lives, but guess what? We are all humans. Humans make mistakes. We just have to learn from them and make a change so we don’t end up making it again.

I want all our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and etc. to live a life so wonderful where everyone is together and being themselves. But the only way we can make that happen is if we all work together and make a change. That’s all I want for us. To have a better world for the future generation of people.

- JJEM, San Mateo

Hard Work, Works

Here’s some real talk, homie. Have goals for real and understand that to achieve those goals you must apply discipline and consistency. In order to achieve your goals, you must apply discipline which I’ve already done and be consistent every day. If I could have plans. I know you’ve heard the saying, “We don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan.”

Hard work, works. Working really hard is what getting a lot more done. Don’t confuse run in place and never get anywhere so continue to strive, continue to have goals, and continue to progress. Keep your head up and push and pull and strive homie.

- Tony, Santa Clara

SOCIAL IMPACT

IMPACT

HOW CAN WE HELP?

A question I often hear from our agents and staff. It’s an excellent question.

It’s been a rough start to 2023 with unprecedented flooding and multiple mass shootings including one in Half Moon Bay less than an hour’s drive from many of our offices. Often news like this leaves us feeling overwhelmed and wondering can we really have an impact. My first thought is where do we start?

In my world that’s usually when serendipity intervenes. In this case we received an email from one of our nonprofit partners Kitchen Table Advisors If the name sounds familiar you may recall they were featured in our 2020 Sereno Giving Report If you have a moment please visit their page. The farmers’ stories give you a small glimpse of the challenges they are currently facing and the resilience required to move forward.

Low and behold, KTA works closely with ALAS Ayudando Latinos

A Sonar which was one of the organizations on the ground in Half Moon Bay helping to support the families impacted by the devastating events. Introductions were made, a few emails were exchanged and a completed Sereno 1% For Good Disaster Relief grant application was received and within 48 hours we were able to award a $5,000 grant.

This is how we help. We step up when our neighbors are in need. We make it simple. We make it equitable and we keep the process accessible for all.

We are beyond grateful to our clients for choosing Christie’s Sereno, our agents and staff for believing in the greater good, and the commitment of leadership to make giving part of our DNA.

People, passion, and purpose is what drives us at Christie’s Sereno.

With much gratitude,

Kirsty Duncan Director of Social Impact

2022

1. Agape Villages Foster Services

2. All Animal Rescue and Friends

3. All Saints Shower Program

4. Alpha Public Schools

5. AnimalSave

6. Assistance League of Diablo Valley

7. AWO

8. Beats 4 Hope

9. Branham High SchoolWinter Wishes

10. Bright Futures for Youth

11. Build-A-Box

12. Building for Generations

13. Cancer Commons

14. Casa de Clara Catholic Worker

15. CCOF Foundation

16. Chi Am Circle Inc

17. Chicana Latina Foundation

18. CoachArt

19. Coastal Watershed Council

20. College of Adapted Arts

21. Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse (CORA)

22. Court Appointed Special Advocates of Santa Cruz County

23. Coyote Crossing Ranch Rescue and Sanctuary

24. Divine Equine Assisted Therapy Center

25. Domestic Violence Intervention Collaborative

26. Dominican Hospital Foundation

27. Early Alert Canines

28. Emotions in Harmony

29. Ensamble Folklórico Colibri

30. Family Giving Tree

31. Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano County

32. FoodWhat?!

33. Friends for Youth

34. Friends of Children with Special Needs

35. Furrever Cat and Kitten Rescue

36. Gardensmiths

37. Good Karma Bikes

38. GreenTown Los Altos

39. Habitat for Humanity Nevada County

40. Habla Friends of River Glen Elementary

41. Healthy Cities Tutoring

42. Help One Child

43. Hope’s Corner

44. Human4Kindness

45. Humane Society Silicon Valley

46. Hunger At Home

47. Jewish Coalition for Literacy

48. Jewish Family and Children Services

49. Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley

50. Kitchen Table Advisors

51. League to Save Lake Tahoe

52. Leave No Trace

53. Live Like Coco Foundation

54. Meow Haven Kitty Rescue, Inc.

55. Monarch Services

56. Moreland Education Foundation

57. Morgan Autism Center

58. Mountain View Public Safety Foundation

59. Mountain View Whisman School District

60. National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy (NCEFT)

61. Neighbors Abroad

62. Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence

63. Order of Malta

64. Pacific Hearing Connection

65. Pajaro Valley Shelter Services

66. Pajaro Valley Unified School District

67. Paralyzed Veterans of America

68. Paws in Need

69. Peninsula Family Services

70. Peninsula Humae Society and SPCA

71. Pink Ribbon Girls

72. Preservation Action Council of San Jose

73. ProjectHired

74. Pursuit of ExcellenceSouth Bay

75. Ravenswood Classroom Partners

76. Ravenswood Education Foundation

77. Redwood City Education Foundation

78. Resource Area For Teaching (RAFT)

79. River Glen: Las Artes Bilingues

80. Samaritan House

81. San Francisco Education Fund

82. San Jose Dance Theatre

83. San Mateo High School Drama

84. Santa Clara County Historical and Genealogical Society

85. Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History

86. Santa Cruz Toddler Care Center

87. Saratoga Area Senior Coordinating Council

88. Schmahl Science Workshop

89. Shop With A Cop

90. Shopmonkey Foundation

91. Sky’s The Limit

92. Special Operations

93. StarVista

94. Sunbeam Foundation

95. Sunnyvale Education Foundation

96. Tax-Aid

97. Teen Kitchen Project

98. The Beat Within

99. The Circle Family Center

100. The Crayon Initiative

101. The Fit Kids Foundation

102. The Startup Squad Foundation

103. TMC Community Capital

104. Upwell Turtles

105. VentureChurch VC

106. Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired

107. Westwind Riding Institute

108. Winter Nights Family Shelter

109. WomenSV

110. YMCA Camp Campbell

111. YMCA of Silicon ValleyLewis and Joan Platt East Palo Alto