Silicon Valley Community Foundation widens probe of 'toxic' workplace

April 25--The embattled Silicon Valley Community Foundation hired a new law firm Tuesday to investigate what it called "a larger culture issue that needs to be addressed" amid signs of donor discontent over a wave of former workers complaining of a toxic work environment.

The announcement attributed to the foundation's board of directors came a week after Emmett D. Carson, its founding president and chief executive, publicly acknowledged an internal sexual harassment investigation of his top deputy, Mari Ellen Loijens, who resigned two days later.

Tuesday's board statement raised further questions about whether Carson, whom many former workers blame for the troubled workplace culture at the country's largest community foundation, can survive the scandal.

"It would appear from the press release that the initial investigations are finding more than the board imagined," said Beth Ann Locke, a fundraiser at Simon Fraser University who has written about sexual abuse at nonprofits. "It may be that the biggest fear of the SVCF board is that this investigation uncovers some very uncomfortable truths, that the foundation no longer appears to be an 'ethical choice' for donors in an age where ethics is part of a person's brand."

Los Altos Hills entrepreneur Steve Kirsch said in a letter to the editor of this news organization this week that the foundation board "needs to move quickly to remedy this failure of leadership."

"If the board doesn't act," Kirsch wrote, "I will look elsewhere to do my charitable investing and I suspect other major donors will as well."

An investigative article published last Wednesday by the Chronicle of Philanthropy quoted actress and #MeToo activist Rose McGowan saying she declined to open a charitable account with the foundation after learning of dozens of worker complaints anonymously posted online. The article also quoted former employees, some by name, detailing Loijens' allegedly crass, lewd and demeaning remarks to employees and Carson's alleged indifference to their complaints.

Those and other former foundation workers have since confirmed those complaints and shared others with this and other news organizations, with several coming forward on social media over the past week to share their stories of harassment and humiliation.

Sarah Lorraine Goodman, who said she lasted nine months in 2014 as a social media strategist under Loijens, said she complained to the human resources department about Loijens' demeaning remarks about her in front of her coworkers. But she said Carson made clear she would have to leave if she couldn't figure out how to work with Loijens.

"It was such a brutal experience working there," Goodman said. "A big part of that culture is Emmett. It was understood that Mari Ellen was untouchable. Emmett covered for her. He used to call her his bulldog. She was the one he'd unleash on people, and he just thought she was the greatest thing ever."

Carson wasn't available for comment through the foundation's spokesperson Tuesday. Last week, he said "we do not tolerate inappropriate conduct of any kind" and that the foundation had hired Cleveland-based national law firm Thompson Hine to investigate the sexual harassment complaints.

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But the board said Tuesday it has also hired the Boies Schiller Flexner firm in Palo Alto for an expanded probe led by Ann O'Leary and Robyn Crowther. O'Leary is a former San Francisco deputy city attorney and former policy adviser to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

The board said they will "expand the reach" of the sexual harassment investigation to include "evaluating how teams are managed, what type of working environment is being fostered and confirming that we are the type of organization where reports of misconduct are met with swift and just action."

The board, which has 18 members including Carson, also said that the investigation will be overseen by seven directors: Sam Johnson, the current chairman, Dan'l Lewin, the incoming chairman, Julie Kwon, Wade Loo, Kate Mitchell, Thurman White and Rebecca Guerra.

"It has since become clear that we may have a larger culture issue that needs to be addressed," the board statement said. "To that end, we remain committed to taking whatever actions will be required based on that investigation's findings."

Before the scandal broke, Loijens was the foundation's chief fundraiser credited with helping raise more than $8 billion for the Mountain View-based non-profit that over the last decade became one of the world's largest community foundations as Silicon Valley's movers and shakers donated millions of dollars in tax-deductible charitable funds. The foundation boasts more than $13 billion in assets.

But Locke said that "if it turns out that someone or several people reported these incidents to Carson and he did nothing or let it slide, then he may well lose his job."

"The board at that point won't have much of a choice," Locke said. "And it seems that this press release is a foreshadowing."

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