Human Services Campus, ASU gear up for new services after $10M donation
Valley nonprofit Human Services Campus will have a firmer partnership with Arizona State University, thanks to a $10 million donation.
The Phoenix-based Garcia Family Foundation — the philanthropic organization for DriveTime founder and major Carvana Co. shareholder Ernie Garcia II and his wife, Joanne — granted the money to the campus that works to help the region's homeless population through coordinating efforts by multiple agencies. The grant will stretch over 10 years.
HSC Executive Director Amy Schwabenlender said the campus has begun coordinating operations with ASU since the grant was announced in October. The campus has used previous donations from the foundation for various projects, but the long-term nature of this one makes it easier to plan.
"It allows us to be flexible, adaptable," she said.
Jonathan Koppell, dean of the ASU Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions, said the money helps to create an ongoing partnership between the university and the nonprofit.
"The idea is that this takes us beyond the relationship of you have a project or an internship or two," said Koppell, who also serves board chairman of the HSC.
It allows the college to work with the HSC using its students on projects that stretch multiple semesters and that can be handed off from one group of students to another, Koppell said. The college and HSC already have made connections with partnerships moving forward.
The campus, founded 14 years ago as a site where multiple agencies work to provide services to help people out of homelessness, also hopes the donation changes the conversation among other large foundations, Schwabenlender said.
"We're hoping we can leverage to raise other money," she said. "Maybe not 10-year funds, but five years or three years."
More money would allow the campus to expand and revamp its offerings, Schwabenlender said.
The Garcia foundation has a history of donating to the Human Services Campus, and its welcome center is named after the couple's son, Brian, who died in 2010.
Garcia is one of the richest men in the world and the richest in Arizona with a net worth estimated at $5.7 billion.