SAN JOSE — Adobe has embarked on what the company calls its hometown commitment, a wide-ranging campaign to strengthen the tech titan’s ties to the San Jose community and its nonprofits.
To be sure, Adobe’s four-building downtown San Jose headquarters campus serves as a very visible symbol of Adobe’s investments in the Bay Area’s largest city.
San Jose-based Adobe, however, seeks to accomplish far more than build a landmark, according to Amy White, Adobe’s global head of corporate social responsibility & social impact communications.
The tech titan aims to weave strands of commitments and investments throughout its home base, providing benefits to the downtown and the city.
RELATED: Adobe opens Founders Tower in new downtown San Jose expansion
“Adobe has been part of the San Jose community for decades and specifically the downtown community,” White said. “We have been looking at direct grant-giving, sponsorships and volunteering. As we were anticipating the opening of our new tower, we were also looking our hometown commitment.”
The company is kicking off its efforts with significant support to several community organizations. The Adobe Foundation is providing $2 million to eight nonprofits.
The organizations are:
- San Jose Downtown Association
- HomeFirst
- The Kelsey
- Second Harvest of Silicon Valley
- The Tech Interactive
- Cinequest
- Local Color SJ
- San Jose Museum of Art
“The eight nonprofits share Adobe’s commitment to San Jose through social impact, community revitalization, arts and culture,” said Gloria Chen, Adobe’s chief people officer & executive vice president of employee experience.
Adobe hopes that its push can also help downtown San Jose stage a comeback from the dreary two years that began with the coronavirus outbreak.
Complicating matters were government-ordered business lockdowns that were crafted to help combat the spread of the deadly bug — but that also ushered in a brutal nosedive for economic activity in downtown San Jose.
“Over the last three years, downtown San Jose has largely gone silent,” White said. “A lot of cultural connections are missing.”
Adobe aims to do all that it can to help increase foot traffic in downtown San Jose, a rising tide that Adobe, city officials and business leaders hope will lift the collective fortunes of the urban core’s restaurants, shops, clubs, night spots, theaters, art galleries, museums, hotels and performance venues.
“The spirit of the downtown community has to be strengthened,” White said. “You need the activation that makes the downtown feel like it’s thriving.”
The tech titan and the San Jose Downtown Association have a long-time alliance aimed at helping activity in the city’s urban core.
“The San Jose Downtown Association and Adobe have been great partners for many years, sharing common goals to improve the vibrancy of the downtown,” said Alex Stettinski, the association’s chief executive officer.
The tech titan has appointed active members to the association’s board, donated creative cloud-based apps to student artists and deployed employee volunteers to the downtown, Stettinski added.
“Adobe’s commitment to creativity and innovation has made them an invaluable partner to The Tech Interactive over the years,” said Katrina Stevens, chief executive officer with The Tech. “Their latest investment in the next generation shows how much they value inspiring young people to be empowered problem solvers.”
The company is also making a big push to bolster San Jose State University and the South Bay institution’s ability to produce talented tech engineers that are the lifeblood of the industry’s — and Adobe’s — future.
So far, Adobe has donated $2 million in grants to San Jose State. The donations from Adobe can be used at the university to fund scholarships, new campus facilities, social justice initiatives, professional development programs and faculty research collaborations.
“The grant from the Adobe Foundation supports new forms of pedagogy that help students create a sense of belonging at San Jose State, establishes educational practices that further close equity gaps for all of our students and embeds lifelong digital and creative literacy skills into their education,” said Vincent Del Casino, Jr., the university’s senior vice president for academic affairs.
During 2022, Adobe donated more than $2.4 million and over 4,200 volunteer hours to local San Jose organizations, the company said.
The company’s new tower will include works of downtown San Jose artists. Some local art is already on display. On the side of the new tower, Adobe has provided space for a mural crafted by a local artist.
Bay Area artist Leo Bersamina intended for the mural to be inspired by the textiles and crafts of his ethnic and racial background. Bersamina claims Filipino, German, Portuguese, Spanish, French and Indigenous-American roots.
“Adobe’s creative tools and its team’s keen sense of the creative process allowed for a positive collaborative exchange during the process of designing the mural,” Bersamina said. “I have been using Adobe products since their humble beginnings to help hone my creative vision and throughout my entire creative career.”
Executives with the company are convinced Adobe can be a key factor in spurring a downtown San Jose revival.
“We have a role to play in helping the downtown come back even stronger from the pandemic,” White said. “We want to be part of the revitalization of downtown San Jose in a post-COVID environment.”
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