Our History

Jennifer Cullenbine founded Family Giving Tree to bring Christmas joy to Bay Area children.

The Family Giving Tree sprang to life because of Jennifer’s MBA class assignment to develop a business plan to bring value to someone else’s life. While the class agreed it could never work, Jenn, the optimist, pursued her vision of serving others. That journey changed her life and the lives of millions of others.

That following fall, her project became the Holiday Wish Drive. It began with her phone call outreach to families in East Palo Alto, asking the children in each household what they wanted for Christmas. The requests were all over the map, but the most intriguing was one made by Luis, a young boy who asked for two pillows. Jenn wanted to be sure that’s really what he wanted and called back. Yes, his grandmother confirmed, Luis wanted two pillows…because his mom and sister were sleeping on the floor in the same room and neither of them had one. “We realized then that it was not unusual for children to be selfless,” Jenn reflects, and this moment remains a guiding light for her to this day.

But the story is not over yet. A generous donor bought every gift on the list and then contacted the San Jose Mercury News, which published a story about this generous endeavor. Thanks to the story, 28 companies joined the effort, and the inaugural drive brought joy to over 2000 children. There was no looking back. Jenn’s dream and the Family Giving Tree were launched.

Operated out of a Palo Alto school classroom, the Holiday Wish Drive quickly grew, requiring an entire wing of the school the following year. By the third year, the drive had outgrown the classrooms entirely. Fortunately, Wells Fargo stepped in and donated FGT’s first warehouse space that year. Family Giving Tree has been fortunate to receive donated space from various generous corporate partners ever since which allows the organization to plow most of it's resources into spreading joy in the community. Today, tens of thousands of recipients each year have their holiday wish granted through the kindness of others.

In 1996, the Back-to-School drive joined the portfolio of community support. Jenn knew the value of education and understood firsthand the challenge of not having the essential supplies to complete schoolwork. Although it served just 25 students at a single school, it was the beginning of educational support for hundreds of thousands of students, and today, it serves tens of thousands of K-12 students with a supply-filled backpack each year.

Still reliant on corporations' generosity for donated warehouse space to run the Drives, in January 2006, the organization had the good fortune to be offered rent-reduced office space in the Milpitas Sobrato Center for Nonprofits. The Family Giving Tree had a home. From there, it continues to serve the community by bringing wished-for gifts and school supply-filled backpacks to those children whose families can’t afford one.

Now, 34 years later, having seen the organization grow and flourish, and over two million recipients served and supporter by others in their community, Jenn retired as CEO in 2024. The years were filled with uncertainty and hard work, heartbreak and joy, generosity and giving, and Jenn could not have imagined it any other way. As she envisioned all those year ago, she made good on bringing value to so many lives. Her spirit will live on as the organization continues to pursue her dream for years to come.

To learn more about Family Giving Tree's work over the years, view our history timeline here.

For Drive Statistics since 1990, please click here.