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Our Founders

Our Founders

It is a true honor and pleasure being with the kids. These children and their families have taught me so much and truly enriched my life beyond measure”.

Elaine Taylor

Elaine Taylor

elaine taylor with campers
Elaine Taylor with Campers

Elaine Taylor is the Co-Founder and President of The Taylor Family Foundation. A true philanthropist, she has been a Candy Striper, cared for children in the playroom at hospitals, helped fundraise, sat on boards, and served as a committee member for various charities. She has been a mentor to other non-profit groups, teaching them the skills to raise money efficiently, volunteer management and to be highly profitable with the least amount of overhead.

Elaine has been an advocate and educator for Pediatric AIDS to several community groups. Elaine Taylor has received numerous honors, including the Unsung Heroes of Compassion award in 2005, presented by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, an honor given only to 50 individuals. Other awards include the 2015 Steven J. Rivera Threads of Hope Visionary Award, the 2014 East Bay Leadership Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Jefferson Award for Public Volunteerism in 2009, and Gilda Radner Philanthropic Award in 2007. In 2011 she was named to the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame.

Barry Taylor

Barry Taylor 1938 – 2013
1938 – 2013

Born in 1938 and raised in Northern California, Barry Taylor lived the American dream. A self-made man, he got his provisional driver’s license at the age of 14 so he could get a job to help support his family. In 1972, he founded Taylor Made Copier Systems with $7,000 in borrowed capital and five employees, several of whom spent their entire careers with the then start-up company.

By 1980, Taylor Made was a multi-million dollar company with 2,500 employees providing copiers and service to corporations in four different counties. No stranger to philanthropy, Barry sat on the board of the March of Dimes in the 1980s and held fundraisers on their behalf at his home shared with wife Elaine in Lafayette.

In 1990, The Taylor Family Foundation (TTFF) was founded to raise money and provide support for the families of Bay Area children living with HIV/AIDS. Father of seven, Barry lived life by the simple, yet profound principles of good living: rise to the challenge, work hard, enjoy life and always take care of each other.

While deeply missed, Barry’s entrepreneurial spirit lives on with TTFF. He worked tirelessly to ensure TTFF could continue to provide services for Northern California children living with chronic and life-threatening illnesses, developmental differences and youth at-risk.

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