Ronnie Harris II ’16, a former Stanford Football team captain, led his third annual Charity Golf Tournament at the Stanford Golf Course on Monday.
Eighty-eight golfers and 25 volunteers attended the event. Joe Lacob ‘83, Bob Stefanski, Jim Cowie ‘93 and Martin LaGod won the tournament.
Thoreau Giving, a nonprofit dedicated to creating affordable housing solutions for single mothers and at-risk youth in the Bay Area, raised $157,000 at last year’s tournament. The nonprofit’s goal for this year was to raise over $250,000 in service of these families.
The Tournament featured a silent auction with exclusive trips and one-of-a-kind memorabilia, including a Leonel Messi jersey and a hand-signed sports card, a Mike Tyson hand-signed glove and a hand-signed Taylor Swift guitar and photo.
“Now, we’re at the point where we’re actually superseding goals and expectations,” said Harris.
Harris said Thoreau Giving is likely to buy a home in Oakland or Antioch by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
“The effort Ronnie is putting together to find and buy a house for folks who can’t otherwise afford it is an incredibly uplifting mission for all of us,” said Jim Cowie, Stanford Law School ‘93 and third-time tournament participant.
He added: “Eventually we want to get to the point where we’re actually constructing our own affordable housing, where we have apartments, we have multi-unit facilities… where we can actually be doing more around health and wellness and taking care of families.”
During the seven years following Harris’s graduation from Stanford, while he worked at the Boys and Girls Club of the Peninsula, he spent time building his network and skillset in order to tackle affordable housing. By 2023, Thoreau Giving was born.
“It started with the mindset of, ‘How can we create affordable housing, but not just affordable housing?’” Harris said. “We actually want to wrap around services, so we have financial literacy services that we’re going to wrap around health and wellness and also job enrichment programs.”
Thoreau Giving is in the process of talking through different partnership agreements with other nonprofits and technology companies to help build financial literacy software to help families manage their money.
Harris likened his Stanford football career to his nonprofit strategy and his future goals.
“Similar to football, we’ve got to start as early as possible and take as many reps as we can, so that ultimately, you know, 10 to 15 years from now, we’re a lot bigger, a lot better for it.”
Harris wants to grow the nonprofit into other spaces in need of support and empathy. Namely, he plans to work with food banks and branch out to support food health and wellness.
Former Stanford football teammates of Harris’ attested to his passion for leadership and his ability to bring people together to ignite progress.
“Awesome leader on and off the field. He always got the best out of everybody,” said Blake Martinez ‘16, Harris’s former teammate and former Green Bay Packers linebacker.
Ronnie Harris II ’16 and Thoreau Giving volunteers at the third annual charity gold tournament. (Photo: FRANCESCA PINNEY/ The Stanford Daily)
