SAN DIEGO, Feb. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) kicked off the 2nd annual Excellence in Civic Leadership initiative, a $1 million charitable giving campaign to support non-profit organizations that focus on character development and fair and ethical leadership in youth.

SDG&E's Excellence in Civic Leadership initiative will support programs that provide mentoring; leadership development; and, college and workforce preparation for underserved K-12 students.

"San Diego is at the forefront, nationally and internationally, of innovation in energy and many other industries. Sustaining that innovation and our quality-of-life requires responsible, ethical, diverse, and prepared civic leaders that our communities can count on to lead us in the future," said Scott Drury, vice president of human resources, diversity and inclusion for SDG&E. "This SDG&E initiative supports those non-profit organizations that are preparing the next generation of San Diegans to lead the region in the private, public, academic, and non-profit sectors."

Non-profit organizations have until March 5 to apply for initiative grants at www.sdge.com/our-commitment. Through a competitive request-for-proposal process, the initiative will award individual grants up to $25,000 to selected non-profit organizations that provide civic leadership programs. SDG&E anticipates making grant awards by early April 2012.

SDG&E is a regulated public utility that provides safe and reliable energy service to 3.6 million consumers through 1.4 million electric meters and more than 850,000 natural gas meters in San Diego and southern Orange counties. The utility's area spans 4,100 square miles. SDG&E is committed to creating ways to help customers save energy and money every day.

Sempra Energy, based in San Diego, is a Fortune 500 energy services holding company with 2010 revenues of $9 billion. The Sempra Energy companies' 17,500 employees serve more than 31 million consumers worldwide.

www.sdge.com

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SOURCE SDG&E