About TSFF

The San Francisco Foundation publishes a wide range of community reports, white papers, and other publications created through the expertise of our programmatic staff. If you would like to receive a printed copy of any of The San Francisco Foundation’s past reports, please email us or call 415.733.8500.

Making Sense of Audience Engagement
February 2012
The report, conducted by WolfBrown, examines a range of engagement practices, such as online strategies, community partnerships, audience participation, and other experiments taking place in the arts sector. It proposes a new model—an arc of engagement—for understanding how audiences experience art, from the build up phase of anticipation before an artistic event to the reflection after the fact that can last for months or years. The report was commissioned by The San Francisco Foundation and Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, with support from The Wallace Foundation.

Telling the Whole Story: Voices of Ethnic Volunteers in America
January 2012
Written by Nora L. Silver, Ph.D., adjunct professor and director of the Center for Nonprofit and Public Leadership at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, Telling the Whole Story is a project of Community Initiatives. It is sponsored by The San Francisco Foundation, Shinnyo-en Foundation, Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, and The James Irvine Foundation.

A Portrait of California
May 2011
A Portrait of California 2011 offers a nonpartisan, fact-based look at how ordinary people in communities across our great state are faring. It tells us who in California is thriving, and who is merely surviving – and why. For the first time, a study of critical indices of well-being across California. Health, education, and income data, analyzed across race, ethnicity, gender, nativity, and geography. This report was commissioned by The San Francisco Foundation, The California Community Foundation, The California Endowment, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. William Draper III, United Ways of California, and the Weingart Foundation.

It’s Not About You…It’s About Them, A Research Report: What Motivates Bay Area Donors to Give to the Arts and Artists
May 2010
It’s Not About You…It’s About Them, A Research Report: What Motivates Bay Area Donors to Give to the Arts and Artists and the accompanying Field Reports from the Fund For Artists Matching Commissions Program: Unlocking the Potential of Individual Donors were conducted by Helicon Collaborative in partnership with WolfBrown. This research was made possible by support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, LINC, East Bay Community Foundation, Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, and The San Francisco Foundation.

Partnering with Nonprofits in Tough Times
April 2009
Recommendations from the San Francisco Community-Based Organizations Task Force

Economic Development Through a Racial Lens
November 2007
by James Head and Tanya Clark Martson, The San Francisco Foundation