Listening and Responding to Our Community

Dear Friends,

The state of the economy continues to dominate local, state, and national policy dialogues. Most of our regions, cities and counties, the State of California, and the nation, are facing very large structural deficits. These deficits, together with the dramatic fall we are witnessing in the investment markets and the worrisome growth in unemployment and home foreclosures, are negatively impacting people at all economic levels, with low-income families and neighborhoods feeling the brunt of these economic dominos.

Philanthropic institutions and the nonprofits we support must now cope with smaller endowments and a challenging environment for fundraising and, in the case of direct service organizations, growing community needs. The San Francisco Foundation’s assets have also been impacted by the weakened and volatile investment market. We stay sharply focused on strategies that allow us to remain a stable resource to the community as we, like others, craft plans to do more with less.

We believe that, in order to be effective and inclusive problem-solvers, we must develop a shared understanding of the issues and challenges at hand. In his inspiring inaugural speech, President Obama referenced the critical importance of data and statistics in making choices. At The San Francisco Foundation, our analysis and direction will continue to be grounded by rapid due diligence. As the community foundation of the Bay Area, our role is to bring all voices to the table and to help forge meaningful partnerships across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. We continue our collaborations with government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, and are cognizant of the importance of these partnerships in leveraging our resources and strategies for the most intelligent solutions. While we can only speculate about the devastating fallout of the state and local budget deficits on the nonprofit sector and its constituencies, we believe that thoughtful and strategic planning is necessary to best respond to what are sure to be even more challenging times ahead.

Together with our vast network of grantees, we are currently mapping the status of our communities and neighborhoods. We are identifying where the needs are most acute, and determining strategically where we and our donors can make the most impact. In the coming weeks, we will continue our listening campaign through regional convenings, surveys, and interviews. In addition to using our data to inform our planning process, we will share our findings with you as we learn more about the evolving impact of this ongoing crisis on our nonprofit grantees and the communities they serve.

Fulfilling Our Commitments

We remain committed to fulfilling our existing grant obligations, and we want to assure all of our current grantees that our covenants with you are intact.

Emergency Fund

The San Francisco Foundation Emergency Fund targets resources to support those most vulnerable and most effected by the current economic turmoil. Our community surveillance has identified three key areas of need that the Fund addresses: Safety Net Services, Emergency Loans for Nonprofit Organizations, and Support for Organizations in Transition.

This week, we granted $600,000 to 20 Safety Net organizations including food banks, pantries, shelters, family resource centers, crisis support services, and domestic violence shelters in San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties.

Promise to Our Benefactors

The San Francisco Foundation has been built by, and continues our mission in the community due to, the profound generosity of our donors. We honor our responsibility to our legacy donors who have committed their resources to our endowment. In order to fulfill legacy donors’ wishes in perpetuity, we must maintain a spending policy, or spending rate, that protects their investment. We continue our rigorous and prudent stewardship of our investments.

Our responsibility to fiscal stewardship includes a thorough examination of our own operating expenses. These circumstances require that we be very thoughtful about how we spend every dollar, and as such, we are implementing aggressive internal cost-cutting measures. As part of these budget reductions, we have begun some restructuring, which regrettably includes the reduction of several staff positions. As part of the program changes, the Foundation has begun to restructure its Social Justice Program area. The San Francisco Foundation remains deeply committed to Social Justice as a core value. Our Social Justice mission and work run deeply throughout all Program areas of the Foundation. We remain steadfast in our commitment to address disparities and strengthen the rights and voices of the most vulnerable in our community.

Join Us

The San Francisco Foundation was created more than 60 years ago by visionary and generous leaders who realized the importance of civic engagement and collaborative problem-solving in creating true democracy. This continues to be the heart of our work. As we collectively celebrate and feel hope in the dawn of new national leadership, we recommit ourselves locally to our mission of service to those most in need. Thank you to our courageous and tenacious grantees that are doing everything possible to lighten the load of the most vulnerable. Thank you to our donors whose optimism and generosity are making the Bay Area better for all. We believe creativity exists everywhere, and solutions abound among us, and look forward to hearing from you soon and often.

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Sincerely,

Sandra R. Hernández, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer