The Community Leadership Project

The Community Leadership Project is a collaboration between foundations and communities of color to strengthen grassroots organizations. The David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation have committed $8 million to the Bay Area, Central Coast, and San Joaquin Valley over the next three years. The San Francisco Foundation is honored to join eight other grantmaking organizations in this ongoing commitment to organizations supporting low-income and communities of color. 

In addition to the funds granted by the Hewlett, Irvine, and Packard Foundations, The San Francisco Foundation has committed an additional $375,000, bringing the total funding for our portion of this project to just under $1.5 million.

In consultation with a pool of community partners, The San Francisco Foundation will select 10 nonprofits for core support and technical assistance grants. Grantees, to be announced in October 2009, will be selected from nonprofits led by people of color in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, or Marin Counties. We will be in conversation with grantees who will be a part of this invitation-only process. The three-year grant period will include an initial 4-6 month phase for organizational assessment and the development of a capacity-building plan, followed by a two-and-a-half-year implementation period.