Last week, I joined Vanitha Venugopal, Program Director for Community Development and Investment, in Sacramento as she accepted an award for this longstanding work of the Foundation. At that event, the California Housing Consortium inducted The San Francisco Foundation into the California Housing Hall of Fame for our longtime philanthropic support of affordable housing. The event was a virtual “who’s who” in affordable housing, with more than 100 representatives from nonprofit housing developers, affordable housing advocates, researchers, legislators and financial institutions from across California.

In addition to accepting the award on behalf of the Foundation, Vanitha was part of a panel discussing the critical role affordable housing plays in improving quality of life for all Californians. Along with Matt Schwartz of California Housing Partnership Corporation, Doug Shoemaker from Mercy Housing California, and Stuart Cohen of TransForm, the panel highlighted the vital connection of housing to transportation, sustainable energy, education, and health of Californians.

We also heard from University of California Berkeley Professor Carolina Reid, whose research confirmed the severe mismatch between the supply and demand for affordable housing in California, with just 20 units of affordable housing available for every 100 households earning 85% of area median income.

Reid also noted that housing instability is among the key factors driving the majority of negative outcomes for children, with low-income families outside of affordable housing moving on average between four and six times each year. Facing such high instances of family dislocation, it’s not difficult to understand the relationship between housing instability and the academic and health challenges of many low-income youth.

With average incomes dropping across most demographics and skyrocketing rents throughout much of the Bay Area, it’s clear that the need for high-quality affordable housing is greater than ever and will be an ongoing need for decades to come.

This is why The San Francisco Foundation has invested tens of millions of dollars to support this work, and why together with our grantees we will continue our struggle to ensure every Bay Area resident is able to live in the community of their choice.

To read more about this year’s California Housing Hall of Fame awardees, visit the California Housing Consortium website.

To address the challenge of rising rents in transit-rich neighborhoods, I am proud of the leadership role The San Francisco Foundation has had in incubating, catalyzing, and investing in the Transit-Oriented Affordable Housing Fund. I was honored to learn this week that the Environmental Protection Agency has bestowed our unique $50 million Fund with their prestigious Smart Growth Achievement Award. The Fund’s odd bedfellows of public, private philanthropic capital is breaking new ground in creative financing for affordable housing. Since the Fund’s launch 18 months ago, I’ve already heard from many other metro-regions from LA, to Chicago, to Atlanta seeking to emulate our success.

The very first project to receive financing from the Fund is Eddy & Taylor Family Housing. This $7.2 million loan will transform a surface parking lot into 153 affordable housing units and a new grocery story in the Tenderloin. The site is just two blocks from the Powell Street BART station, a major transit hub in San Francisco.

As more wealthy residents are attracted to convenient urban neighborhoods, this Fund is helping ensure that low-income families will still have safe, secure housing they can afford. Middle class residents like me shouldn’t be the only ones to benefit from easy access to transit.

So many times, reaching for the phone, we went to get your view, your story, your joke of the day.

We have had moments in the mountains, in meetings,  on a hike, on a bike, on a horse, at a concert or rehearsal and you and your joy have been in full color.

In the office, I have wondered what guidance you would offer but more now wonder what I should offer others.

We have danced, we have given thoughtfully, we have made sure the table seats everyone.

We are in a big community who holds you and all  your memories close.

We miss you every day; today we send a message your way: you left this world a year ago but remain forever in the forefront of the love and joy that is our work.

In Memory of F. Warren Hellman, beloved friend, Bay Area civic and business leader, philanthropist, and our Former Trustee, who passed away one year ago today, on December 18, 2011.

The Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative, the program I lead at The San Francisco Foundation, focuses its grantmaking on community colleges. Many people do not know that the community colleges are the largest providers of workforce training in the State. They educate 70 percent of the state’s nurses and 80 percent of our firefighters, law enforcement personnel, and emergency medical technicians. For the low-income, disadvantaged populations that the 13 foundations involved in the Collaborative care most about, community colleges are an affordable way to gain the skills they need to move out of poverty and get a well-paying job that can support a family.

Community colleges are the portal to higher education and workforce training for 2.4 million Californians. In fact, the California Community Colleges System is the largest higher education system in the country (and maybe even the world!). Despite the tremendous opportunity they provide to Californians—and the benefit to California’s economy by producing an educated workforce—community colleges have been one of the biggest casualties of the state’s fiscal crisis. Since 2008, state funding for community colleges has been cut by a staggering $809 million. As a result, colleges have had to reduce enrollment by 485,000 students. That’s too many young people without access to higher education, especially at a time when there are few job prospects in our still struggling post-recession economy.

Prop 30 will immediately restore $210 million in funding to community colleges which will enable them to serve 20,000 additional students and reinstate thousands of classes that were cut over the past four years. It should also prevent further cuts over the next several years. Californians got it right in this election: it’s time to reinvest in public education to ensure that our young people have access to opportunity, our workers have access to good jobs, and our economy remains competitive.

Last week’s election was a powerful reminder that it’s not just the money, it’s the ground game that makes the difference.

Yesterday we welcomed dozens of nonprofit visionaries – grant applicants – to our How to Apply Workshops.  These workshops provide nonprofits in our region with information on the guidelines and process of applying online for a San Francisco Foundation grant.

Some of the questions at the workshop brought into focus the importance of a ground game. And for us this translates into a clear imperative: Don’t lead with the money. Focus on the idea, articulate the vision, and build community support for it, for that will make the impact. The money will follow.

At The San Francisco Foundation we take a holistic approach to philanthropy. We believe that we need to push on several fronts to forge real change. We build an ecosystem of grantees that collectively create a greater impact than any one of them could do alone.

Our grantmaking supports research and polling, technical assistance, communications, community organizing, direct services, and advocacy. We believe these are all essential to making change that is lasting and meaningful.

Philanthropy should take a page from the Obama playbook: Don’t lead with the money, embrace diversity, and have a strong ground game.

We’re happy to announce that our Open Applications Cycle Grant Program for Arts and Culture, Community Development, Community Health, Education, and Environment will be opening  online Monday, November 12. These applications are open to nonprofit organizations serving residents of San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and San Mateo. This application process allows us to hear from our longstanding partners and learn about new organizations. It helps us keep an ear to the ground, where we learn about what’s working, as well innovative approaches nonprofits are implementing, as they try to solve the problems Bay Area residents are facing.

For organizations interested in applying, I encourage you to review the goals and objectives on our Program pages, attend a How to Apply Workshop, review the guidelines, and after November 12, visit the Grantee Center to submit your application.

The Open Cycle is an important time for us to hear from the nonprofits that are helping to build a better, more vibrant and healthy Bay Area.