Koshland Program

The Daniel E. Koshland Civic Unity Awards were established in 1982 by The San Francisco Foundation as a memorial to one of its founders and major benefactors, Daniel E. Koshland, a businessman and philanthropist who committed himself to making the Bay Area a better place in which to live. As a philanthropist, he supported bold – even risky – programs to improve the quality of life for all in the Bay Area community.

 Daniel E. Koshland built a reputation for practical, bold, and even risky philanthropy to improve the quality of life for Bay Area residents.

In the spirit of Daniel Koshland's life and works, the Koshland Civic Unity Program recognizes Bay Area grassroots risk-takers – those social innovators of bold spirit who accept the most stubborn neighborhood problems as a personal challenge and who work collaboratively to overcome them. In recognizing these individuals, the Koshland Committee of The San Francisco Foundation seeks to promote civic unity by building mutual respect among diverse people in the community and encouraging small, voluntary efforts to address neighborhood problems.

Program Goals

Through this awards program, the Koshland Committee hopes:

• To build the self-awareness and confidence needed for individuals to be creative and effective leaders in their neighborhoods
• To stimulate personal and professional growth among neighborhood leaders
• To increase understanding among different types of people within neighborhoods, and to promote the concept that nurturing these differences is a crucial element in solving neighborhood problems

Our Current Model

An in-depth reflection of best practices and lessons learned has steered the Koshland Program into its newest model. 2006 marked the beginning of a stronger and more effective program model focusing on individual leadership and addressing a specific issue that the neighborhood faces. To learn more about the Koshland Model, please visit the Our Model page.

Koshland Stories

Read about some of the leaders instrumental to the success of the Koshland Program.

To read the entire Koshland Connect newsletter, please visit our Publications page.