Grants & Awards

Overview

We grant to a wide range of organizations in accordance with our strategic goals and objectives. In 2008 we made 176 grants worth more than $2.2 million.  

In addition to the responsive grantmaking in Arts and Culture, there are a number of arts awards programs designated through wills and trusts and initiative fundraising. For more information, please visit the Art Awards page.

• View the Arts and Culture Programs grants awarded in 2008.
• To see a list of all available arts-related grants & awards, please visit our Grants and Awards overview.
  

Nonprofit Transitions Fund Launches to Support Intentional Change

While Bay Area nonprofits have been resilient, and even grew during recent recessions, they must radically adjust given the scope of the recent recessions. Some face hard decisions about streamlining, merging, consolidating, or even sunsetting. Growth used to be a barometer of success. In the current economic climate, adaptability is a more pertinent measure. As part of The San Francisco Foundation’s emergency response grantmaking, we launch the Nonprofit Transitions Fund with $250,000 to support serious planning efforts, consultants, due diligence, and other expenses. Read the What's New article to learn more about the Nonprofit Transitions Fund.

Mini-Grants

Koshland Arts Mini-Grants

The Arts and Culture program collaborates with The San Francisco Foundation’s Koshland Civic Unity Program to award arts mini-grants of up to $3,000 for grassroots arts projects based in key Bay Area neighborhoods. The Koshland 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.

In November 2008, we awarded Koshland Program Arts and Culture Mini-Grants individuals, groups, and organizations working in the following neighborhoods:

Ashland and Cherryland, San Leandro

City of Richmond

West Berkeley, Berkeley

Bayview Hunter’s Point, San Francisco

Monument Corridor, Concord

2008-2009 Grantees:

• Associated Community Action Program
• Contra Costa Child Care Council
• East Bay Center for the Performing Arts
• Literacy for Environmental Justice
• Literacy for Every Adult Project
• Mt. Diablo Unified School District (Fair Oaks)
• Mt. Diablo Unified School District (Ygnacio)
• The Box Shop
• Terrain, A Dance and Performance Collective
• Waterside Workshops
• Youth at Hope Community Arts Project (BAHIA)
• Youth Spirits ArtsWork (Ya Ya California)

More Information
For more information on the Koshland Arts Mini-Grants, please contact Jason Torres Hancock at jth@sff.org.

For more information on the Koshland Program, please click here.

To see past Koshland Program Arts and Culture Mini-Grants Awardees, click here.

NEXT APPLICATION DEADLINE: The next round of Koshland Arts Mini-Grants will be in fall 2009. Please check back here in summer 2009 for more information.

FAITHS Arts Mini-Grants

Faith-based organizations and congregations often serve as a community hub for immigrant, refugee, and grassroots communities, while acting as a focus for cultural and artistic activity. To enhance this exchange of art and ideas, The San Francisco Foundation’s FAITHS Program and Arts and Culture Program have given the FAITHS Arts and Culture Mini-Grants for the past three years. These mini-grants will support faith-based organizations and groups in providing free, community-based artistic and cultural activities, with a priority focus on immigrant, refugee, and grassroots communities.

Last year, the partnership between Arts and Culture and FAITHS Program continued for a third year. Thirty-two applications requesting a total of $96,000 were received and $37,500 was awarded to 13 faith-based organizations. Grantees were chosen from diverse communities offering multidisciplinary artistic activities.  Select highlights include West African dance and music through Timbuktu Educational Foundation, collecting Kmhmu oral histories through the Raan Kan Kmhmu Cultural & Education Center, a Japanese-American mural project through Christ Episcopal Church Sei Ko Kai, Chi Gong classes at the Shaolin Buddhist Temple and Education Foundation, art classes at Fruitvale Tutoring in Oakland's Fruitvale District, a public tile art installation through Youth Spirit ArtWorks (Ya Ya California), and Suzuki violin and piano instruction for youth through Resurrection Lutheran Church, among other activities.

For more information on the FAITHS Arts Mini-Grants, please contact Michelle Myles Chambers at mmc@sff.org.

For more information on the FAITHS Program, please click here.

To see past FAITHS Arts Mini-Grants Awardees, click here.

NEXT APPLICATION DEADLINE: Please visit Social Justice's Grants and Awards page for complete information about these Mini-Grants. Applications are due 5:00 p.m. on March 18, 2009.

Fund For Artists (FFA)

Forging an innovative collaborative effort between Bay Area Community Foundations, individual donors, and the Irvine, Hewlett, Surdna, and Ford Foundations, the Fund For Artists supports the endeavors of individual artists through commissions, artists' residencies, awards, advocacy, workshops, promotional instruction, and networking support. This program includes the:

• The San Francisco Foundation Bay Area Documentary Fund given to accomplished film/video/digital media artists for early production support.
• Fund For Artists Arts Teacher Fellowships supporting the artistic revitalization of outstanding arts teachers in Bay Area middle and high schools.
• Fund For Artists Matching Commissions supporting the development of new work by Bay Area artists.
• Shenson Performing Arts Fellowships given to exemplary pre-professional performing artists to assist with their professional advancement.
  

To read more about the Fund For Artists Program, please visit the Fund For Artists page.

To see past Fund For Artists Awardees, visit the Art Award Archive page.

NEXT APPLICATION DEADLINES: Applications for the Fund For Artists Arts Teacher Fellowships were due on January 23, 2008. Please check  back in spring for a list of awardees.

Art Awards Program

The San Francisco Foundation sponsors a variety of artistic awards that help foster individual growth within our community through its Art Awards Program.

The Program offers a total of ten awards in visual, media, and literary arts including: the Joseph Henry Jackson Literary Award; the James Duval Phelan Literary Award; the Tanenbaum Award in Nonfiction; the James D. Phelan Art Awards in Photography, Printmaking, and in Film, Video, and Digital Media; the Murphy and Cadogan Fellowships in the Fine Arts; and the John Gutmann Photography Fellowship Award, as well as the annual Community Leadership Award, given in the spirit of Helen Crocker Russell, to an under-recognized, mature artist who has made a significant and ongoing contribution in the Bay Area.

Annually, the Art Awards Program awards an average of $100,000 to approximately 40 individual artists in different stages in their career and development. Additionally, The San Francisco Foundation hosts an annual Art Awards Celebration to recognize these individuals.  This year, the celebration was held on Monday, October 20th.  Please see the Arts Awards page for more information.

Learn more about how we honor the creative class of the Bay Area through our Art Awards.

To see past Art Awards Program Awardees, visit the Art Awards Archive page.

Wallace Audience Development Initiative

As part of the Wallace Audience Development Initiative, The San Francisco Foundation, Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund, and The Wallace Foundation, through the Arts & Business Council of Americans for the Arts are sponsoring the National Arts Marketing Project’s 2009 Bay Area Advanced Marketing Boot Camp.

For eligibility requirements and additional details, please click here to download a PDF of the Request for Proposals (RFP).

For more information on the Wallace Audience Development Initiative, visit the Wallace Commissions and Resources page.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Please download the application and return three copies to The San Francisco Foundation offices along with Required Documents arriving no later than 5:00 PM on Thursday, April 9, 2009.