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The San Francisco Foundation is deeply committed to Social Justice as a core value. Our Social Justice mission and work run deeply throughout all Program areas of the Foundation. As part of budget reductions, The San Francisco Foundation has begun to restructure its Social Justice Program area. We remain steadfast in our commitment to address disparities and strengthen the rights and voices of the most vulnerable in our community. We will continue our commitment to Social Justice grantmaking and support, and in the interim will deliver that grantmaking and support through an integrated strategy involving the Foundation’s five other Program areas: Arts and Culture, Community Development, Community Health, Education, and Environment. Please visit our Social Justice page to learn more about the changes to this program.
Nonprofit Transitions Fund Supports Intentional Change
September 2009
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 invite organizations to apply for a grant from the Nonprofit Transitions Fund, providing $350,000 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 and how to apply by the Monday, October 26, 2009, deadline.
Social Justice Restructuring and Invitation Process
July 2009
To continue our support of Social Justice organizations, we are moving forward with an invitation process that will allow us to ease your ability to apply and be considered for support. We are currently contacting those organizations who are invited to apply; who will receive an email or direct contact from Foundation staff soon to provide instructions for applying. For those who are not invited, The San Francisco Foundation continues to value your contribution in the social justice field, but we are unable to include you for consideration at this time. We encourage you to review the goals and objectives of our five program areas (Arts and Culture, Community Development, Community Health, Education, and Environment) to see if your work might be competitive for consideration in one of those areas. Applications for support from those Program areas are due Friday, July 17, 2009, through Grantee Center.
As we continue our integration of Social Justice across the Foundation, our ongoing grantmaking and other support will become clearer. We will continue to reach out to grantees and social justice stakeholders to keep you informed, and we encourage you to contact us should you have questions. Again, the core areas of focus and Program staff available to assist you are:
Criminal and Juvenile Justice- James Head, Director of Programs, jwh@sff.org, 415.733.8514
- Tessa Rouverol Callejo, FAITHS Coordinator, trc@sff.org, 415.733.8541
- Navin Moul, Social Justice Fellow, nxm@sff.org, 415.733.8527
- James Head, Director of Programs, jwh@sff.org, 415.733.8514
- John Killacky, Arts and Culture Program Officer, jrk@sff.org, 415.733.8523
- Tessa Rouverol Callejo, FAITHS Coordinator, trc@sff.org, 415.733.8541
- Navin Moul, Social Justice Fellow, nxm@sff.org, 415.733.8527
The Social Justice Restructuring
June 2009
The San Francisco Foundation honors the important mission and work of our grantees aiming to bring equity and justice to the most vulnerable in our Bay Area communities. We appreciate our partnership with these key nonprofit organizations as our restructuring proceeds. As we move forward with our restructuring of the Social Justice Program, we wanted to share our initial process for continued support.
Given the reduced grantmaking funds available across all our program areas, we will give priority to existing grantees to help ensure stability. Given the unique changes we are making in restructuring social justice, we plan to make a special effort to identify existing grantees in the current core areas of our Social Justice goals and objectives. The core areas are: Legal Services; Criminal and Juvenile Justice; Immigrants and Immigrant Rights; Organizing; and LGBT Rights.
We will therefore use an invitation process for those organizations in the upcoming July 17, 2009, application deadline process. Our goal is to ease the ability of social justice organizations that are eligible for funding in these core areas to apply. We are currently working on finalizing this process and will begin notification of invited organizations within the next two weeks.
We will continue to monitor our grantmaking to social justice work going forward to allow us to track and evaluate our progress and impact, and will make adjustments where appropriate.
We understand these changes come in the midst of the worst economic and fiscal crisis in decades, and that the crisis is having a direct impact not only on TSFF but each of your organizations. We believe our changes will ensure that TSFF continues to be flexible and nimble in providing grantmaking, policy, technical assistance, and collaborative support to our grantees to allow them to be fully responsive to both the short-term and long-term needs of their constituents. We look forward to your continued partnership with us. To make sure we can respond to any questions you might have about our core areas of focus, the following Program Staff are available to assist you:
Legal Services – James Head, 415.733.8514, jwh@sff.org
Criminal and Juvenile Justice – James Head, 415.733.8514, jwh@sff.org
Immigrants and Immigrant Rights – Tessa Rouverol Callejo, 415.733.8541, trc@sff.org
Organizing – Navin Moul, 415.733.8527, nxm@sff.org
LGBT Rights – John Killacky, 415.733.8523, jrk@sff.org
Two Mini-Grant Application Deadlines on March 18th
February 2009
FAITHS Community Partners Mini-Grants
Since 1998 The San Francisco Foundation's FAITHS Program has hosted a small grant and technical assistance program to assist congregations and faith-based organizations to promote dialogue and action that strengthen the economic, racial, and civic fabric of local neighborhoods. An advisory group of clergy and lay congregational leaders annually participate in the process by advising the FAITHS team on issues that are important to the faith-based community. Through the program, Community Partners, the FAITHS Program supports efforts that increase the participation of low-income residents in the civic life of our communities. If our democracy is to remain strong and truly representative, FAITHS believes that it is in our best interest to strengthen projects that inform and engage our communities.
Congregations and faith-based organizations in the five Bay Area counties (Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo) are eligible to apply for a mini-grant of up to $4,000 to support the work of congregations and faith-based organizations increasing civic participation and/or providing community services to low-income residents in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Please review the guidelines for this mini-grant by downloading this PDF before logging into Grantee Center to complete your application.
FAITHS Arts and Culture Mini-Grants
Faith-based organizations and congregations often serve as a community hub for immigrant, refugee, and low-income communities, while acting as a focus for cultural and artistic activity. To enhance this exchange of art and ideas, the Foundation's FAITHS Program and Arts and Culture Program have initiated the FAITHS Arts and Culture Mini-Grants. These grants support free, community-based artistic and cultural activities, with a priority focus on immigrant, refugee, and low-income communities.
Please review the guidelines for this mini-grant by downloading this PDF before logging into Grantee Center to complete your application.
The application deadline has now passed. For more information or assistance please contact FAITHS Program staff at 415.733.8539.
Current Grants
We grant to a wide range of organizations in support of the Program’s strategic goals and objectives. In 2009 we made 158 grants totaling $2,563,069.