Special Projects & Funding Collaboratives

 
As a catalyst for change, The San Francisco Foundation’s mission extends beyond grantmaking. We harness our broad knowledge, local expertise, and extensive relationships to address complex issues facing the region. Through special projects and partnerships, we collaborate with community-based organizations, government, other foundations, and donors to create new approaches to meeting the Bay Area’s ever-changing needs.

Bay Area Environmental Health Collaborative
Air pollution is a serious public health issue facing the Bay Area region, and research shows that communities of color and poorer communities are most impacted. Launched in 2005, the Bay Area Environmental Health Collaborative (BAEHC) joins the strengths of six coalitions representing racially and ethnically diverse communities in three counties to address cumulative impacts on air quality at a regional level. BAEHC launched a policy campaign to improve air quality in the Bay Area in February 2007, in tandem with a research report conducted as part of this initiative that for the first time provides scientific evidence on environmental racial disparities in the Bay Area. Each of the grassroots coalitions participating in BAEHC also receives organizational capacity-building resources. For related information, please visit our Environment page.

Funding partners include The California Endowment and the California Wellness Foundation.

Bay Area Livable Communities Initiative
The San Francisco Bay Area expects a surge of two million new residents by 2030. Unless we change our current growth patterns, new development will continue to bulldoze our farmland and hillsides, and push low- and middle-income families out of existing communities in the Bay Area. The Bay Area Livable Communities Initiative is helping to shape how the Bay Area grows by partnering with nonprofits, regional agencies, local governments, and the business community. With our partners, we are working to shape plans for development around transit stations and influence local, regional, and state policies and funding programs so that they serve as catalysts for sustainable and equitable development in the Bay Area. The goal of this project is for half of the Bay Area’s new homes, between now and 2030, to be located in walkable neighborhoods near transit that have a mix of jobs, shops, community services, and homes affordable to families of all income levels. For more information, please visit our Environment page.

Funding partners include the East Bay Community Foundation, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The California Endowment, Surdna Foundation, and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.

Through special projects and partnerships, we collaborate with community-based organizations, government, other foundations, and donors to create new approaches to meeting the Bay Area’s ever-changing needs.

Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative
California is experiencing a critical shortage of workers in certain industries like healthcare. Yet there is no shortage of low-wage workers looking to improve their lives and provide a better future for their children. The Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative (BAWFC) is a public/private partnership of 14 philanthropic foundations and the State of California Employment Development Department (EDD) designed to increase the economic security of low-income Bay Area residents while meeting the workforce needs of key industry sectors in the region. BAWFC invests in efforts that promote the development and sustainability of career ladder initiatives that lead from entry level positions to progressively more skilled occupations in the healthcare and life sciences sectors. To date, BAWFC has conducted two grantmaking cycles distributing $6.5 million to 20 Bay Area workforce development, innovation, and policy projects. Please visit our Community Development page for more information.

Funding partners include the State of California Economic Development Department, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, Walter & Elise Haas Fund, Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Levi Strauss Foundation, Y&H Soda Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Catholic Healthcare West.

City Fields Fund
Bob, Bill, and John Fisher grew up playing sports in San Francisco parks and want to make sure that city kids today have the same opportunities. But many of San Francisco’s athletic fields are in poor condition and, worse, there aren’t nearly enough of them. The brothers established the City Fields Foundation in 2005 to meet this challenge. In 2006, City Fields and the City of San Francisco teamed up on a pilot project to fix up dilapidated sports fields in two parks – Garfield Square in the Mission, and Silver Terrace just outside the Bayview. With $4.5 million from the City Fields Foundation and $1 million from the City, the public/private partnership finished both projects in less than six months. The San Francisco Foundation was asked to join the effort because of its extensive philanthropic network and strong track record of investment in local neighborhoods. Through our City Fields Fund, The San Francisco Foundation receives and acknowledges tax deductible contributions from donors, and grants these funds directly to the City Fields Foundation. To encourage broad community support, City Fields and the City of San Francisco will each match every private dollar raised.

FAITHS Program
Now in its 13^th year, TSFF’s FAITHS Program supports faith-based organizations that deliver services and advocate for their communities by providing convenings, leadership development, technical assistance, and mini-grants. Having built a diverse network of over 600 congregations and grassroots organizations throughout the Bay Area that meets to problem-solve around community issues, FAITHS is uniquely positioned to help communities organize residents to prepare for disasters and to share lessons learned across the divides of counties, denominations, race, and class. For more information, please visit our Social Justice page.

Funding partners include the Stuart Foundation and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.

Fund for Artists
Individual artists are challenged to develop their skills and produce new work while meeting their economic needs in the Bay Area – where the cost of living is consistently ranked among the highest in the country. The Fund for Artists is a partnership of several community foundations that supports individual artists by raising new funds from private foundations and individual donors for commissions, fellowships, and residencies. The initiative has been a tremendous success: grants totaling $1.1 million to 148 artists were made in 2005 and 2006, representing a significant infusion of new funding in the region for artists. Read more on our Funds for Artists page.

Funding partners include the East Bay Community Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, Leveraging Investments in Creativity, Marin Community Foundation, and Surdna Foundation.

Get Out the Vote Program
In our democracy, the ability to vote is the most powerful tool that a citizen can wield. Yet across California, millions of people – including many immigrants who have become citizens – do not exercise their fundamental right to vote. The San Francisco Foundation’s non-partisan Get Out the Vote Program aims to increase voter registration, provide voter education, and encourage voter participation. Launched in 2004, several donor advisors have joined in the effort. With access to the foundation’s quick-turnaround mini-grants ranging from $500 and $7,500, grassroots organizations and local faith-based leaders are able to register voters, educate them, and mobilize their communities to go to the polls on election day. The program has a particular focus on low-income residents, people of color, and new citizens. For additional information, please see visit our Social Justice page.

Oral Health Initiative
Oral healthcare remains one of the greatest unmet needs in the healthcare system. The San Francisco Foundation’s Oral Health Initiative is designed to improve access of low-income Bay Area residents (uninsured and those with publicly financed dental coverage) to dental services – both prevention and treatment programs. The Initiative also aims to identify and advocate for policy, regulatory, and/or legislative changes that are needed to reduce barriers to oral health services. As a community foundation attentive to the health needs of the communities it serves, we are committed to working with communities and investing resources in the oral health needs of residents in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo Counties. Read more in our Community Health section.

Post 9/11 Civic Engagement Fund
Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern and South Asian communities are among the fastest growing ethnic groups in California and in the Bay Area. These communities continue to face significant challenges following the events of September 11, 2001. They are targets of hate crimes, racial profiling, discrimination in schools and the workplace, selective immigration enforcement, detention and deportation, and media stereotyping. The Post 9/11 Civic Engagement Fund is a capacity building initiative designed to strengthen these communities by supporting Arab, Muslim, Middle Eastern, and South Asian nonprofit organizations through a mix of small grants and the provision of technical assistance. The Fund was developed through a strategic partnership between Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP), an affinity group of the Council of Foundations, and The San Francisco Foundation. The collaborative now includes seven additional San Francisco Bay Area philanthropic institutions. The Fund is administered by AAPIP; for more information, please contact Archana Sahgal at AAPIP at 415.273.2760.

Funding partners include the Firedoll Foundation, the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, the Rosenberg Foundation, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and the Y&H Soda Foundation.

San Francisco Bay Fund
The San Francisco Bay Estuary is the second largest estuary on the Pacific Coast. It has suffered some of the most extensive degradation of any estuary in the nation. Close to 85 percent of historic wetland habitats have been lost, and much of what remains is badly degraded. Wetlands play an important role as spawning habitat for freshwater and marine fish, food sources, and cover for birds and other wildlife. In addition, wetlands protect shorelines, cleanse pollutants from runoff, and slow the flow of floodwater. With this in mind, in 1999 The San Francisco Foundation accepted a $3,875,000 settlement from a lawsuit related to selenium pollution in the Bay and designed the San Francisco Bay Fund Initiative. It provides funding for restoration projects that renew the resources of the San Francisco Bay estuary and/or its watershed, and monitoring of restored sites that will inform future management decisions and/or future restoration and water quality investments. The Bay Fund also supports research projects that address fundamental questions about restoration science and develop new knowledge relevant to water quality and pollution reduction in the San Francisco Bay estuary and/or its watershed. To date, the Bay Fund has awarded 85 grants for a total of $2,828,000.  Please visit our Environment page for more information.

West Oakland Initiative
The West Oakland Initiative supports the McClymonds Youth and Family Center (MYFC), a collaborative of school linked support service providers located at the McClymonds Educational Complex in the West Oakland neighborhood. Through the provision of coordinated support services that meet the social, emotional, and academic needs of students, MYFC seeks to improve student health, well-being, and connectedness; promote a safe and nurturing school environment; and improve students’ academic achievement. The two small McClymonds high schools, BEST and EXCEL, are making gains in closing the achievement gap, with EXCEL posting the second highest district-wide percentage of students passing the California High School Exit Exam. For related information, please visit our Education page.

Funding partners include the Stuart Foundation.