Dear Friends,

What does it mean to be an effective grantmaker?

In 2022, Walter & Elise Haas Fund trustees and staff took stock of both our grantmaking practices and the values that underpin how we make decisions. Together, we envisioned new ways for the Fund to approach its work, ways that express our values, are responsive and adaptive, and are more likely to result in improved quality of life for those who call the Bay Area home.

The staff and trustees of the Fund know that alongside all the good that philanthropy does, this sector has also unintentionally hurt the nonprofit community. At the Fund, we have been part of perpetuating a system that weighs nonprofits down in bureaucracy and administrative tasks, and one that eats up precious nonprofit resources. Each report and proposal we require, for example, detracts from the time nonprofits spend on programs. We can’t expect nonprofits to move their work forward while operating on modest grants that they have to reapply for every year.

If we want to make progress towards lofty goals — region-wide economic well-being and racial equity, to name two — we must get it right. And that goes further than just reducing administrative burdens for grantees. To be an effective grantmaker we must support nonprofits to win.

What does that look like? It means:

• Centering community and ensuring that Fund decisions are influenced and directed by those with lived experience and — therefore — the best sense of how to bring about community change.
• Favoring relationships and learning over transactions. We want to focus on how we do our work because how we engage affects who benefits and how completely they benefit.
• Investing in systems and solutions as an alternative to addressing symptoms. Too often, the philanthropic sector gets caught up in reacting to immediate problems instead of addressing root causes or working proactively to keep crises from happening in the first place.
• Integrating our work across program areas so our efforts reach farther, and more completely.
• Making deeper commitments to longer-term partners — that means larger, multi-year grants that help nonprofit partners act more effectively.
• Training, reflection, practice, and the other internal work the Fund staff and trustees need to undertake to continually strengthen our commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion to become a multi-cultural, anti-racist organization.

Our recent experience with Education Learning Labs, Pandemic Arts Pods, and Racial Justice cohorts have helped us see just how effective philanthropy can be if we make these changes. When we listen to the people closest to the issues and structure frictionless support for work that meets the moment, then nonprofits win. They succeed not only in meeting immediate objectives but also in moving closer to fully realizing their missions.

One example of this shift is our support of Resilient Bayview. San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood faces a raft of significant, longstanding challenges — toxic Superfund sites, predicted sea level rise, and temperatures increasing faster and farther than in the rest of the city. How can philanthropy help most effectively? We could cherry pick individual nonprofits to fund but doing so puts those nonprofits in competition for grants when their goals are aligned. Funding Resilient Bayview — a nonprofit collaborative — reduces that friction, builds a broader coalition, allows a more expansive perspective, and merits more significant, longer-term support.

We want nonprofits to win now and for years to come.

Thank you,
Jamie Allison and Charlotte Haas Prime

Everything we do as part of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, we do as a family. The Fund’s trustees are comprised of members of three branches of the Haas-Goldman family, and we see the staff, our partners, and the community as an extension of this Bay Area family.

In 2022, we celebrated completing our transition to a new, full complement of staff. Each is listed below, alongside a brief description of their duties, in the hopes that you will feel welcome reaching out to those who are best suited to engage with you. We were lucky to also have an exceptional contingent of fellows working alongside us this year: Jessica Gutierrez Garcia, Kenny Hua, and Sameeha Khan, and our three B.A.Y. Fellows Kevin, Virginia, and Noah.

After completing two years as Board Chair, Charlotte Haas Prime passes the role to her cousin, Bradley Haas. We join in congratulating him and welcoming him to this leadership role. We express gratitude to Daniel Goldman as he steps down from his service to the board and thank him for five years of guidance and commitment to making the Bay Area a more equitable place for all.