Dear Friends,

The last few years have been a time of transformation for the Walter & Elise Haas Fund.

In 2023, we continued to move into stronger alignment with our values – family, possibility, shared responsibility, and belonging – by listening to the needs of our grantee partners and communities. We are grateful to all of you because deeper listening brings greater clarity about how our values must be embodied at every level and in every part of our work. It is clear that when our approach is more holistic and focused on partnerships, the impact of our work is greater.

As funders, we know that our work to listen to and respond to the needs of our grant partners and our communities is more urgent than ever. Our nonprofit partners are continuing boldly forward toward their vision and mission amidst a time of unimaginable hardships and tragic loss, from the continued impacts of COVID and systemic injustice to the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza. In the face of so much pain and grief, the memory of all those who have lost their lives demands that we speak out and take action. In moments of crisis, philanthropy must take seriously our responsibility to support our nonprofit partners to win, in both the immediate and long-term. That’s why we have made big shifts in our grantmaking and approach that lay the groundwork to create a better future for all of us.

Our values and operational pillars guide all of our work and serve as accountable measures so that we can be in strong relationship with community and that our community knows what to expect from us. Our staff and board are already finding alignment in how we operate. Here are some achievements and practices we hope to take into 2024 and beyond:

• We are making larger and longer-term grants, such as the Endeavor Fund. We awarded seven leading BIPOC-led nonprofits $3.5 million each over seven years, a new direction that is much more meaningful to nonprofits and the communities they serve.
• We are integrating our grantmaking portfolios, beginning with the creation of Economic Well-being to help close the racial and gender wealth gap and promote nonprofit well-being. We are planning for another integration in the next year.
• We are shifting power to young people through youth-led grantmaking and shaping a new model of participatory grantmaking that engages and supports youth as full partners and leaders in our grantmaking on issues affecting them and their peers.
• We are driving conversations on urgent topics among our peers on nonprofit job quality, with a series of blogs and presentations at conferences. Next year, we will be co-sponsoring a nonprofit worker well-being conference in partnership with James Irvine Foundation and ReWork the Bay of the San Francisco Foundation.

How we do our work is just as important as what we do. That’s why we are taking the following steps:

• We are making our work less transactional and more transformational by incorporating community voices, and shifting our roles so that our staff can be in community with grantee partners as facilitators, rather than simply decision makers in a top-down sense.
• We are weaving in trust-based practices, centering community, and building right relationships through all the ways we operate to be accountable to ourselves and our broader community.

In the year ahead, we also plan to be more transparent about how these shifts take shape internally and externally, and how we are embodying these practices. We will be reaching out to you and creating opportunities to receive feedback from grantees as well as our colleagues.

Lastly, this past year was Bradley’s first as Board Chair. We also welcomed three family members as new trustees and a trustee designate to our board. Bradley sees this iteration of the Fund as the living legacy of his great great grandparents and envisions them being proud of how we are taking action for what is needed today and in the future, which is what family philanthropy is all about – connecting generations. Thank you for being with us on this journey.

In partnership,

Jamie Allison, Executive Director

Bradley Haas, Board Chair