Bay Area Youth Award $1 Million in Possibility Grants to 10 Bay Area Organizations
The Walter & Elise Haas Fund announces 10 Possibility Grants to organizations deemed essential to building a more just and equitable society and actively working to challenge systems of oppression. Through a program designed and managed by Bay Area Youth (BAY) Community Fellows, youth advisors to the Walter & Elise Haas Fund grantmaking team, grants
Adventures in Silo-Busting and Trust-Building
Since 2020, we’ve been taking deliberate steps at the Walter & Elise Haas Fund to re-examine our grantmaking purpose, reimagine our practices, and strengthen our commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. We didn’t know where these steps would lead, but we knew we were building towards something transformative. What has resulted is a re-articulation
Aiming to be an Equitable Learning Organization
In this blog, we share the big picture of why the Walter & Elise Haas Fund aims to be an equitable learning organization, why learning matters to us, and how it drives our relationship with grantees. As we build our learning practice, we’ll share tactics and processes in future blogs. Justice, equity, and learning are
We Need to Talk about Nonprofit
Job Quality More
“When I was a nonprofit Executive Director in San Francisco in 2017 I made $80,000. Raising my salary wasn’t a priority for me; it would mean more fundraising and funds were better spent elsewhere. But that also meant I wasn’t prioritizing others’ salaries. Two brilliant staff, a BIPOC woman and gender-expansive folk who I
Shifting Power to Young People:
Our Journey So Far
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund embarked on a learning journey to explore new pathways for supporting young people in the Bay Area to find the education and opportunities they deserve. Our fellow travelers in this work were representatives of a community that philanthropy too often ignores —
Operationalizing Trust-based Philanthropy: A Learning Lab for the Field
Endeavor Fund as case study, part two Today, we’re continuing the case study of how the Walter & Elise Haas Fund established the Endeavor Fund as one way to operationalize trust-based philanthropy. Part one of this case study walked through the process of establishing the Endeavor Fund, from community-led insight as research, to screening and
Operationalizing Trust-based Philanthropy: A Learning Lab for the Field
Endeavor Fund as case study, part one At the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, we’re making shifts in our practice and, at 71 years old, learning new things. This blog shares our recent process for establishing the Endeavor Fund, a new $24.5M, seven-year initiative aimed at closing the racial and gender wealth gap that we
The Walter & Elise Haas Fund’s
New Grantmaking Philosophy
The impact of philanthropic endeavors is inextricably linked to the health of the nonprofits philanthropy supports. A failure to support organizations’ well-being – their resilience – ultimately hinders their ability to effectively serve the people and communities philanthropy aims to benefit. In recent years, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund strengthened our commitment to justice,
The Walter & Elise Haas Fund Invests $24.5M in Closing the Racial And Gender Wealth Gap
We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund’s most substantial philanthropic initiative to date – the Endeavor Fund, our bold answer to the call from the nonprofit sector for foundations to provide sizable multi-year general operating grants. With a total investment of $24.5 million, the Endeavor Fund aims to
