While we know the Bay Area is a place of rich diversity, spirit, and culture, it’s also a place facing deep economic disparity and social polarization. In 2023, the Fund launched the integration of its education, economic security, and safety net grantmaking into the Economic Well-being program. This approach acknowledges that people confront a myriad of challenges throughout their lifetime and focuses on the interconnectivity of societal structures, policies, and practices, to create a more sustainable economic outlook for future generations.
Economic Well-being grantmaking supports the health and self-determination of youth and adults in Oakland and San Francisco by funding nonprofits to win. The program is anchored by the Endeavor Fund.
Our hope is that investments in the Economic Well-being program will address root causes of inequity and uplift the organizations and leaders through long-term partnerships and responsive grantmaking.
While we know the Bay Area is a place of rich diversity, spirit, and culture, it’s also a place facing deep economic disparity and social polarization. In 2023, the Fund launched the integration of its education, economic security, and safety net grantmaking into the Economic Well-being program. This approach acknowledges that people confront a myriad of challenges throughout their lifetime and focuses on the interconnectivity of societal structures, policies, and practices, to create a more sustainable economic outlook for future generations.
Economic Well-being grantmaking supports the health and self-determination of youth and adults in Oakland and San Francisco by funding nonprofits to win. The program is anchored by the Endeavor Fund.
Our hope is that investments in the Economic Well-being program will address root causes of inequity and uplift the organizations and leaders through long-term partnerships and responsive grantmaking.
Endeavor Fund
The Endeavor Fund, launched in 2023, is a $24.5 million bet to help close the racial and gender wealth gap. The Endeavor Fund directly addresses the call from the nonprofit sector to provide sustained, long-term support to nonprofit leaders and organizations.
In 2023, we awarded seven Bay Area organizations seven-year grants of $3.5 million each. The Endeavor Fund grantees are:
The Endeavor Fund offers longer grants to establish strategic, long-lasting partnerships between the Walter & Elise Haas Fund and the selected organizations to combat chronic income inequality, invest in quality nonprofit jobs, and support a holistic sense of well-being. We are grateful to partner with these nonprofits to amplify their impact and contribute to creating a more equitable society. Read more about the grantees here.
For grantseekers
The application cycle for the Endeavor Fund is closed.
Policy Grantmaking
Our policy grants support the systems that allow nonprofits to thrive, and transform the conditions in which nonprofits do their work. The Walter & Elise Haas Fund holds that:
Nonprofits have the vision and ability to meet their own goals and the community’s needs for justice, dignity, and joy; and
Nonprofit work can and should be high quality, family-sustaining work that provides a pathway out of poverty, and that nonprofit worker well-being is crucial to the vitality and health of our communities.
We believe that our role as an institutional philanthropy is to fund nonprofits to win on their own terms, as well as to support the conditions for high quality, empowering nonprofit work. Along with our partner in this work, the James Irvine Foundation, we recognize that nonprofit worker well-being matters when we seek racial and gender justice and is a component of how nonprofits meet their critically important missions with care, optimism, and capacity.
We aim to learn more about the current state of nonprofit work, the conditions that make that so, and paths to solve deep-seated barriers to nonprofit worker well-being. We hope that articulating the problems with clear data and analysis will allow more actors — including nonprofit staff and leaders, government, and private funders — to engage in thoughtful and collaborative problem-solving.
Our intended outcomes
We are making one $300,000 grant to support:
Building a body of data and knowledge on nonprofit worker well-being, with a particular focus on the San Francisco Bay Area and California
Dissemination of findings to policymakers, funders, and nonprofit leaders and staff to:
Support common language and understanding of the key problems and barriers to nonprofit worker well-being in the region and state
Increase awareness of key opportunities for impactful policy and practice change
Timeline
May – June 26, 2024: Window for applications open
July – August, 2024: Panel review and recommendation
September 27, 2024: Award announced
October 1: Grant starts
September 30, 2025: Findings delivered
October – December 2025: Findings disseminated
This program is advised by grantees of the Endeavor Fund. Stay tuned for our grantmaking announcement on October 1st.
For grantseekers
The window for application to the program closed on June 26, 2024.
Eligibility
Applying organizations need to be:
a 501(c)3 entity, or fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)3 entity, to receive grant funds
California focused, with a strong focus in and with Alameda and San Francisco counties
Able to demonstrate a proven track record of rigorous and culturally responsive research practice
Able to demonstrate a proven track record of reaching diverse audiences across nonprofit sector to catalyze insight and action
Committed to worker well-being within their own organization
Check out some of our inspiring grantees
I’m grateful for this long-term, game-changing support. Systems change is difficult work. [This kind of initiative is] what leaders like myself have been calling for in the sector, pushing trustees, and the folks who provide the funding for nonprofits, to shift how they approach grantmaking.Zoe Polk, Executive Director of East Bay Community Law Center
This commitment to longer-term funding is really going to impact how organizations are able to move.Abigail Richards and Julia Arroyo, Co-Executive Directors of Young Women’s Freedom Center
Possibility Grants
Launched in 2023, Possibility Grants were designed and decided by BAY Fellows, youth members of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund grantmaking team. Our goal is to support youth working to transform the future to be joyful and just. We are particularly interested in hearing from youth who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and/or Queer, Transgender, and Gender Non-Conforming (QTGNC), and from communities impacted by gentrification in Alameda and San Francisco counties.
Possibility Grants are general operating grants of $100,000 per organization. Selected organizations need to be 501(c)3 entities to receive the funds. Fiscally sponsored projects are eligible. We are prioritizing smaller organizations whose organizational or youth organizing program budget is equal to or under $500,000 annually.
For grantseekers
Youth-led grantmaking opportunities will be announced in June 2024. For any questions, please reach out to our staff contact, Pui Ling Tam, at [email protected].
To be a BAY fellow
BAY Fellows encourage and have a preference for nominations from youth, up to age 24, who have experience with the organization being nominated. You may have benefited from or taken part in the organization’s work as a past or current participant. You may have worked at the organization, or you may have been an intern there. Friends or someone in your family may be a participant; so, you are familiar with the organization’s work through a close association.
Things you will need for your nomination
Testimonials from two or more youth participants of the organization (see section one, question four)
Information from the organization you are nominating (see section two, questions seven to eleven; see section three)
Your thoughtful responses on why you care about the organization, how it has changed you, and why they matter to your community.
Nomination form instructions
Use this downloadable Microsoft Word template of the nomination form to read all the questions and draft your answers. Note that you will not be sending the Word document. Instead, you will complete an online nomination form.
The focus in this section is telling the story of what this organization means to you and your community, and why you are bringing them to our attention for support.
This section includes six open-ended questions for you to share some stories from yourself and from youth participating in the organization. Four questions are required, and two are optional.
This section requires answers either in writing or by video submission. You will need to gather responses to one question from two or three youth in the organization.
The purpose in this section is to gather information so we can contact you and the organization.This section includes 11 informational questions about you (the nominator) and the organization.
For two of the questions you will need information from the organization. While we would like to get responses for everything in this section, we know that you might not be able to get answers to all the questions we ask. That’s fine: we’ll follow up with the organization if we need to learn more.
The focus in this section helps us understand if the organization meets most or all of our criteria for the grants. This section includes nine “Yes” or “No” questions that reflect our criteria.
This section requires answers that are either “Yes,” “No,” or numerical. You may need to talk to the organization to get their answers to some questions.
The focus here is to help you understand where this grant opportunity is coming from, who is behind it, and what we care about. This section includes information about the BAY Fellows and the values we hold. This section is informational and does not require any answers.
The nomination form is directly tied to our values. It is also short so that you do not spend too much time working on it. If you choose to submit answers in Section One by video, we encourage you to focus on the content of what you’re sharing, and not the media production.
