.The San Francisco Foundation Gives $34 Million to Oakland Organizations

Earlier this week, The San Francisco Foundation (TSFF) CEO Fred Blackwell announced that an anonymous donor has given $34 million to the organization as part of an initiative to invest in affordable housing, healthcare, jobs and education in Oakland. The team at TSFF has identified over fifteen established community organizations with expertise in sectors ranging from education and technology to youth arts programs and undocumented immigrants. Organizations such as The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Black Girls Code and the Eastside Arts Alliance are just a handful of Oakland’s donation recipients that will benefit from the large sum. 


[jump] The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, for example, plans to direct the $1 million investment toward its Restore Oakland program, a restorative justice plan focused on worker training for the formerly incarcerated. The Center promotes a movement for racial and economic justice centered on low-income people of color. 

“The San Francisco Foundation’s generous investment in Oakland will go a long way towards building equality, power, and opportunity in our communities,” said Ella Baker Center Executive Director Zachary Norris. “Along with Restaurant Opportunities Centers-United, we will use the $1 million grant we received from TSFF to launch Restore Oakland, a multipurpose hub, which will house a restaurant, worker training programs, a cooperative food-enterprise incubator, restorative justice programs, and other services like health care and child care programs. By offering a pathway to livable wage jobs, Restore Oakland will provide formerly incarcerated people and their families with the opportunity to achieve economic stability and self-empowerment.” 

View a list of all current donor recipients below:

• Kiva Oakland: $500, 000
• Unity Council: $3 million
• Oakland Public Education Fund: $6 million
• Oakland Codes (Housed at TSFF): $4 million, including organizations Black Girls Code, David Glover Center, Hack the Hood, Hidden Genius Project, Qeyno Labs, #YesWeCode, & Youth Impact Hub
• East Oakland Youth Development Center: $1 million
• Asian Health Services: $3 million 
• Youth Uprising: $2.5 million
• California School-Based Health Alliance: $2 million
• Immigrant Legal Resource Center: $1.5 million
• Destiny Arts Center: $1.3 million
• Urban Strategies Council: $1.2 million
• Center for Employment Opportunities: $1.5 million
• Ella Baker Center for Human Rights: $1 million
• EastSide Arts Alliance: $1 million
• East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation: $1 million 
• Alameda County Health Care Services Agency: $1.5 million
• Oakland Community Land Trust: $2 million 

Many of the organizations have indicated that the donation will be used to advance existing projects. For instance, Kiva Oakland plans to direct their funding to 400 financially excluded small businesses in Oakland by 2017, and the California School Based Health Alliance will continue to support trauma-informed care in Oakland’s school health centers.