Pisces Foundation

The Pisces Foundation was co-founded in 2006 by Bob and Elizabeth "Randi" Fisher — heirs to the Gap Inc. fortune — alongside environmental attorney David Beckman, who serves as President at a compensation of $626,550 (2022). Chief Operating Officer Carol Ting ($296,279 in 2022) translates vision into operations for a lean but experienced program team. The foundation's giving philosophy, anchored in the phrase "people and nature thriving together," explicitly favors early movers, innovative organizations, and bold leaders who enable broader movements rather than operate in silos.

The single most critical fact for any prospective applicant: Pisces does not accept unsolicited proposals. The foundation is entirely invitation-based, with access coming through periodic open RFPs or proactive identification by program staff. Submitting a cold proposal signals you have not done basic homework and disqualifies you in practice before the process begins.

Two program pillars structure all grantmaking. Environment + Climate operates globally with current emphasis on short-lived climate super pollutants (methane, black carbon, HFCs), clean water protection, and climate-energy transitions. San Francisco is a rapidly expanding pillar, encompassing civic revitalization, entrepreneurial ecosystem development (the IDEASF initiative with Advance SF), and neighborhood-level programming. After a decade of primarily environmental focus, the 2025-2026 strategic review has elevated San Francisco to co-equal status, creating genuine new openings.

President Beckman's 2025 Stanford Social Innovation Review article, "An Opportunity to Build, In the Crisis," is essential reading for any prospective applicant. Its core argument — that how philanthropic resources are deployed matters as much as how much is granted — defines what Pisces looks for: proposals emphasizing collaborative infrastructure, not isolated program delivery.

Typical relationship progression begins with informal visibility in networks the foundation tracks — environmental advocacy coalitions, San Francisco civic organizations, BIPOC-led climate groups. Program leads Jason Morris (Environment + Climate) and Kat Vang (San Francisco) conduct proactive outreach; organizations that consistently appear in shared spaces move into the invitation pipeline. A formal invitation triggers submission through the Salesforce portal at piscesfoundation.my.site.com, followed by due diligence and, for major multi-year grants, a site visit before final approval.

The Pisces Foundation's 990-PF filings reveal a family-funded private foundation with highly variable annual capital infusions from the Fisher family — contributions have ranged from $100,000 (2018) to $41.2M (2020) and $34.3M (2022) in a single year. Despite this volatility in inflows, grants paid have trended upward over a decade:

• 2018: $13.1M grants paid | $17.1M total giving
• 2019: $18.8M grants paid | $23.0M total giving
• 2020: $20.6M grants paid | $24.6M total giving
• 2021: $22.3M grants paid | $26.5M total giving
• 2022: $13.7M grants paid | $18.7M total giving

The 2022 dip likely reflects timing within the July 1–June 30 fiscal year rather than strategic retrenchment, as the foundation's current asset base has grown to $54.5M (IRS EO data). The 2025 board's decision to increase environment and climate grantmaking by approximately 50% projects total annual giving above $25M — the foundation's largest annual budget to date.

Grant size range spans $10,000 to $4,000,000. The California Academy of Sciences is the foundation's largest single institutional partner, with cumulative grants exceeding $12M since 2013. Conservation International Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council, and Energy Foundation receive consistent multi-year grants in the $500,000–$2M range. Mid-tier grantees — established advocacy organizations — typically receive $50,000–$250,000 annually. Smaller community partners and local San Francisco organizations receive $10,000–$25,000, often renewed year over year.

By program area, environmental education historically represented the largest share, followed by water resources, then climate and energy. The San Francisco civic portfolio is scaling rapidly in 2025-2026. Geographically, grantees are predominantly U.S.-based with California concentration; international grants go to organizations in Brazil, India, Belgium, Canada, Netherlands, and the UK, reserved exclusively for global climate and energy work.

Equity commitment: Pisces has publicly committed to directing at least 30% of U.S. climate funding to BIPOC-led organizations — a binding, disclosed threshold that is unusual in the sector. Officer compensation totals approximately $922,829 annually (2022), representing less than 5% of total giving, consistent with a lean high-leverage model.

The following peer foundations share a similar asset base (~$54.5M) and are classified under Philanthropy & Grantmaking:

Among foundations of similar asset scale, Pisces stands out for the extraordinary ratio of annual grantmaking to assets — distributing $18–26M annually from a $54.5M base signals ongoing Fisher family capital contributions rather than endowment-only grantmaking. This makes Pisces a higher-throughput funder than its peers would suggest at first glance.

Wallace Global Fund II is the most programmatically comparable peer: both are invitation-only, both focus on environment and climate, and both operate globally. Wallace, however, skews more toward international democracy and media work, while Pisces's expanded San Francisco portfolio has no Wallace equivalent. Among all listed peers, only Pisces has a formally disclosed BIPOC equity threshold for climate funding — a differentiating commitment that makes it a priority target for qualifying organizations. The Kempner Fund (Texas, open applications via LOI) is the only peer with an accessible public process, but its Texas geography and general-purpose focus make it a weak programmatic substitute for organizations aligned with Pisces's environmental or SF missions.

The most consequential recent development is the formal strategic expansion announced April 2026: after a decade of primarily environmental grantmaking, Pisces is expanding its portfolio to encompass San Francisco civic and economic revitalization as a co-equal program priority. This shift was prefigured in the February 2026 Community Update, in which President David Beckman announced a new multi-year San Francisco initiative and previewed a spring 2026 website redesign emphasizing connectivity.

In spring 2025, the board approved the foundation's largest-ever annual budget — an approximately 50% increase in environment and climate grantmaking — with specific emphasis on deploying grants toward movement infrastructure and shared organizational capacity. Beckman simultaneously published in Stanford Social Innovation Review, signaling the foundation's growing interest in sector-level systems thinking.

Also in 2025, Pisces joined The Courage Project coalition, a national initiative awarding $10,000–$50,000 to individuals and nonprofits demonstrating everyday civic bravery — a new grantmaking vehicle outside the foundation's traditional programmatic structure.

The IDEASF initiative, a multi-year partnership with Advance SF, represents the most concrete new San Francisco-specific program: designed to accelerate the city's "Idea Economy" post-pandemic, with early grantees including Tenderloin Community Benefit District and First Thursdays street programming.

No leadership changes have been reported. David Beckman remains President; Carol Ting continues as COO. A new Grants Fellow position was recruited in October 2025 for a two-year limited-term role, suggesting modest team capacity growth to manage the expanded portfolio.

Rule one: never submit an unsolicited proposal. The foundation has explicitly stated it cannot consider them and currently has a full cohort of grantees. Doing so marks you as uninformed and closes the door rather than opening it.

Build visibility in shared networks before any outreach. Program leads Jason Morris (Environment + Climate) and Kat Vang (San Francisco) identify candidates proactively through sector conferences, advocacy coalitions, and funder roundtables. Organizations consistently present in these spaces — environmental policy networks, SF civic coalitions, BIPOC climate groups — are the ones that receive invitations. This relationship-building phase typically spans months to years before a formal grant.

Send a targeted inquiry email to admin@piscesfoundation.org — not a proposal. Keep it to 200–300 words: organization name, specific alignment with either the Environment + Climate or San Francisco pillar, one or two concrete outcomes, and a request to be considered for future RFPs or an introductory call. Attach nothing.

Use the foundation's strategic vocabulary precisely. The 2025-2026 strategy centers on: "movement infrastructure," "shared tools and capacity," "collaboration at scale," and "people and nature thriving together." Position your work as enabling other organizations to be more effective — not as a standalone program. Pisces explicitly does not favor siloed organizational efforts regardless of their quality.

BIPOC-led climate organizations: lead with this identity. The foundation's binding, publicly disclosed commitment to direct at least 30% of U.S. climate funding to BIPOC-led groups is a structural advantage. Name it clearly in any inquiry — it is a qualifying criterion, not a preference.

For San Francisco organizations: the 2025-2026 expansion creates genuine openings that did not exist 18 months ago. Civic engagement, neighborhood economic development, entrepreneurship, and community revitalization initiatives now fall squarely within scope. Reference the IDEASF initiative and the foundation's San Francisco mission explicitly.

Monitor piscesfoundation.org/rfp/ weekly. Open RFPs are the only formal public application pathway; past RFPs have had 4–6 week windows with no extensions. Missing one means waiting for the next cycle.

Avoid: framing work as a standalone organizational program rather than ecosystem infrastructure; requesting under $25,000 without a prior relationship; submitting environmental education proposals without a collaborative or movement-building dimension (this category is heavily subscribed); and treating the grants portal as self-service — it requires a login that only invited applicants receive.