Grantmaking for Community Well-being (Social Well-being - fostering belonging)

Grantmaking for Community Well-being (Social Well-being - fostering belonging) is sponsored by Walter & Elise Haas Fund. The Walter & Elise Haas Fund supports organizations committed to fostering and sustaining a sense of belonging for all people in the Bay Area.

WE Initiative - Walter & Elise Haas Fund Skip to content Skip to footer WE Initiative Cultivating Belonging in Oakland and San Francisco Grantees announced February 17, 2026 WE Initiative Cultivating Belonging in Oakland and San Francisco Grantees announced on February 17, 2026. Please note: This page is maintained for historical reference only. The application period has ended and no new submissions will be considered.

The Walter & Elise Haas Fund does not anticipate another WE Initiative open call until 2030. We welcomed applications from eligible nonprofits and fiscally sponsored projects through June 27, 2025 and received 803 responses. Twenty-four organizations have been selected to receive $100,000 annually as general operating funds over a five-year period, totaling $500,000 each.

Awards were announced on February 17, 2026. The antidote to othering is belonging. “[Belonging is] both a feeling and a practice—something we experience personally and something we create collectively … [an] ever-expanding circle that keeps growing to recognize the dignity and humanity of all people, where every voice matters and where everyone thrives together.

” ~Othering & Belonging Institute The WE Initiative is a new grantmaking strategy under the Walter & Elise Haas Fund’s Social Well-being program that focuses on activating and sustaining a sense of belonging among Bay Area residents. It builds upon our purpose to support community well-being in Oakland and San Francisco so that all people can reach their fullest potential with dignity and joy.

We-Making , a term coined by culturalist Carole Bebelle, states that “we have known in our gut for decades and decades that arts and culture are fabulous and magnetic ways to unite people. ” This grantmaking strategy supports organizations that celebrate culture and bring people together in solidarity to work towards positive community-led change.

The WE Initiative imagines a future where Oakland and San Francisco pulse with vitality, where communities are deeply interconnected across generations, identities, and issue areas, and hope and possibility feel close. This vision restores a true sense of belonging, creating a Bay Area where every person sees themselves reflected and celebrated.

We are in a critical moment wherein post-COVID isolation, increasing polarization, and widespread despair have deeply affected the social fabric of our communities. In the Bay Area, as elsewhere, loneliness and fragmentation are urgent public challenges. We believe this is a moment of opportunity to bridge divides, rekindle joy, and rebuild our sense of we .

Through this initiative, we hope to uplift community-led spaces where belonging, celebration, and collective care are the norm.

Applicant Information Sessions Frequently Asked Questions DOWNLOAD THESE GUIDELINES WATCH THE APPLICANT INFO SEMINAR DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION IN WORD DOWNLOAD THESE GUIDELINES WATCH THE APPLICANT INFO SEMINAR DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION IN WORD Through June 27, 2025 we used an open call process to meet nonprofit organizations and fiscally sponsored projects committed to collaboration and community-building, as WE Initiative grantees will participate in a cohort experience — a learning and relationship-building journey designed to deepen exchange, expand networks of care, and spark collective impact with each other over the funding period.

Grantee organizations will commit to a series of meetings in the first year, with the intention of co-designing proceeding years with grantee-informed feedback in an iterative process that supports grantee insights. Organizational vision and mission will align and embody the north star of the Fund’s Social Well-being program—activating and sustaining belonging in the Bay Area.

Proposals should address at least one of the following pathways: Pathway 1. Cultural Identity, Visibility, & Celebration Cultivate opportunities and spaces where joy, healing, and culture may thrive. Uplift stories that proactively and boldly take up space in the face of othering, bigotry, and polarization.

Cultural identity is a powerful force for justice and inclusion. Through the open call that closed on June 25, 2025, we are learning about organizations and fiscally sponsored projects that use creative, joyful, and artistic approaches to promote community, cultural inclusion, and representation in the Bay Area.

Ideal applicants foster a sense of belonging, particularly in response to challenges posed by such forces as racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, and all forms of bigotry and polarization. We are prioritizing organizations and fiscally sponsored projects whose work celebrates shared dignity and helps diverse communities feel a sense of belonging.

By investing in cultural celebration, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund recognizes that joy, healing, and shared experiences are essential to social well-being. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following. Important note: These are shared for inspiration only and are not meant to be prescriptive.

We will publish what examples we learn from the open call. Multicultural festivals that celebrate diasporic traditions and visibility. Community storytelling projects that center voices often excluded from dominant narratives.

Public art that reflects local histories and cultures in the face of gentrification or erasure. Programming within cultural anchor spaces, ensuring they remain rooted and resourced. Responding to hate and violence with healing-centered, creative interventions that affirm dignity and unity.

Pathway 2. Collective Action and Solidarity Actively power-build to identify and enact community-led solutions. Bring people together across issues, identities, and communities to build solidarity, foster healing, and create shared belonging.

This pathway supports diverse groups working together.

Through the open call that closed on June 27, 2025 we are learning about organizations and fiscally sponsored projects that build meaningful connections across lines of difference (including but not restricted to race, faith, disability, sexual orientation, class, or immigration status), and utilize collaborative approaches to address community-identified challenges happening at the intersections.

True belonging is realized through shared ownership of community-driven solutions. We aim to fund organizations and fiscally sponsored projects that build solidarity, empower people to work together to change systems and shape their future, and create positive, lasting, community-led transformation. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following.

Important note: These are shared for inspiration only and are not meant to be prescriptive. We will publish what examples we learn from the open call. Intergenerational, interfaith, cross-racial, or cross-issue coalitions organizing around shared purpose.

Community hubs or “third spaces” like cultural centers, civic forums, or neighborhood drop-in sites that assemble people to identify and enact solutions to community challenges. Programs that strengthen community influence and resources, like leadership development for historically marginalized people, democratic deliberation and decision-making, participatory budgeting, or community-led public safety alternatives.

Mutual aid networks, food sovereignty initiatives, housing or economic security efforts, healing justice initiatives, or grassroots capacity-building that meet the immediate needs of a people while building long-term community power. We recognize that organizations may work in both pathways and we do not expect anyone to discount or downplay the ways in which your organization may uplift both.

However, we encouraged open call applicants to think of which pathway best speaks to their organization’s mission, values, and programming and apply under one. These two pathways recognize and build upon the Bay Area’s legacy of creativity, mutual aid, and collective leadership.

They reflect our belief that true progress is made not through isolated efforts, but through the power of people collaborating, honoring histories, and imagining new possibilities together. How Organizations Applied Our application process spanned 12 weeks, starting with an open call for a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) that closed on June, 27, 2025, followed by an invitation to submit a full proposal.

STATUS: Applicants had to possess 501(c)3 status or be fiscally sponsored by one. PURPOSE: Organizational vision and mission aligned and embodied the Walter & Elise Haas Fund’s north star of activating and sustaining belonging in the Bay Area through the two pathways.

GEOGRAPHY: We are prioritizing organizations and fiscally sponsored projects that are serving, rooted, oriented, focused, or based/headquartered in San Francisco or Oakland. BUDGET: Our priority will be organizations or fiscally sponsored projects with operating budgets equal to or less than $5,000,000 annually.

Our selection process aimed to identify partners whose work and vision align with our values while demonstrating the potential for meaningful impact. We carefully reviewed each application through an assessment that considers multiple dimensions of organizational and project strength.

We looked for the following key attributes in successful applicants: Place-Based Commitment to Belonging We support organizations and fiscally sponsored projects that actively foster belonging within Oakland and San Francisco communities and demonstrate genuine love and reverence for these cities. Our funding prioritizes partners who share our commitment to these specific places, their diverse residents, and their collective futures.

Applicants invited to full proposal clearly articulated their definition of belonging and demonstrated how they use this concept as a framework for creating meaningful structural change. Forward-Looking Vision, Values, & Practices We collaborate with organizations and fiscally sponsored projects that envision and actively work toward a more inclusive and equitable future.

These partners go beyond responding to current needs by reimagining possibilities and pathways forward for their communities and society. We prioritize organizations that embody community principles throughout their operation, integrating artistic and cultural strategies, healing practices, and joy as essential components of bringing communities together and strengthening collective bonds.

Our partners have leadership and staff who are representative of and deep rooted in their communities with practices centering local voices in their decision-making. They effectively serve historically marginalized and under-resourced Bay Area populations, with particular attention to communities most affected by systemic inequities.

Their collaborative nature extends beyond their immediate work, making them valued contributors to the broader local ecosystem of community organizers, artists, culture-bearers, advocates, bridge-builders, healers, wellness practitioners, educators, storytellers, and community historians. The partners we value most approach our relationship with a genuine openness to learning.

They actively engage in mutual knowledge exchange and are committed to participating within a collaborative cohort model led by the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, where shared insights strengthen everyone’s work. One’s ability and willingness to cultivate a rich and expansive cohort ecosystem will be considered as we make our selection. W&EHF does not anticipate opening a new call for WE Initiative applications after 2025.

We expect to be learning with and from the 24 grantees who are selected as the WE Initiative until 2030.

DOWNLOAD THESE GUIDELINES WATCH THE APPLICANT INFO SEMINAR DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION IN WORD DOWNLOAD THESE GUIDELINES WATCH THE APPLICANT INFO SEMINAR DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION IN WORD May 19, 2025 : Open call for LOIs May 29, 2025 : Applicant Information Session Recording and Slide Deck June 5, 2025 : Ask Us Anything Session June 18, 2025 : Ask Us Anything Session June 25, 2025 : Ensure you’ve taken the eligibility quiz to register for a grantseeker account and receive access to a draft LOI June 27, 2025 | 6 PM PT : LOI deadline Late-July 2025 : Selected candidates invited to complete full applications Late-August 2025 : Application deadline September-December 2025 : Review process December 2025 : Notification of Award and first payment January 2026 : Grant announcements Applicant Information Sessions Social cohesion has been defined as “the extent of connectedness and solidarity among groups in society.

” Essentially, it means that individuals feel, and act as, part of a group that is oriented toward working together. We-Making, a term coined by Carol Bebelle, maps the relationship between place-based arts and cultural strategies, social cohesion, and increased equitable well-being.

We-Making affirms what we know intuitively: that place-based arts and culture strategies can strengthen the ties that hold communities together—with benefits for individual and collective well-being. More fundamentally, arts and culture help us transcend our subjectivity, encounter the interior lives of others, and see our obligations to one another more clearly—reminding us that…’we’ is not plural of ‘I.

’ Belonging is both a feeling and a practice—something we experience personally and something we create collectively. It happens in structures when all social groups are included in the critical institutions and communities that shape their lives, recognized and made visible within these spaces, empowered to have a real voice in shaping these spaces, and able to report a sense of connection and belonging.

It happens within relationships when there is openness to connection, recognition of each other’s humanity, and a practice of reaching out to others, even those who may seem different. At its heart, belonging can be seen as an ever-expanding circle, one that keeps growing to recognize the dignity and humanity of all people.

Instead of encouraging zero-sum thinking, belonging invites us to embrace the perspectives and gifts of all groups. By doing so, we create a richer and more flourishing community—one where every voice matters and where everyone thrives together.

(Othering and Belonging Institute) Othering is a set of dynamics, processes, and structures that engender marginality and persistent inequality across any of the full range of human differences based on group identities. Dimensions of othering include, but are not limited to, religion, sex, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status (class), disability, sexual orientation, and skin tone.

Although the axis of difference that undergird these expressions of othering vary considerably and are deeply contextual, they contain a similar set of underlying dynamics. (Othering and Belonging Institute) Frequently Asked Questions DOWNLOAD THE FAQ ADDENDUM It summarizes the most frequently asked questions from our May 29 applicant information session. Will you consider funding organizations outside of San Francisco and Oakland?

Any organization that sees itself serving, rooted, oriented, focused, or based/headquartered in San Francisco or Oakland may apply but please be aware that funding organizations in the cities of San Francisco and Oakland remains our priority. Will you consider funding organizations or projects with budgets above $5M?

Organizations may still apply if their annual budgets are within close range of $5M, as we understand that budgets may fluctuate from year to year but please be aware that funding organizations whose annual budgets are $5M and below remains our priority. Why are organizations with an annual budget of under $5M a priority?

While sustained funding is beneficial for an organization of any size, W&EHF believes our five-year $500,000 commitment can be most impactful for organizations with budgets under $5M. What does the letter of inquiry look like? Download the application in Word format to review the questions asked in the letter of inquiry online form.

What does the proposal look like? Download the application in Word format to review the questions asked at the proposal stage. What do you expect to see in the LOI?

What should I write about? I passed the eligibility quiz and gave you my organization’s information, but I don’t have access to the LOI. Can you help?

This process is manual and may take up to 24 business hours to complete. Please register your organization early if you plan to apply. Remember to check your spam folder first for email from [email protected] or from the domain haassr.

org and add those addresses to your safe sender list. If it’s been more than 24 business hours use this contact form and someone from the team will get back to you to assist. I logged in to work on my LOI and I don't see it.

Where did it go? Draft letters of inquiry can be accessed from the left hand navigation menu under Requests > Draft Requests. When will WE Initiative hold its next open call?

We do not anticipate future rounds of funding from the WE Initiative until at least 2030. Do you accept unsolicited proposals? The WE Initiative accepts letters of inquiry from any eligible organization.

Select applicants will be invited to submit full proposals. W&EHF does not otherwise accept unsolicited proposals. What is the cohort experience?

The WE Initiative cohort experience will be co-designed by W&EHF staff and WE Initiative grantees as a collective learning journey over the five-year span of the grant. We look forward to a generative, collaborative, and expansive experience. In 2026, we ask that grantees participate in a series of cohort meetings, with future cadence to be co-developed together.

Are there any funding restrictions? The grant is for general operating support, and use of funds is therefore determined by the organization. This might include program services, staff wages and compensation, professional development, organizational resilience, and more, in support of your organization’s ability to operate for your mission and community.

How will proposals be reviewed? LOIs will be reviewed as they are received. LOIs and proposals will be reviewed with the WE Initiative guidelines and criteria as named above.

If we receive this grant, how often do we need to submit a report to the Walter & Elise Haas Fund? W&EHF does not require written reports. Instead, we aim to learn from and with grantees through 1-1 learning conversations or check-ins, and by gathering to share space with other W&EHF grantees.

Specifically, W&EHF is interested in learning: How WE Initiative grantees activate and sustain belonging in the Bay Area How WE Initiative grantees enrich and positively transform the community How WE Initiative grantees strengthen their ability to sustain and expand their impact Can I contact someone with my questions? Absolutely. Use the form here to ask us your questions.

A member of the team will be in touch with you within 48 business hours. When will I receive funding? If your organization is one of the 25 WE Initiative grantees, the first year payment of $100,000 will be awarded by December 2025.

Future payments can be scheduled according to your organization’s budgetary preference. Will there be any extensions of the LOI deadline of June 27? The LOI window is open for six weeks and the deadline will remain 6:00PM on Friday, June 27, 2025 .

We have heard from past grantseekers that you want us to be clear so you can plan accordingly. What are our chances of receiving a grant? While we do not know how many organizations will apply, 25 grants will be awarded in December.

We anticipate a high volume of LOIs. For your reference, a separate open call held in 2024 by W&EHF resulted in 177 applications and ten grants. Do you need our financial documents?

No financial attachments are required at the LOI stage. If a full proposal is invited, W&EHF staff will research the financial health of the organization (or their fiscal sponsor) using publicly available documents from the organization’s website, from the charity databases at the State of California , the Internal Revenue Service , Guidestar , and from Candid’s Foundation Directory.

If you are fiscally sponsored, we will reach out to your fiscal sponsor as is standard. When we research financial health, we use a trend analysis to answer two specific questions: Is the organization likely to be stable through the end of this grant? We scan for new or longstanding challenges that are accompanying an organization as it does its best to maintain programs and operations.

Is the Walter & Elise Haas Fund able to partner with the organization’s other funders for learning and impact? Grantseekers are a well-spring of network connections for us, and we use information about who is funding your organization to make our own connections to them, share our work, and explore how to collaborate in support of our shared grantees. I’m a previous grantee.

Can I apply to this grant? Yes, if you are a previous grantee and aligned with the eligibility requirements for WE Initiative, you can apply for this grant.