Walter & Elise Haas Fund Possibility Grants

Walter & Elise Haas Fund Possibility Grants is sponsored by Walter & Elise Haas Fund. The Walter & Elise Haas Fund has previously provided project support to Alameda Health System Foundation for integrating work and school-based learning for health career pathways for low-income BIPOC youth in partnership with Oakland Unified School District.

Home - Walter & Elise Haas Fund Skip to content Skip to footer Investing in 24 Orgs Advancing Belonging in the Bay Area $12M to Deepen Social Cohesion and Bridge-Building REPORT: Nonprofits Don't Win Alone Seven Lessons from the Endeavor Fund Announcing Inaugural Creative Power Awards $1. 575 Million in Unrestricted Funding Fund Commits $3.

25M to Protect Civil Society and Communities Building and sustaining a protective shield for nonprofits to continue their essential work Introducing Creative Power Awards The evolution of Creative Work Fund A $12.

5M Investment in Bay Area Social Cohesion A cornerstone for the Fund’s strategic direction 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.

Investing in 24 Orgs Advancing Belonging Across the Bay Area $12M to Deepen Social Cohesion and Bridge-Building Nonprofits Don't Win Alone Seven Lessons from the Endeavor Fund Announcing Inaugural Creative Power Awards $1. 575 Million in Unrestricted Funding Fund Commits $3.

25M to Protect Civil Society and Communities A protective shield enabling nonprofits to continue their essential work Introducing Creative Power Awards The evolution of Creative Work Fund A $12.

5M Investment in Bay Area Social Cohesion A cornerstone for the Fund’s strategic direction 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.

envisioning a Bay Area where all people can reach their fullest potential and live with a sense of purpose, dignity, and joy envisioning a Bay Area where all people can reach their fullest potential and live with a sense of purpose, dignity, and joy For more than 70 years, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund has supported the organizations and leaders shaping a more just and vibrant Bay Area for current and future generations.

For more than 70 years, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund has supported the organizations and leaders shaping a more just and vibrant Bay Area for current and future generations. We are transforming ourselves and philanthropy as a whole to center trust, learning, transparency and accountability with our partners and our communities.

We are committed to resourcing changemaking efforts so everyone in the Bay Area can reach their full potential and achieve economic, social, and community well-being. As a family foundation with deep roots in the Bay Area, we are continually growing and evolving to serve the diverse needs of the region’s communities. We are cultivating a new model for grantmaking that centers trust, learning, and shared power.

Closing the Racial & Gender Wealth Gap In 2023, we launched our $24. 5 million Endeavor Fund and awarded seven-year grants of $3. 5 million each to seven Black and people of color-led organizations working to close the racial and gender wealth gap.

Shaping a Holistic, Integrated Portfolio We are building a new portfolio that focuses on community and social well-being to continue to fuel the natural synergy across our program areas, and drive better and more holistic outcomes for communities.

Sharing Power with Young People We are shaping a new model for what it looks like to truly engage and support youth — not just as advisors but as full partners and leaders in our grantmaking on issues affecting them and their peers. Closing the Racial & Gender Wealth Gap In 2023, we launched our $24. 5 million Endeavor Fund and awarded seven-year grants of $3.

5 million each to seven Black and people of color-led organizations working to close the racial and gender wealth gap. Shaping a Holistic, Integrated Portfolio We are building a new portfolio that focuses on community and social well-being to continue to fuel the natural synergy across our program areas, and drive better and more holistic outcomes for communities.

Sharing Power with Young People We are shaping a new model for what it looks like to truly engage and support youth — not just as advisors but as full partners and leaders in our grantmaking on issues affecting them and their peers. Read the latest news, reflections, and spotlights from our grantmaking and journey to transform philanthropy.

The Democracy We Are Making: Philanthropy and America’s Next 250 Years Lessons in Trust: The Nerve to Get It Wrong Walter & Elise Haas Fund Invests in 24 Organizations Advancing Belonging Across the Bay Area This past year brought a difficult backdrop for the sector and across the country, nonprofits faced growing challenges.

Harmful narratives took hold in public discourse, questioning the integrity and value of nonprofit organizations and the people who lead them. These narratives erode trust, strain already under-resourced organizations, and make it harder for communities to solve problems together. We want to say clearly: we see and value the people doing this work.

Every day, nonprofit leaders, staff, volunteers, artists, organizers, and community members, including young people, show up out of genuine commitment to others. They help families weather hardship, strengthen neighborhoods, foster civic participation, build connections across differences, and create opportunities for people to thrive.

The people who make up nonprofits are often present on people’s hardest days and among the first to respond when communities face uncertainty. They are the connective tissue of our communities, and our communities are stronger because of them.

Over the past several years, we have come to understand that community well-being depends on relationships of trust and belonging, and that those relationships are often stewarded by nonprofit organizations whose people also need the support and conditions necessary to thrive. Healthy communities depend on healthy nonprofits. This belief shaped much of our work in 2025.

The board approved the WE Initiative, a new grantmaking strategy dedicated to activating and sustaining belonging in Oakland and San Francisco. We increasingly see belonging not as a luxury, but as essential community infrastructure. When people feel connected, valued, and invested in one another, communities are better able to address challenges, navigate differences, and create opportunities for everyone.

The WE Initiative reflects our commitment to strengthening those connections. We also completed the evolution of the Creative Work Fund into the Creative Power Awards (CPA), which joined the Endeavor Fund and the WE Initiative as one of the Fund’s three anchor strategies.

CPA reflects our commitment to trust and shared power through artist nominators, community panelists, unrestricted grants, and a model that allows artists to direct funding to community organizations that matter deeply to them.

This year, we published Nonprofits Don’t Win Alone , a learning report drawing on the first three years of the Endeavor Fund, our trust-based, multi-year strategy supporting seven Bay Area organizations working to close the race and gender wealth gap.

The report’s central finding was straightforward but powerful: when funders listen deeply, remain flexible, and support nonprofits’ agency, grantees are better positioned to do their best work. One of the clearest lessons involved nonprofit worker well-being, a core element of the Endeavor Fund’s design. All grantee organizations raised wages, expanded benefits, and strengthened organizational culture.

These outcomes were made possible because organizations had the flexibility to invest in their people. We share this report not only as an account of our grantees’ accomplishments, but also as an honest reflection on how this work has changed us as funders, making us more responsive, more relational, and more aligned with the communities we seek to serve. We also mark a leadership transition with deep appreciation.

Bradley Haas completed three years of thoughtful and committed service as board chair. His leadership helped guide the Fund through one of the most significant strategic refreshes in its history and shepherd many of the milestones reflected in this report. We are grateful for his stewardship and pleased to welcome Alejandro Foung as incoming board chair.

As we look ahead, we remain hopeful. At a time when division and distrust can feel overwhelming, we continue to believe that people want to belong, contribute, and build something larger than themselves. Nonprofits help make that possible every day.

Philanthropy has a responsibility to support that work, not only through grants, but by standing up for the value of community, civic participation, and collective care. We are proud to stand alongside the organizations, leaders, artists, and residents working to strengthen the Bay Area.

Together, we can build communities where all people have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential and live with a sense of purpose, dignity, and joy. Bradley Haas, Board Chair Jamie Allison, Executive Director