For most people with obligations related to work and family, driving a car is a necessity. Yet, an estimated 3.5 million Californians drive each day without car insurance. Most are low-income and make the choice to forgo car insurance for other needs, which places them at financial risk from fines and the costs associated with an accident. This grant supports outreach and public education efforts to encourage low-income drivers to enroll in California's Low-Cost Auto Insurance Program, an underutilized program.
Grant Amount: $25,000
Project Dates: 02/22/2007 through 02/22/2008

Fiscal Sponsor: Legal Aid Society--Employment Law Center
California's landmark Paid Family Leave Act took effect in early 2004 and entitles all workers to six weeks of paid leave to care for a new child or seriously ill family member . This grant supports the local activities of a state-wide coalition to raise awareness of the Paid Family Leave Act among low-wage workers, minorities and immigrants-those who are currently least informed of this critical new income support.
Grant Amount: $25,000
Project Dates: 05/30/2007 through 05/30/2008

Californian's for Economic Self-Sufficiency, a project of NEDLC, will continue its work to promote the use of the Self-Sufficiency Standard and the on-line Self-Sufficiency Calculator. NEDLC will provide leadership in developing state-level policies to address the needs of the working poor.
Grant Amount: $75,000 [2006], $60,000
Project Dates: 06/14/2006 through 06/14/2008

Fiscal Sponsor: United Way of the Bay Area
Earn It! Keep It! Save It! is a multi-county tax-filing campaign that helps working poor families prepare their taxes and apply for the Earned Income Tax Credit for free. In 2006, the campaign helped more than 16,000 low-income families in San Francisco and Alameda counties secure $16.3 million in tax refunds. The Earn It! campaign is expanding its services to include information about other public benefits, access to free checking and savings accounts, and links to financial planning and savings tools.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2007], $50,000 [2008]
Project Dates: 11/27/2007 through 11/27/2009
Project Web Site: www.uwba.org

BAYCAT, a multimedia training center for Bayview, Hunters Point, and Visitacion Valley youth and young adults, also operates a social enterprise, Studio BAYCAT, that delivers media services to paying clients. This grant supports Community Connections, a new program for BAYCAT training graduates. Under the tutelage of professional designers and instructors, the graduates participate in a year-long, paid internship in Studio BAYCAT and will deliver pro bono design and marketing services to 10 Bayview small business owners.
Grant Amount: $40,000
Project Dates: 05/31/2007 through 05/31/2008
Project Web Site: www.baycat.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Centro Legal de la Raza
First-generation immigrants play a crucial role in the U.S. economy, comprising almost one in eight workers and one in four low-wage workers. Like other worker centers around the country, the new Oakland Worker Center provides a hub of training, advocacy, and support for new immigrants. This grant supports development of an Assets and Economic Development program that will provide financial counseling and access to financial services; employment counseling, job preparation and placement; English language instruction; and micro-enterprise development.
Grant Amount: $50,000
Project Dates: 11/27/2007 through 11/27/2008
Project Web Site: www.centrolegal.org

The community development field has become so professionalized that most positions require an advanced degree. This makes it difficult for residents of low-income communities—the focus of community development—to gain employment or advance in this field. This planning grant supports the design of a new training institute at Laney Community College that will prepare lower-income residents with the skills they need to secure employment in the community development sector.
Grant Amount: $27,000
Project Dates: 12/17/2007 through 06/30/2008

The Ella Baker Center is taking on the dual challenges of unemployment and intense pollution in low-income communities. This grant supports planning activities to design, secure funding, and identify an operator for a Green Jobs Corps in Oakland. The program will train and place low-income Oakland residents in green jobs in construction, energy-efficiency remodeling, and recycling/reuse.
Grant Amount: $35,000
Project Dates: 05/30/2007 through 05/30/2008

Through its Career Advancement Program, the English Center offers an intensive English language program for immigrants that integrates career readiness, computer skills, and an orientation to the American workplace, schools, healthcare system, and financial services. Using small class sizes and group projects, the English Center builds bonds of friendship and mutual support among its international student body. Nearly all of the program's participants are low-income and receive federal Pell Grants to subsidize their training. This grant supports scholarships for working poor students whose incomes are just high enough to make them ineligible for a full Pell Grant, but too low to afford the cost of training.
Grant Amount: $40,000 [2006], $40,000
Project Dates: 12/11/2006 through 12/11/2008
Project Web Site: www.eciw.org

The Employment Program of the International Rescue Committee helps refugees and asylum seekers to secure employment when they arrive in the United States. The program offers literacy coaching, career counseling and job placement, intensive assistance to secure immediate needs (housing, food, medical care, and school enrollment), English language tutoring, and financial assistance. The use of volunteer mentors assigned to each family makes this program a good fit with W&EHF priorities.
Grant Amount: $15,000
Project Dates: 02/14/2007 through 02/14/2008

The mission of JVS is to strengthen the Bay Area community and fulfill Jewish values by helping people, particularly those with barriers to employment, acquire the skills and resources they need to secure meaningful employment and advance toward self-sufficiency. JVS builds its programs around specific industry sectors and works closely with employers to design and deliver training and job placement services. Several programs within JVS address the needs and aspirations of immigrants and, as a Jewish organization, JVS is well positioned to build bridges between Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Thus this core support grant is jointly funded by the Fund's Economic Security and Jewish Life programs.
Grant Amount: $150,000 [2005], $150,000 [2006], $150,000 [2007], $150,000 [2008]
Project Dates: 12/07/2005 through 12/07/2010

LIFETIME is a peer-led organization of parents (mostly mothers) who receive CALWORKs public assistance while enrolled in college. Its mission is to ensure that these students have the information and support they need to navigate CALWORKs' regulatory hurdles, which can undermine their education or their incomes. This grant supports outreach and education activities related to recent CALWORKs regulatory changes.
Grant Amount: $25,000
Project Dates: 05/31/2007 through 05/31/2008
Project Web Site: www.geds-to-phds.org

Through its Iraq Veterans Project, Swords to Plowshares is leading work both nationally and in the Bay Area to ensure that veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have the support they need when they return to civilian life. This grant focuses on research, advocacy, and direct services to address veterans' training and employment needs. Swords will work with key partners from the workforce development system to encourage them to more effectively serve veterans and to lay the groundwork for expanding Swords' own East Bay services.
Grant Amount: $50,000
Project Dates: 11/27/2007 through 11/27/2008
Project Web Site: www.swords-to-plowshares.org

In partnership with the Berkeley Adult School, the Bread Project teaches baking skills to low-income people exiting the criminal justice system, moving off of public assistance, or simply seeking better employment. The Bread Project offers employability skills classes, and intensive personal support to help trainees secure and sustain employment. Important to the program's success is the strong network of food industry volunteers who mentor trainees and guide the program.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2006], $30,000
Project Dates: 06/14/2006 through 06/14/2008
Project Web Site: www.breadproject.org

This grant supports a new program, Moms at Work, through which low-income, working single mothers will receive intensive, individualized coaching and support services. It will help them address a range of challenges related to retaining their current employment, and prepare them for career advancement and further education.
Grant Amount: $35,000
Project Dates: 02/08/2007 through 02/08/2008
Project Web Site: www.urbanuniversity.biz

Fiscal Sponsor: City and County of San Francisco
An estimated 50,000 San Francisco adults are 'unbanked,' meaning they do not use basic financial services such as checking or savings accounts. The Bank on San Francisco initiative is working with banks and credit unions to offer no- and low-cost checking accounts, and is undertaking extensive outreach to bring 10,000 of San Francisco's unbanked residents into the financial mainstream.
Grant Amount: $36,000 [2007], $36,000 [2008]
Project Dates: 03/29/2007 through 03/29/2009

More than 500 community-based matched savings programs operate in the U.S. and more then 20,000 savers participate (many times this number have already saved and invested). While these programs have proven effective, the demand for matched savings far outstrips both the match money available and the resource to support the infastructure and operations of these programs. This grant supports the development of a national initiative, the American Dream Match Fund, which seeks to address these challenges through a large-scale fundraising effort focused on high net worth individuals and a re-granting program to strategically invest resources in this field.
Grant Amount: $30,000
Project Dates: 02/23/2007 through 02/23/2008
Project Web Site: www.cfed.org

W&EHF was a sponsor of CFED's Assets and Opportunities Institute, held in San Francisco in September 2007. The event presented findings and recommendations from CFED's 2007 State Assets Report Card, a state-by-state analysis of state polices that help or hinder asset accumulation by low- and moderate-income households.
Grant Amount: $10,000
Project Dates: 07/27/2007 through 10/31/2007
Project Web Site: www.cfed.org

EARN helps low-wealth individuals and their families save money and acquire assets. EARN operates an Individual Development Account (IDA) program for low-income San Francisco residents, offering match funds for saving, financial planning assistance, and ongoing support networks among savers in the program. EARN also leads a state-wide asset policy initiative that seeks to promote policies that help-low wealth families accumulate, invest and preserve assets. The bulk of this grant provides match funds for IDA savers, with a small set aside in the first year to initiate a partnership with Prosper.com that will help EARN alumni refinance and pay down past debts.
Grant Amount: $120,000 [2006], $100,000
Project Dates: 09/18/2006 through 09/18/2008
Project Web Site: www.sfearn.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Earned Assets Resource Network
The Asset Policy Initiative of California (APIC) is a coalition of organizations working to advance state-level public policies that will help low-income individuals and families build wealth. This grant sponsored a meeting hosted by APIC in San Francisco attended by the leaders of similar coalitions from nine states who shared best practices and challenges in their work.
Grant Amount: $7,500
Project Dates: 05/30/2007 through 05/30/2007
Project Web Site: www.sfearn.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Earned Assets Resource Network
The Asset-Building Support Center is a two-year initiative to provide information and technical assistance to enhance asset-building efforts throughout the Bay Area. It will create a Web-site with information about innovative public, private, and nonprofit asset-building programs and policies, and offer technical assistance for asset-building practitioners.
Grant Amount: $25,000
Project Dates: 05/30/2007 through 05/30/2008
Project Web Site: www.sfearn.org

JUMA operates one of the largest youth Individual Development Account (IDA) program in the country. To date, more than 540 youth and young adults have saved more than $425,000 in their JUMA IDAs, leveraging a 2:1 match toward their investment goal. This grant supports the ongoing IDA program in San Francisco and a replication project to establish youth IDA programs in Oakland and eventually other parts of the state.
Grant Amount: $60,000 [2006], $60,000
Project Dates: 12/11/2006 through 12/11/2008
Project Web Site: www.jumaventures.org

Founded in 1980 by newly arrived Southeast Asian Immigrants, Lao Family offers a broad array of programs to help refugees and immigrants build strong families and achieve social and economic security in their new country. This grant supports a financial literacy and Individual Development Account program, in partnership with EARN.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2006], $50,000
Project Dates: 03/13/2006 through 03/13/2008

Fiscal Sponsor: Mission Economic Development Association
This grant supports the launch of the Mission Asset Fund, a neighborhood-based approach to helping low-income and immigrant families build assets. Through ongoing community engagement, financial coaching, matched savings opportunities, resource development, and cooperative home and business ownership, the Mission Asset Fund seeks to help low-income families improve their financial position while also preserving the economic and cultural diversity of the Mission neighborhood.
Grant Amount: $75,000
Project Dates: 07/09/2007 through 07/09/2008

New America Foundation's California Asset Building Program advances state policies that support the efforts of low- and moderate-income households to build assets. It works extensively with the media to raise public awareness of asset-building ideas and policies; and serves as a resource to California legislators seeking to advance asset-building policies. New America works in partnership with the Asset Policy Initiative of California.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2007], $50,000 [2008]
Project Dates: 11/27/2007 through 11/27/2009
Project Web Site: www.newamerica.net
Note: 2nd year $50,000 broken down to $30,000 outright and $20,000 conditional

Fiscal Sponsor: New York Regional Association of Grantmakers
The Asset Funders Network is an affinity group of funders from around the country committed to increasing the scale and effectiveness of wealth building initiatives in low-income communities. It provides a forum for funders to discuss strategy, promising new practices, and public policies that affect their grantmaking on this issue.
Grant Amount: $15,000
Project Dates: 02/01/2007 through 02/01/2008
Project Web Site: www.nyrag.org

Fiscal Sponsor: San Francisco Unified School District
The Public Interest Radio project at KALW Radio explores current issues through the voices and experiences of those individuals most affected. This grant supports in-depth reporting on wealth and poverty and public education.
Grant Amount: $50,000
Project Dates: 07/09/2007 through 07/09/2008

On Treasure Island, San Francisco's newest neighborhood, nearly one quarter of its residents are formerly homeless individuals and families. The Initiative has spent 10 years working with residents to bring much needed services and amenities to the island, including after-school programs, a food bank, and a community center. This grant supports community center programs to help residents strengthen their financial management skills, gain access to banking and savings opportunities, and expand a monthly farmers market that highlights the goods and services of local entrepreneurs.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2007], $50,000 [2008]
Project Dates: 07/09/2007 through 07/09/2009
Project Web Site: www.tihdi.org
Note: 2nd year $50,000 broken down to $25,000 outright and $25,000 conditional

AnewAmerica works with first-generation immigrants to help them establish and maintain robust small businesses, increase their incomes, save for a more solid asset base, and achieve a better standard of living for their families. AnewAmerica is distinctive among local micro-enterprise programs: It focuses on helping clients develop socially responsible business practices and requires them to give back to their communities through volunteerism or participation in the political process.
Grant Amount: $100,000 [2007], $100,000 [2008]
Project Dates: 03/29/2007 through 03/29/2012

Inner City Advisors supports the growth of socially responsible businesses in Oakland that offer low-income residents quality jobs. With the active involvement of the executives and successful entrepreneurs who comprise its board and a cadre of consultants, Inner City Advisors offers pro bono business assistance, training, advice, and access to networks for its portfolio of businesses. This grant supports an extension of these services to smaller companies, those with fewer than five employees and revenues under $500,000, recruited through new partnerships with micro-enterprise training programs.
Grant Amount: $25,000
Project Dates: 10/22/2007 through 10/22/2008
Project Web Site: www.innercityadvisors.org

Low-income entrepreneurs have a range of legal needs, yet many cannot afford legal representation to address them. This grant supports Legal Services for Entrepreneurs' work to link low-income entrepreneurs with business attorneys offering pro bono legal representation. The volunteer relationship also serves to expand the social networks of both attorneys and entrepreneurs.
Grant Amount: $35,000
Project Dates: 02/26/2007 through 02/26/2008
Project Web Site: www.lccr.com

Mandela MarketPlace supports West Oakland entrepreneurs to develop locally-owned businesses, especially those that expand access to healthy food. Previous W&EHF grants strengthened the infrastructure of Mandela MarketPlace and supported planning to create Mandela Foods Co-op. This grant provides general operating support to Mandela MarketPlace and start-up funds to launch the co-op, which will be owned and operated by West Oakland residents.
Grant Amount: $50,000
Project Dates: 11/27/2007 through 11/27/2008
Project Web Site: www.mandelamarketplace.org

Fiscal Sponsor: National Community Development Institute
This planning grant supports research into the viability of connecting HUD Section 8 housing voucher-holders in Oakland's Lower San Antonio neighborhood with homeownership assistance and priority status for purchase of below-market rate homes.
Grant Amount: $10,000
Project Dates: 05/31/2007 through 05/31/2008

This grant supports the Bayview Business Resource Center's work to help Bayview entrepreneurs build strong businesses that are a catalyst for and beneficiaries of neighborhood economic revitalization. Centrally located on Third Street, the Center offers business skills workshops, one-on-one consulting, access to capital through loan packaging and equity grants, and other services to help entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2007], $50,000 [2008]
Project Dates: 07/09/2007 through 07/09/2009
Project Web Site: www.rencenter.org

WAGES supports immigrant women to establish cooperatively owned house-cleaning businesses that use non-toxic cleaning products and methods. WAGES recently completed a three-year strategic plan to double the number of co-op members it supports to 200 and develop new co-ops in San Francisco, Marin, and the South Bay. WAGES' house-cleaning co-op members earn $12-$14.50 per hour, receive health and dental insurance and short-term disability, and hold equity in their co-ops. This grant provides general operating support for the organization's expansion.
Grant Amount: $75,000 [2007], $75,000 [2008]
Project Dates: 11/27/2007 through 11/27/2010

Fiscal Sponsor: Women's Foundation of California
La Cocina, a shared-use commercial kitchen and business incubator in San Francisco's Mission District, helps low-income and immigrant entrepreneurs develop food-related businesses. Participants receive affordable hourly rental of the facility, training in business development and knowledge of the food industry, and support as they seek to gain entry to new markets and distribution channels for their products. The program cultivates a sense of community and mutual support among client entrepreneurs while also helping them expand their professional networks in the food industry.
Grant Amount: $60,000 [2007], $60,000 [2008]
Project Dates: 03/29/2007 through 03/29/2009
Project Web Site: www.womensfoundca.org

This grant supports the launch of SuccessLink, a program of ongoing business development support for the women entrepreneurs who complete the agency's micro-enterprise training. Resources include weekly seminars on topics of interest, individualized business technical assistance, group activities to encourage peer support and cross marketing of one another's products, and a large networking event each quarter.
Grant Amount: $75,000 [2006], $75,000
Project Dates: 03/13/2006 through 03/13/2008
Project Web Site: www.womensinitiative.org

HERA works to address the problem of predatory mortgage lending, which strips away homeowners' equity and too often causes families to lose their homes through foreclosures. This grant supports HERA's work in the East Bay to organize regular homeowner education events, one-on-one assistance with loan document review and legal advice, and training and technical assistance to other housing counseling and legal professionals to better equip them to assist clients with predatory loans.
Grant Amount: $50,000
Project Dates: 11/27/2007 through 11/27/2008
Project Web Site: www.heraca.org

The past decade has seen a proliferation of home loan products and methods targeted at low-income minority borrowers that threaten to undermine their home equity and long-term economic security. Mission Economic Development leads a multi-agency public education and consumer counseling initiative, the Don't Borrow Trouble campaign, to prevent borrowers from taking out bad loans and assisting them when they do.
Grant Amount: $50,000
Project Dates: 03/29/2007 through 03/29/2008

The Homeownership Center at the Housing Development Corporation trains and gives one-on-one assistance to current and prospective homeowners in San Francisco's southeast sector. These services help low- and moderate-income residents improve their credit, buy homes, and preserve their assets.
Grant Amount: $65,000 [2007], $65,000 [2008]
Project Dates: 07/09/2007 through 07/09/2009
Note: 2nd year payment $15,000 of $65,000 total is conditional

Fiscal Sponsor: Community Development Institute
Currently under construction, One Rincon Hill will be a massive residential high-rise located in the South of Market. Through an unprecedented agreement between San Francisco and the developer, $26 million in development fees will be set aside in a SoMa Community Stabilization Fund to build the incomes and assets of low-income SoMa residents. This grant represents a second year of support for SOMCAN's work to inform and involve low-income neighborhood residents in setting priorities for how these resources should be used.
Grant Amount: $25,000
Project Dates: 10/22/2007 through 10/22/2008

The Fund's grant supports the coordination activities to implement the Third Street Corridor Workplan, a detailed development plan to revitalize this commercial corridor in the Bayview neighborhood.
Grant Amount: $40,000
Project Dates: 05/30/2007 through 05/30/2008

Fiscal Sponsor: Urban Strategies Council
W&EHF provided scholarships for three neighborhood leaders from San Francisco and Oakland to attend a training, Community Control and Benefits in Land Use, sponsored by Urban Strategies Council, The Center for Community Builders, and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Grant Amount: $4,125
Project Dates: 10/24/2007 through 11/30/2007
Project Web Site: www.urbanstrategies.org