Grant Listings: Economic Security

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] , $100,000 [2009] , $100,000 [2010] , $100,000 [2011]
Project Dates: 03/29/2007 through 03/29/2012
Project Web Site: www.anewamerica.org

Fiscal Sponsor: New York Regional Association of Grantmakers
The Asset Funders Network strives to increase the assets of low-income communities by promoting collaborative philanthropic efforts. Organizing meetings, disseminating current research, and aiding in communication, the Network helps funders share knowledge to achieve greater impact. The Fund's grant aids the Asset Funders Network in its goal of improving the potential for asset building to benefit low-income communities nationwide.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 05/12/2009 through 05/12/2010

Fiscal Sponsor: Earned Assets Resource Network
The Bay Area Asset Support Center is a funder-initiated, capacity-building program to expand asset-building opportunities for low-income people in the Bay Area. The initiative supports local programs with information and technical assistance to strengthen their asset-building services. It developed an online database of existing asset-building services and programs in the region, offers up to 20 hours of free consulting assistance to eligible programs, and convenes practitioners and policymakers to explore issues of broad concern to the field. W&EHF is a founder of the Asset Support Center, and this grant supports its activities in the final year of the initiative.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 01/30/2009 through 01/30/2010
Project Web Site: www.sfearn.org

The mission of the California Reinvestment Coalition is to ensure fair access to quality financial services for low-income communities. Because many of its member organizations offer housing counseling, the Coalition is keenly aware of the need to expand loss-mitigation and foreclosure-prevention services. Last fall, it launched the California Homeownership Preservation Initiative, which has raised $5.3 million from financial institutions to expand the capacity of housing counseling agencies in California. This grant supports implementation of the initiative and the Coalition's advocacy on the foreclosure issue.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2008] , $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/31/2008 through 03/31/2010
Project Web Site: www.calreinvest.org

Community Housing Development Corporation of North Richmond was established in 1990 to address the rampant deterioration of housing, violence, and disinvestment plaguing North Richmond. Over time, it has become a highly effective developer of affordable rental and homeownership housing, and a comprehensive asset-building program. This grant supports Community Housing Development's foreclosure-prevention and loss-mitigation work with Alameda County residents.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2008] , $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/31/2008 through 03/31/2010
Project Web Site: www.chdcnr.com

The Bay Area Match Fund raises resources to support financial education and matched savings programs that help low-income people save and invest in education, a business, or a home. Leveraging individual contributions through an on-line donation platform and securing major donors, the Bay Area Match Fund aims, over two years, to help 1,000 low-income households invest in their own long-term financial stability.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 09/11/2009 through 09/11/2010
Project Web Site: www.savetogether.org

CEO Women provides training and business development assistance to immigrant women who want to launch small businesses. The program offers classroom training that incorporates business skills and English language instruction as well as ongoing technical assistance from staff and a cadre of trained business volunteers. CEO Women is expanding its reach by opening a new office in San Jose and developing a distance learning program and tools.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2008] , $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 07/11/2008 through 07/11/2010
Project Web Site: www.ceowomen.org

EARN is nationally recognized in the asset-building field for its work to help low-income households save money and build wealth. By the end of 2008, EARN had helped more than 2,000 people save money in an Individual Development Account. EARN is enhancing its capacity for research and evaluation, bringing the experiences and insights of its savers to bear on policy development.
Grant Amount: $100,000 [2008] , $100,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/21/2008 through 11/21/2010
Project Web Site: www.sfearn.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Community Initiatives
Declining home prices are creating new opportunities for low- and moderate-income homebuyers. In San Francisco, sales of below-market rate homes increased threefold in 2008 over the prior year, and the number of homebuyers receiving down-payment assistance from the city more than doubled. Homeownership SF is a project of five housing counseling programs that educate prospective homebuyers and lead advocacy to increase affordable homeownership opportunities in the city. HomeownershipSF will develop a centralized Website, a shared calendar of homeownership events and classes, an outreach campaign to reach more prospective buyers, and a coordinated approach to resource development. This grant provides start-up support for the program.
Grant Amount: $15,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 01/23/2009 through 01/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.communityin.org

As the foreclosure crisis continues, housing counseling agencies are inundated with requests for information and assistance. HERA is no exception, responding to calls from 100 distressed homeowners each month. It brings a deep understanding of the mortgage process and related legal issues to its work with distressed borrowers, and maintains a special focus on assisting seniors who have been victims of predatory lending. W&EHF provides general operating supporting to advance this important work.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/03/2009 through 03/03/2010
Project Web Site: www.heraca.org

The Insight Center for Community Economic Development undertakes research and policy advocacy to improve resources for low-income people. This grant supports Insight Center's work to establish a new federal poverty measure based on the self-sufficiency standard. It also allows the Insight Center to join with local partners to update the analysis of how Bay Area families are fairing when measured against this standard.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 05/12/2009 through 05/12/2010
Project Web Site: www.insightcced.org

Fiscal Sponsor: San Francisco Unified School District
The Public Interest Radio project at KALW Public 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. The grant is supported equally by the Fund's Economic Security and the Education programs.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2008] , $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 07/11/2008 through 07/11/2010

The Legal Service for Entrepreneurs program of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights provides free legal clinics and pro bono legal representation to low-income entrepreneurs. With support from the Fund, more than 250 attorneys and paralegals from Bay Area law firms donate their expertise to the program, allowing their approximately 400 yearly clients to pursue avenues towards business success that might otherwise remain closed to them.
Grant Amount: $40,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 10/09/2009 through 10/09/2010
Project Web Site: www.lccr.com

After several years of development, business incubator Mandela MarketPlace recently opened Mandela Foods, a cooperatively owned grocery store in West Oakland. The store provides its local worker-owners with a chance to build their skills, incomes, and assets as part of its plan to help revitalize this largely neglected neighborhood. The Fund's grant allows for an experienced general manager to oversee Mandela Foods and train its worker-owners during its initial two years.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 05/13/2009 through 05/13/2010
Project Web Site: www.mandelamarketplace.org

An estimated 50% of Latinos living in San Francisco's Mission District do not use conventional banking services, and, as a result, they have thin or no credit histories and pay more for basic financial services. Mission Asset Fund is a neighborhood-focused initiative to develop a range of asset-building opportunities that meet the unique needs of immigrants in this community. This grant provides general operating support to expand financial education, matched savings, lending circle activities, new financial tool development, and shared-ownership strategies.
Grant Amount: $75,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/03/2009 through 03/03/2010
Project Web Site: www.missionassetfund.org

Mission Economic Development Association (MEDA) assists homeowners who are facing default or foreclosure. It offers foreclosure prevention workshops and one-on-one counseling to help distressed homeowners understand the foreclosure process, negotiate alternatives with their lenders, mitigate financial losses, and move forward from their current financial crisis. MEDA also coordinates San Francisco's Don't Borrow Trouble campaign, a coalition of local groups working together on consumer education, outreach, and advocacy on this issue.
Grant Amount: $75,000 [2008] , $75,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/31/2008 through 03/31/2010
Project Web Site: www.medasf.org

One Economy promotes the adoption and use of broadband technology in poor communities. The Fund's planning grant supported One Economy in undertaking a comprehensive scan of the Bay Area initiatives that are developing online tools for low-income people, and helped facilitate discussions among those programs of further ways to integrate online tools. Together these groups are exploring the possibility of applying for Recovery Act funds to expand and sustain their efforts.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/26/2009 through 03/26/2010
Project Web Site: www.one-economy.com

Opportunity Fund operates the Bay Area's largest micro-lending program, offering small business loans to low-income entrepreneurs who are unable to secure conventional financing. Opportunity Fund is currently refining its strategies to identify appropriate borrowers and is increasing guidance to current borrowers to help strengthen their business operations and prevent delinquency. The Walter & Elise Haas Fund's grant supports the Opportunity Fund's efforts to increase the economic stability of its loan recipients.
Grant Amount: $40,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 10/09/2009 through 10/09/2010
Project Web Site: www.opportunityfund.org

Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center provides comprehensive small business development assistance to entrepreneurs who do not have access to traditional business training, networks, or capital. In 2009, the Fund provides general support to Renaissance's San Francisco programs, allowing the agency flexibility in helping 1,650 low-income entrepreneurs strive towards economic stability.
Grant Amount: $60,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/23/2009 through 11/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.rencenter.org

Even Alameda County's more affluent cities have been affected by the housing crisis: In the Tri-Valley area alone (Dublin, Livermore, and Pleasanton), 900 homes were in default or foreclosure in early 2008. Because housing affordability challenges are relatively new to these cities, they do not yet have housing counseling services focused on loss-mitigation and foreclosure-prevention. This grant helps Tri-Valley Housing Opportunity Center expand its services to meet this critical need.
Grant Amount: $60,000 [2008] , $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/31/2008 through 03/31/2010
Project Web Site: www.tvhoc.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] , $75,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/27/2007 through 11/27/2010
Project Web Site: www.wagescooperatives.org

Women's Initiative for Self-Employment provides low-income women with a broad range of business development services. With general operating support from the Fund, Women's Initiative offers its clients entrepreneurial readiness orientations and a broad range of training opportunities that address the intellectual and emotional sides of business success. These services extend the opportunities available to low-income women seeking to improve their financial prospects.
Grant Amount: $60,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/23/2009 through 11/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.womensinitiative.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Community Health Academy
The Alameda County Health Workforce Consortium supports a range of educational and mentorship programs that encourage people of color to pursue health careers and thereby improve the health in their communities. With the Fund's assistance, the Consortium will hire a consultant to help strengthen these programs by raising awareness and pursuing additional funds.
Grant Amount: $20,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 10/21/2009 through 10/21/2010

Fiscal Sponsor: San Francisco Foundation
The Bay Area Workforce Funding Collaborative is a philanthropic initiative that leverages public and private dollars to support workforce training programs. With the goal of preparing low-income, disadvantaged adults for careers in high-wage, high-demand industries, the Workforce Collaborative invests in programs that move people from entry-level jobs to progressively more skilled positions that pay family-sustaining wages. This grant supports Workforce Collaborative's initiative to help community colleges more effectively link basic math, reading, writing, and English language instruction with occupational training, and to improve the personal and academic supports and job-placement services for students in these programs. W&EHF is a member of the Workforce Collaborative's steering committee and also supports its policy and regional coordination activities.
Grant Amount: $150,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 03/03/2009 through 03/03/2010
Project Web Site: www.sff.org

Fiscal Sponsor: San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Foundation
The Benefits Access Coalition works to coordinate the agencies connecting low-income people with social services and public benefit subsidies. The Fund's support will help the Coalition increase the efficiency and effectiveness of participating agencies, extending their reach and their ability to deliver aid to people in need.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 10/22/2009 through 10/22/2010

Community Financial Resources (CFR) helps connect Alameda County residents without bank accounts to the financial products and services they need to save and manage their money more effectively. People without bank accounts can lose more than 5% of their income to check cashers. The Fund's grant supports CFR's work on behalf of the Alameda County Community Asset Network (AC CAN) to create a searchable inventory of entry-level banking products coupled with a questionnaire that helps people find the products that best suit their needs.
Grant Amount: $25,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 05/12/2009 through 05/12/2010
Project Web Site: www.communityfinancialresources.net

Established in 1989, the Cypress Mandela Training Center is an award-winning pre-apprenticeship training center in Oakland. The Center integrates robust personal supports, general construction skills training, and occupation-specific training to prepare disadvantaged students to enter and succeed in a union apprenticeship. With substantial federal investment this year in infrastructure and energy efficiency projects, improved job prospects for graduates of this training are expected. This grant provides general operating support for the program.
Grant Amount: $35,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 01/30/2009 through 01/30/2010
Project Web Site: www.cypressmandela.org

Fiscal Sponsor: United Way of the Bay Area
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is one of the few meaningful tax advantages available to the working poor. To increase tax filing and the use of the EITC in low-income communities, the Fund supports Earn It! Keep It! Save It! This campaign provides free tax return prepartion for 26,000 individuals and families in San Francisco and Alameda counties annually. The dollars reclaimed through the EITC provide critical income to low- and moderate-income households and help to stimulate the local economy.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/23/2009 through 11/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.earnitkeepitsaveit.org

The Spanish Speaking Citizens Foundation's Solar Energy Efficiency Green Careers program trains disadvantaged Latino young adults in solar panel installation and energy efficiency. The pilot program worked to increase the employment prospects for its fifteen students by providing initial career training. The Fund's grant allows for continued training and job placement assistance, as well as for relationship building with potential program partners.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 05/13/2009 through 05/13/2010
Project Web Site: www.sscf.org

The Ella Baker Center advocates at the local and state level to create training, jobs, and business opportunities for low-income communities in the emerging 'green economy.' In 2007, the Center led work in Oakland to design the first ever Green Jobs Corps. This grant supports the Center's work to ensure equitable implementation of Recovery Act programs related to green jobs, the design of effective green jobs training programs, and advocacy on relevant legislative initiatives.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 05/11/2009 through 05/11/2010
Project Web Site: www.ellabakercenter.org

Centrally located in Oakland's Jack London Square, The English Center offers a highly effective English language program for new immigrants. Training includes instruction in language fluency, career readiness, computer skills, and civic participation. Eighty percent of students either find employment or pursue further education. W&EHF supports a scholarship program for students with earnings just high enough to make them ineligible for a full Pell grant and too low to afford tuition and fees.
Grant Amount: $40,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 01/12/2009 through 01/12/2010
Project Web Site: www.englishcenter.edu

Goodwill Industries provides workforce development opportunities to people with the most significant barriers to employment. The Fund's support helps Goodwill undertake significant organizational restructuring so it can expand its services beyond skills enhancement and employment into long-term work with its employees and clients. This work will be focused on ensuring sustained economic security.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/23/2009 through 11/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.sfgoodwill.org

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] , $150,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 12/07/2005 through 12/07/2010
Project Web Site: www.jvs.org

REDF offers intensive technical assistance and funding to develop and expand social enterprises. These enterprises, in turn, create jobs in areas with limited employment options for people facing barriers to work. The Fund's grant supports REDF in leveraging development contracts to create transitional jobs and long-term employment in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 06/30/2009 through 06/30/2010
Project Web Site: www.redf.org

The San Francisco Conservation Corps provides jobs, training, and educational opportunities for disadvantaged adults aged 18 to 26. Eighteen months of personal support and employment in landscaping, playground maintenance, and recycling helps the Corps' participants overcome significant barriers to their success. The Fund's grant helps to fill a funding gap created by a delay in a key state contract.
Grant Amount: $10,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 05/11/2009 through 05/11/2010
Project Web Site: www.sfcc.org

Fiscal Sponsor: The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce Foundation
SF Works helps low-wage workers gain access to the rich array of benefits, services, discounts, and programs to which they are entitled, identifying an average of $1,000 in potential savings per employee per year. SF Works also encourages employers to hire individuals from disadvantaged communities by helping them to use hiring tax credits. SF Works will assist 2,000 low-wage workers in 2009.
Grant Amount: $75,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 06/30/2009 through 06/30/2010
Project Web Site: www.sfchamber.com/

Springboard Forward provides career planning and coaching that helps low-wage workers improve their performance and advance in their careers. Springboard engages employees in career planning through a series of workshops as well as one-on-one coaching. It also provides training to improve the effectiveness of supervisors. Employers report improved employee relationships, superior job performance, and, as a result, higher retention. The Fund's grant focuses on collaborations with transitional employment programs to support their workers' progress into mainstream employment.
Grant Amount: $65,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 06/30/2009 through 06/30/2010
Project Web Site: www.springboardforward.org

Upwardly Global helps new immigrant professionals relaunch their careers in the United States by offering job-search training, career counseling, and placement services. Upwardly Global has strong partnerships with employers who accept referrals, participate in workshops, attend networking events, and encourage their employees to volunteer as mentors. With general operating support from the Fund, Upwardly Global will help more than 200 immigrant job seekers in 2010.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/23/2009 through 11/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.upwardlyglobal.org

Fiscal Sponsor: Community Initiatives
Communities of Opportunity (COO) is an initiative addressing long-standing poverty in San Francisco's Bayview-Hunters Point and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods. It calls for improving how the City directs resources to its most distressed families, strengthens nonprofit infrastructure and increases the level of civic engagement in the area. A key project is the transformation of the underused Southeast Community Facility into an active training and education hub. This grant includes $100,000 from the Fund's mission-related special projects budget and $25,000 from the Economic Security program area.
Grant Amount: $125,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 06/30/2009 through 06/30/2010
Project Web Site: www.communityin.org

The East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) advocates for the interests of working-class communities in the economic development process in Oakland. The Fund's grant supports EBASE's work to ensure that the use of Recovery Act funds in Oakland and redevelopment of the Oakland Army base both benefit the local working-class community.
Grant Amount: $30,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 10/09/2009 through 10/09/2010
Project Web Site: www.workingeastbay.org

Oakland's foreclosure rate is among the highest in the nation, with currently 1,500 foreclosed properties in East and West Oakland. Support from the Fund helps Urban Strategies Council develop the Oakland Community Land Trust, a project to acquire, rehabilitate, and resell 200 foreclosed homes to low- and moderate-income families. The Land Trust seeks to create sustainable homeownership for individual families and improve the quality of life in targeted neighborhoods.
Grant Amount: $50,000 [2009]
Project Dates: 11/23/2009 through 11/23/2010
Project Web Site: www.urbanstrategies.com