What is your Mission?
The San Diego Foundation inspires enduring philanthropy and enables community solutions to improve the quality of life in our region.
What do you offer to the community?
Our strategic priorities include advancing racial and social justice, fostering equity of opportunity, building resilient communities, and delivering world-class philanthropy to realize our vision of just, equitable and resilient communities. We realize this vision through our partnerships and collaboration with our donors and fundholders, civic and business leaders, and our grantees and local nonprofit organizations. For more than 46 years, The Foundation and its donors have granted more than $1.3 billion to support nonprofit organizations strengthening our community.
What was your organization/company’s biggest accomplishment in the past six months – one year?
Last July, The San Diego Foundation was honored to receive the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships for our work on the San Diego COVID-19 Community Response Fund. The Community Response Fund launched in March 2020 and, thanks to our partners and donors, we were able to grant $67 million through 347 grants to more than 250 nonprofits that delivered 4.14 million services to San Diegans in need during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What event/program or campaign do you have coming up that you would like to share with our readers?
We are excited to launch the summer 2022 edition of Level Up SD with San Diego Unified School District and more than 80 nonprofit partners throughout San Diego. Like last summer, students will participate in education enrichment in the morning, then in the afternoons, they’ll be able to participate in enhanced learning opportunities such as traditional summer camps to performing and fine arts, to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) activities with our nonprofit partners.
Watch an impact video from summer 2021.
Have you made a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization/company and if so, how are you demonstrating it?
The largest demonstration of our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is our Strategic Plan pillar dedicated to advancing racial and social justice. This commitment is evident in our programs such as the Black Community Investment Fund that has raised $3.1 million and granted $3 million to education, employment, entrepreneurship and housing initiatives that increase generational wealth for Black San Diegans. Of these programs, our most visible program in recent months has been our Black Homebuyers Program, which is a partnership with Urban League of San Diego County, LISC San Diego and Union Bank that offers up to $70,000 in first-time homeowner grants to 35 Black San Diegans this fiscal year.