Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund Concludes Grantmaking With $4.5 Million in New Grants

After six decades of supporting nonprofit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund will wrap up its grantmaking with more than $4.45 million in new grants. The latest grants mark the conclusion of the Fund’s grantmaking work; 2012 will be an administrative year.

Highlights among the newly approved grants include:

• $175,000 to UpStart Bay Area to provide support and raise visibility for Jewish social entrepreneurs;
• $300,000 to Corporate Accountability International to reduce the use of bottled water and strengthen municipal tap water systems;
• $160,000 to five Israeli nonprofits to support pluralism and freedom from religious coercion in Jerusalem;
• $400,000 to the National Abortion Federation to ensure safe access to reproductive health clinics; and
• $125,000 in holiday grants to 25 San Francisco nonprofits that serve the homeless, immigrants, domestic abuse victims, at-risk youth and other vulnerable populations.

Over its 60-year history, the Fund has distributed more than $700 million to 2,600 nonprofit organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Israel and elsewhere in the world. It has funded important work in the areas of the environment, Jewish affairs, reproductive health and rights, arts and culture, education, child welfare and elderly care, among others.

As part of its closure, the Fund approved $25 million in legacy grants to five organizations that have had long-standing relationships with the Fund and represent issues of personal importance to the Goldman family: Congregation Emanu-El, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy’s Lands End project, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, and Stern Grove Festival.

Meanwhile, the Fund is in the early stages of producing a commemorative book to document the philanthropic legacy of the founders and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund. The book is scheduled for completion next spring. The Fund plans to archive its records and memorabilia with the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkeley’s Bancroft Library.