This Bay Area Grantmaker’s Pushing for Good Nonprofit Jobs. Will Other Funders Take a Cue?

On its face, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund’s new $24.5 million Endeavor Fund may not seem like a very big deal outside of the San Francisco Bay area, where its grants are focused. But considering the enthusiastic response from philanthropic organizations the funder has received since its April 24 announcement of the new effort, and Haas’ commitment to promoting worker-friendly funding, there’s a good chance that the Endeavor Fund’s impact may eventually be felt by nonprofit workers far beyond the Bay Area. 

The new Endeavor Fund is unique on a number of levels. First, the fund is providing seven-year, general operating grants of $500,000 per year to seven area nonprofits – a robust commitment to multiyear, unrestricted support that already makes it an outlier. Second, Haas made a point of selecting grantees that are committed to their workers’ wellbeing, including providing decent salaries and benefits. And third, as we’ve noted, Haas is being loud and proud about the new fund and the important role that funders can and should play in elevating the economic health of nonprofit workers.

The foundation’s peer organizations have definitely taken notice. Haas says it has received a significant number of messages “from esteemed national philanthropic organizations, such as the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP), National Center for Family Philanthropy (NCFP), and Trust-Based Philanthropy Project.” In addition, Haas reported, “We have been in communication with various local foundations, including the James Irvine Foundation and ReWork the Bay, as well as local funders interested in gaining further insight into our approach. The response has surpassed our expectations and reflects a significant shift occurring within our community.”

The Haas Fund, a committed progressive grantmaker that has given away around $13 million a year recently, mainly in and around the Bay Area, aims to use this new effort to help “close the racial and gender wealth gap and promote nonprofit well-being, including support for quality, empowering, jobs in the nonprofit sector.” Endeavor Fund grants have been awarded to the East Bay Alliance for Sustainable Economy (EBASE), East Bay Community Law Center (EBCLC), La Cocina, Oakland Kids First, Oakland Promise, Young Women’s Freedom Center, and Youth Organize! California.

According to Jamie Allison, executive director of the Haas Fund, inspirations for the new fund include Haas’ existing commitment to economic security and social safety nets, and its experience with its late 2020 round of racial justice grants, a portion of which was earmarked for the wellbeing of the grantees’ leaders. 

Unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic also played a role in the launch of the Endeavor Fund. Allison noted the heightened public awareness around essential workers during the pandemic, and said that those conversations inspired Haas’ board and staff to talk about “how much, as a philanthropic institution, we rely on the nonprofit community to do the work of transformation; of saving lives; of making our communities vibrant, and safe, and wonderful places to live.”

“In a sense, all year, every year, nonprofit organizations and the people who animate nonprofit organizations are our essential partners. Without them, philanthropy has no place. We cannot impact the community in the way we want without nonprofit organizations,” she said. 

As internal discussions proceeded, Allison said, the Haas Fund realized that in order to do its own work effectively, it needed to “fund nonprofits to win.” To do that, nonprofits need human capital. “And if we're going to rely on nonprofit organizations,” she went on, “we have to ensure that the workers inside the nonprofit sector have stable lives – and part of the way they have stable lives is that we have to invest in their wellbeing. That means their compensation, that means benefits, and that means opportunities for professional development.”

Taking the issue of nonprofit worker wellbeing on the road

It’s a seriously positive development when any foundation puts forward a commitment to support the economic wellbeing of nonprofit workers at the organizations it funds. What takes the Haas announcement into the realm of wider potential impact, though, is the fact that the foundation is eager to talk about the Endeavor Fund – and nonprofit workers’ needs overall – with its funding peers.

At the most granular level, Allison said, Haas has offered to speak with its grantees’ other funders, in recognition of the fact that Haas’ new emphasis on supporting nonprofits with explicit worker-friendly practices may put those nonprofits in something of a rock-and-a-hard-place position with foundations still focused on project and metrics-based grantmaking – foundations that may look askance at robust investments in employee wellbeing.

“We'd really like to take that burden [of educating other funders] away from the nonprofit organizations who need to be focused on doing the work that makes our communities more vibrant, and improving our quality of life,” she said.

Beyond those conversations, Allison and other members of the Haas team are planning to spread the word at upcoming foundation convenings. Allison herself is scheduled to speak at the Center for Effective Philanthropy conference this fall, and is also bringing the topic to the anti-racist CEO group she is a part of. 

In March, Haas was also part of a public-private funder convening to discuss the outcomes of mandatory wage increases for San Francisco’s childcare workers, to learn more about how best to strategically support policy and funding for nonprofits in the future. 

Grading Haas and the Endeavor Fund: A Worker-Friendly Funder Report Card appraisal

Earlier this spring, we put together a Worker-Friendly Funder Report Card as a starting point to evaluate funders on their support for nonprofit workers. To be fair, neither the Endeavor Fund nor Haas overall would currently receive an “A” across the board. However, the foundation is making some very important strides by seeking out Endeavor Fund grantees that prioritize workers’ wellbeing (Subject 1, Do Your Homework), and working to shape the practices of its peers by proactively reaching out them (Subject 3, Communicate Your Intention to Fund Good Nonprofit Jobs, including the extra credit portion of that subject). 

We would like to see more on Haas’ website about its commitment to funding good nonprofit jobs, and we haven’t reviewed its grantmaking application or other materials for grantees to see whether the issue is mentioned in them. There’s also a legitimate concern that nonprofits might feel themselves torn as some funders start asking about living wages and benefits, or requiring them, while other funders remain more than willing to penalize groups with high “overhead” costs. Given the power imbalance between funders and grantees, we’re still inclined to believe that it’s up to funders to proactively provide specific funding for employee wages and benefits, rather than either strongly suggesting that grantees use general support for workers or stopping at seeking out nonprofits that already have a pro-worker culture.

Overall, though, Haas’ commitment to this cause is highly encouraging, and it would certainly earn at least a provisional “B.”