The San Diego Foundation: Grants for San Diego
/OVERVIEW: This funder supports San Diego County with millions of dollars in grants each year across a broad range of community interests and needs.
IP TAKE: The San Diego Foundation’s most recent strategic plan places social justice, equity and resilience at the center of the foundation’s giving and engagement. In addition to grantmaking, the San Diego Foundation works collaboratively with community partners on research and to create resources to pursue its goals. This is a large community foundation with several regional affiliates, making it difficult to keep track of opportunities and due dates. Signing up for the nonprofit newsletter will help.
PROFILE: The San Diego Foundation (TSDF) is based in San Diego, California and was established in 1975. The foundation got its start when the late Gildred Foundation gave $135,000 for its establishment, including some unrestricted funds for startup expenses and staffing. The foundation’s mission is to “inspire enduring philanthropy and enable community solutions to improve the quality of life in our region.”
TSDF manages close to 2,000 funds and has granted over $1 billion in support of local nonprofits. About 70% of its grantmaking stems from its donor-advised funds, but the remainder of its giving consists of discretionary and competitive grantmaking for San Diego County Communities and, to a lesser extent, organizations working state-wide and nationally. Grantmaking adheres to the priorities outlined in the foundation’s strategic plan, which emphasizes the advancement of social and racial justice, “equity of opportunity” and community resilience. The foundation’s impact areas are Children and Families, Education, Environment, Housing, Racial and Social Justice, Workforce Development and Crisis Philanthropy. TSDF makes grants for project, capacity building and general operating support.
Grants for Racial Justice, Housing and Community Development
Racial justice figures prominently in TSDF’s strategic plan and this emphasis carries through to the foundation’s discretionary grantmaking for San Diego County. The foundation’s Housing and Racial and Social Justice giving areas overlap to support programs and projects that “seek to eradicate systemic discrimination” and “improve housing affordability and access for all who call San Diego County home.”
The San Diego Black Homebuyers Program supports “generational wealth-building opportunities through Black homeownership.” The program was established in collaboration with San Diego’s Local Initiatives Support Corporation and the Urban League and provides grants of up to $70,000 and financial services to “qualifying prospective Black homebuyers.” The program has so far helped 31 homebuyers in the county. Application information is available here.
The San Diego Housing Fund partners with “investors, developers and property owners to create housing for all San Diegans.” The program is committed to “faster, more efficient housing production across the spectrum of affordability” and aims to support “the creation of 10,000 units of new housing by 2034.” The program plans to invest “$20 million per project” and produce housing at the rate of 1,000 units per year to meet its goal. To these ends the foundation pursues “innovative partnerships with community groups, associations, residents and other stakeholders to address San Diego’s housing crisis together.” Prospective grantees and other collaborators may introduce themselves and their organizations to the program via an online introduction form.
Partners in this work include the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System, Naturally Affordable Housing and BRIDGE Housing.
The Black Community Investment Fund “[p]rioritizes and invests in community-led, innovative efforts that increase racial equity and generational wealth for Black San Diegans.” The fund is overseen by “a majority-Black advisory council of civic, nonprofit and government leaders” and pursues grantmaking in the areas of education, employment, entrepreneurship and housing.
Grantees of this program include the County of San Diego Black Chamber of Commerce Urban Business Resource Center and the San Diego Workforce Partnership.
Grants for Public Health, Mental Health and Food Systems
TSDF’s Children and Families impact area supports local initiatives for health, mental health and food systems via its Healthy Children and Families and Age Friendly Communities subinitiatives.
The Healthy Children and Families program advances “community resilience through health equity and increases the quality of life for children and families through expanded access to supportive services.” Areas of focus include increased access to health and behavioral health services, financial assistance for uninsured and under-insured people and increasing “equity-centered, trauma-informed services for children and families.”
A recent round of funding made over $500,000 in grants to organizations including African American Wellness Center for Children & Families, the Chicano Federation of San Diego County, the North County LGBTQ Resource Center and San Diego Youth Services, among other organizations.
The Age Friendly Communities program invests in “programs and systems-level changes that create more livable environments for residents of all ages and abilities.” Health and wellness are major focus areas for this program, which also supports organizations that provide basic needs and improve community accessibility.
In a recent year, this program awarded over $300,000 in grants to organizations including Gary and Mary West Senior Dental Center, the Pacific Educational Facility/Ramona Senior Center, Serving Seniors and La Maestra Family Clinic Inc., which received funding to “to increase staff capacity to provide quality geriatric patient care to seniors in need.”
Grants for Early Childhood Education
The Children and Families program also runs an Early Childhood initiative that focuses on “expanding equitable access to high-quality, affordable early education and care.” Other areas of interest include young children’s well-being, birth equity, early literacy and “[p]roviding access to training for in-home family childcare providers.”
Past grantees of this giving program include Mi Escuelita Preschool, Social Advocates for Youth San Diego, the San Diego Parent Institute for Quality Education and San Diego State University Foundation’s Center for Excellence in Early Development. According to a press release, a signifant portion of this funding is conducted in collaboration with the Dr. Seuss Foundation.
Grants for K-12 and Higher Education
Education is TSDF’s largest giving area, although its difficult to discern how much of this giving stems from the foundation’s donor-advised or discretionary programs. The foundation’s grantmaking for education works broadly to support programs and interventions for “student success in work and life.”
The foundation maintains a subprogram for Expanded Learning, which aims to make “enriching summer and after-school programs available and accessible to pre-K-12 students." Giving targets programs that “address gaps and inequities in our traditional school systems” and those that work to remedy “pandemic’s impacts on learning and social-emotional well-being.”
Supported programs include Level Up San Diego, the Black Genius Initiative and the County Expanded Learning Program, which runs after-school “expanded learning programs that accelerate elementary and middle school student learning and address COVID-related isolation and trauma.”
A second subinitiative focuses on Teacher Diversity and works to diversify “our region’s K-12 educators to improve educational outcomes for local students of color.” The foundation’s main partner in this work is Teach for America San Diego, which received a $150,000 grant to “to recruit and place 30 teachers of color throughout three to five school districts in San Diego County to boost the academic performance, sense of belonging and college aspirations for students of color.”
Bridging K-12 and higher education, the foundation’s Community Scholars Initiative helps “San Diegans prepare for, pay for and persist through college.” Grantmaking targets programs that work students who are English language learners, homeless, disabled or foster youth. The program provides both financial support ad wrap-around services to students as they transition to and throughout their college careers.
This program awards both scholarships and grants. It appears to accept applications from “community-based organizations that provide rigorous college access and success programming” including “case management, financial aid advising and application assistance, family engagement programming, and college application support and assistance.” See current application guidelines and due dates here.
The foundation also runs a robust Community Scholarship Program with a common application through which students may “access to more than 100 scholarship opportunities with awards ranging from $1,000 to more than $5,000.”
Grants for Work and Opportunity
TSDF’s Workforce Development impact area “supports the prosperity of employees, businesses and local communities.” This program currently runs two initiatives.
Green Jobs is a newer program at the foundation that “aim[s] to create a green workforce representative of vulnerable populations with opportunities to build more resilient communities and grow our economy and prosperity for San Diegans.” The program targets “opportunity youth” between the ages of 16 and 24 who “who are not in school or working.” Grants support programs that provide career readiness, workforce development and supportive mentorship.
Early community partners of this program include South Bay Community Services, MiraCosta College and the Girls Take Flight program at the Elementary Institute of Science.
The Science and Technology subprogram works to promote “science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education to underrepresented young adults.” Established in 1999, this program has over $10 million in grants to 56 organizations. Areas of interest include programs for paid internships, “establishing networks of current and prospective scientists” and supporting initiatives that will “bolster the regional innovation economy for generations to come.”
Past grantees of the Science and Technology program include the California State University San Marcos Foundation, the Miramar College Foundation, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Scripps Research Institute, which received a grant to “provide high school students interested in health sciences, math/statistics and computational solutions with projects and faculty mentorships in genomics, digital health, data science and biomedical research.”
Grants for Environment, Climate Change and Clean Energy
TSDF’s Environment impact area partners with community organizations to “to preserve and protect our resources, build a more sustainable path of economic growth and ensure a higher quality of life for those who call San Diego home.” It currently runs four grantmaking subinitiatives.
The Binational Resilience Initiative works to “adapt to the impacts of climate change by leveraging existing cross-border connectivity and resources.” Specific goals of this program include:
Supporting “green infrastructure projects” to help the region withstand the effects of climate change;
Reducing pollution of waterways and watershed areas;
Strengthening regional leadership and collaboration; and
Conducting research to build a “knowledge base” about local environmental issues that will inform future programming and decision making.
Created in 2022, this program has so far made about $1.7 million in grants to organizations including the Southwest Wetlands Interpretive Association, the UCSD Scripps California Sea Grant Program and WILDCOAST. This program appears to accept applications annually. Check the program page for links to updated guidelines and due dates.
The Climate Initiative focuses on “[r]educing polluting emissions, minimizing local risks from climate change and building climate resilience in our region.” The program names areas of specific concern including greenhouse gas emissions, the “inequitable impact of climate change” and the region’s “readiness” to adapt to a changing climate. This program recently established the Community Clean Energy grant program, which will provide grants ranging from $25,00o to $100,000 “to new and existing projects that move communities towards a healthier, more sustainable, clean energy future.” A first round of applications for this program was accepted in 2024; it is unclear if this program will run annually.
Opening the Outdoors is TSDF’s program for “[c]onnecting, protecting and increasing equitable access to the outdoors across the county.” This program was established in 2010 and has supported over 90 area nonprofits. The programs goals include increasing environmental stewardship, encouraging people to “reduce levels of stress and anxiety” through outdoor experiences and conserving and protecting greenspaces and related ecologies.
Pastgrantees of this program include Botanical Community Development Initiatives, the Earth Discovery Institute, Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center and Urban Surf 4 Kids, among others. The program page does not provide information about how to apply, but grantseekers and others may contact Lorena Nava Ruggero at lruggero@sdfoundation.org for additional informtion.
Similarly, TSDF’s Thrive Outside program collaborates with a network of organizations that work toward “making the outdoors part of children's lives in our region.” The collaboration focuses on creating experiences, expanding and improving outdoor amenities and conducting research to identify “gaps in access to parks and green spaces.”
Community partners in this work include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Outdoor Outreach and the YMCA of San Diego County.
TSDF is a main coordinator of Get Outside San Diego, an online resource that “[d]Documents 1,100 regional parks and their recreational opportunities to benefit the health and well-being of San Diegans.”
Grants for Disaster Relief, Violence Prevention and Community Development
TSDF’s Crisis Philanthropy impact area “is dedicated to quickly mobilizing local leaders, donors and partners to provide critical services and assistance.” It organizes its work into four areas of engagement.
The Emerging, Important Needs area is not a grantmaking program but provides the community with “up-to-date resources and guidance on how you can support the region during times of need and respond to major crises around the world.” Current areas of focus include Gun Violence and Racial Inequity, but information is added as needs arise.
The San Diego Flood Response Fund provides “flexible resources into the community and supports organizations responding to unprecedented flooding in San Diego County.”
The San Diego Regional Disaster Fund, similarly, supports “nonprofit organizations that demonstrate impact in disaster response, recovery, rebuilding and preparedness.” Recent engagement has consisted mainly of response to the area wildfires of 2007 and 2017.
Important Grant Details:
While grants have topped $7 million, most TSDF grants remain below $500,000. Based on the foundation’s tax filings, it is difficult to know which grants stem from the foundation’s donor-advised or discretionary programs.
About 85% of this funder’s grantmaking stays in San Diego County. The remainder serves organizations in other parts of California and/or organizations that work nationally.
TSDF supports organizations of all sizes and prioritizes those that work through lenses of racial and social justice, equity and resilience.
This funder appears to accept applications for most of its grantmaking programs, but only programs that are currently accepting applications post guidelines on the application page. The best way to keep up with new opportunities to sign up for the foundation’s monthly newsletter using the form at the bottom of the website.
Another way to find funding at TSDF is to explore this large organization’s regional affiliates, which may have targeted grant opportunities for your specific geographic area.
Information about past grantees and community partners is available on most program pages and at the foundation’s news and press releases pages.
Submit general inquiries to this funder via its contact page.
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