OVERVIEW: The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund’s grantmaking priority areas include democracy and voting, immigrants’ rights, leadership development, college success, and housing initiatives. While grantmaking is national, California and the Bay Area are often prioritized.
IP TAKE: The Haas Jr. Fund announced on June 1, 2026 that it will sunset its current grantmaking programs in 2028.
The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund is a progressive California funder in a period of major transition. After phasing out several core programs in 2024, Haas Jr. is concentrating its remaining work on democracy, immigrant rights and college success. As the fund put it in a recent blog post, “the current moment calls on us to take a harder look at what we do and how we do it, and to explore new ways to find—and advance—our common humanity.”
Haas Jr. has a long history of ambitious systems-change funding, from its early leadership in the fight for marriage equality to later investments in educational equity, civic engagement and immigrant justice. In 2025, it also emerged as a notable defender of California nonprofits facing federal pressure. This is a transparent but relationship-based funder, with a detailed grants database and accessible staff information. Still, it is not accepting unsolicited proposals. The most realistic path is not a cold LOI, but credible proximity to Haas Jr.’s existing grantee and coalition networks.
The strongest fits are organizations advancing one of its three remaining agendas: California democracy and voting rights; immigrant power, safety, narrative change and legal pathways; or bachelor’s-degree access, affordability, transfer and completion for underrepresented California students. Best prospects include coalition anchors, advocacy groups, policy shops, movement infrastructure organizations, communications groups, legal defense and litigation groups, civic engagement organizations, higher-ed reform groups and intermediaries with statewide or field-level reach.
PROFILE: Established in 1953, the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund is a San Francisco-based foundation started by an heir to the Levi Strauss & Co. fortune. Levi Strauss’s great-grandnephew, Walter A. Haas, Jr., led Levi Strauss & Co. from 1958 to 1976. Today, Walter and Evelyn’s children — Walter J. Haas, Robert D. Haas and Betsy Haas Eisenhardt — run the foundation with the same open-mindedness and commitment to fairness and equal opportunity with which their parents approached philanthropy.
The Fund says it will maintain current grantmaking levels in Democracy, Immigrant Rights and College Success for calendar years 2027 and 2028, then divide remaining assets among the three family branches; it also plans significant long-term grants to Season of Sharing Fund, Crissy Field and Haas Pavilion at UC Berkeley in 2028.
Grants for Immigrants and Refugees
Haas’s Immigrant Rights grantmaking program works to build the power and voice of immigrants, with current materials emphasizing immigrant youth, families, humane border governance, safety, opportunity and representation in California and nationally.
- No public application pathway is stated; invitation-only access applies.
- Funding emphasizes narrative change, legal pathways, litigation/strategic communications, immigrant youth, California policy/advocacy, cross-movement work and rapid response to federal threats—not just general immigrant services.
- 2025 grants include America’s Voice Educational Fund for strategic communications and narrative change; American Business Immigration Coalition for engaging California’s business community; Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project for AI/tech-enabled organizing, employer engagement, litigation and strategic communications; Bay Area Council Foundation for immigrant rights and economic justice; Centro Binacional para el Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño for farmworker mobility and legal pathways; CAIR California for Afghan immigrant communities; and Transgender Law Center for LGBTQ+ immigrant communities.
- Given the increasing uncertainty faced by many immigrants in the United States in the mid 2020s, keep an eye on the Haas’ blog for updates and perspectives on how the Fund will continue advocating for immigrant communities.
Grants for Higher Education and College Readiness
Haas’s College Success program focuses on helping more students—especially students of color, low-income students and first-generation students in California—access and complete bachelor’s degrees. Its stated priorities are expanding financial aid access, improving community-college transfer to four-year institutions, scaling navigation/persistence models and new AI/transfer infrastructure work.
- No public application pathway is stated; invitation-only access applies.
- 2025 grants include $1 million to the AI Transfer and Articulation Infrastructure Network, $300,000 to American Association of Community Colleges for ATAIN/CourseWise adoption, $400,000 to Arizona State University Foundation for ASU Local in Los Angeles and $20,000 to Public Advocates. 2024 examples include $700,000 to Campaign for College Opportunity over three years and grants to California Competes.
- Other historical grantees include the American Association of Community Colleges, Campaign for College Opportunity, the Student Senate for California Community Colleges and the Poverty and Race Research Action Council.
Grants for Civic Engagement and Democracy
The Haas Fund’s Democracy works to increase civic participation and representation for California communities long underrepresented in democratic processes. Current strategy language emphasizes civic engagement, grassroots leaders and voter participation among underrepresented communities.
Haas Jr. described the California Democracy Partnership in March 2026 as a new partnership/collaborative to protect and expand Californians’ democratic rights
- No open eligibility pathway is stated. The funder does not accept unsolicited proposals, and portal access is invitation-only.
- 2025 Democracy grants include California Black Power Network for a statewide coalition of Black power-building organizations; Black Freedom Fund for civic engagement of Black communities; NEO Philanthropy for the i-Center power-building project; Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs for Latina Futures 2050 Lab; USC for the Center for Inclusive Democracy; and Catalyst California for democracy collaboration convening.
Grants for Housing and Human Services
Though it does not have a separate program dedicated to housing and human services, Haas’s Season of Sharing Fund aims to prevent homelessness and hunger for vulnerable residents of the San Francisco Bay Area.
- This is a longstanding Bay Area commitment. Haas Jr. says it will make a significant long-term grant to the Season of Sharing Fund in 2028.
- The Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund provides emergency assistance to Bay Area residents facing crises, with Haas Jr. materials saying funds support housing/critical family needs and food assistance across the nine Bay Area counties.
- This is not a general Haas Jr. open nonprofit grant program. Season of Sharing works through county coordinators and more than 150 agencies, according to Haas Jr. materials.
- Grantee partners include San Jose’s Midtown Family Services, the Alameda County Food Bank, San Francisco’s Asian Women’s Shelter and the Berkeley Food and Housing Project.
Grants for LGBTQ+
Once known for its trailblazing initiatives to support LGBTQ equality, Haas’s LGBT Equality program has completed the process of winding down. The funder announced in January 2022 that it would wind down LGBT Equality investments over the next two years after 21 years and more than $105 million in grants.
Other Grantmaking Opportunities:
- Hass’s Leadership initiative aims to develop leadership in the nonprofit sector through awards that provide funding, peer learning and “strategic advice” to emerging and visionary talent in the fund’s areas of grantmaking interest.
- Leadership remains a visible “Our Work” area, but the funder’s 2026 sunset announcement names only Democracy, Immigrant Rights and College Success as core programs to be continued at current levels through 2027 and 2028.
- The Leadership page describes investments in nonprofit leadership development, chiefly through the Flexible Leadership Awards program, and says Haas Jr. broadened its leadership work through partnerships and creation of an independent leadership development initiative, The LeadersTrust.
- This is a as capacity-building/leadership support tied to the funder’s relationships and history.
Important Grant Details:
The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund’s grants generally range from $5,000 to $500,000, but organizations have received larger amounts on occasion. The funder’s own financials report $24.5 million in grants paid in 2024, with total historical grants of $742 million based on 2024 year-end totals.
Geography: Strong California orientation, with particular Bay Area legacy commitments. Some Immigrant Rights and College Success grantees are national organizations when their work advances California or field-level goals. The funder’s mission page emphasizes the San Francisco Bay Area, while program pages repeatedly foreground California. and the San Francisco Bay Area are clear areas of geographic priority, but this funder also supports nonprofits and funding collaboratives that are national in scope.
- Types of work funded: Advocacy, organizing, coalition infrastructure, voter engagement, litigation/legal capacity, strategic communications, narrative change, public policy, research, higher-ed systems reform, transfer infrastructure, safety/security for democracy and civil-rights organizations, leadership development and emergency assistance through Season of Sharing.
- Less likely fits: Unsolicited applicants; organizations outside current issue areas; one-off local direct-service projects without systems-change or coalition relevance; general arts, health, youth or environmental work not tied to the funder’s named Bay Area legacy commitments; and organizations seeking new LGBT Equality funding as a standalone program.
Grantseekers can search the fund’s grants database for more information on its past grantees.
The Haas Fund is not accepting unsolicited applications for funding at this time, but prospective grantees can consult the fund’s FAQ or reach out to executive assistant Gil Aurellano at gil@haasjr.org with general inquiries about the grantmaking process.
- Direct general inquiries to the staff at (415) 856-1400 or via the contact form at the bottom of this page.
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