Sakana Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Sakana Foundation was founded by the Bay Area couple Bill and Sakurako Fisher. Its arts-related giving focuses on established arts and culture organizations, and its education funding prioritizes higher education institutions in California.

IP TAKE: The foundation lacks transparency and tends to prioritize a handful of national and local Bay Area organizations. It is also not accessible in that it does not accept unsolicited proposals. New grantseekers will need to seriously network to get on the foundation’s radar, but unfortunately, it is not particularly approachable either. Network with their previous grantees as one possible avenue.

PROFILE: The Sakana Foundation is an independent foundation based in San Francisco, California. Its founder, Bill Fisher, is a son of Gap founders Don and Doris Fisher. He attended Princeton and Stanford and has served in various roles at Gap, as well as managing partner of Manzanita Capital, a London based private equity firm. He and his wife Sakurako, also a Stanford graduate, us the Sakana Foundation to primarily support established arts and culture institutions and colleges and universities in the Bay Area. Preferring a low public profile, the Sakana Foundation does not operate a website.

Grants for Music, Dance, Theater, Visual Arts and Arts and Culture

The foundation’s giving heavily focuses on Bay Area arts and cultural institutions. The Fisher family has deep ties to the San Francisco Symphony (SFS), on whose board Doris has served since 1980. Sakurako joined the SFS board in 1992 and has served as its president. 

In the past, Sakana has supported the San Francisco Symphony, giving the organization $2.5 million in 2019. Other past arts and culture grantees include the Museum of the African Diaspora, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Hope Mohr Dance, San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater, the Centre Pompidou Foundation, San Francisco’s Exploratorium, the League of American Orchestras, Creative Capital, the Asian Art Museum, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. It has also supported Counterpulse, which provides space and resources for emerging artists and cultural innovation.

Grants for Higher Education

While the Sakana Foundation does not have a grantmaking program dedicated to education, tax filings indicate that support for higher education is a priority. The foundation has made grants to Stanford University, where they endowed the Sakurako and William Fisher Family Directorship of the Stanford Global Studies Division. Sakurako has served on the advisory boards of Stanford’s Department of Humanities and Sciences and the Freeman Spogli Institute of International Studies. Other past grantees include the Alliance Francaise and the University of California, Berkeley.

Important Grant Details:

Unfortunately, the foundation maintains a low public, which makes it difficult to ascertain the foundation's art funding priorities. It does not accept unsolicited grant applications from nonprofits, as it only funds pre-selected organizations.

Grant sizes in a recent year ranged from as low as $5,000 to $2.5 million. Sakana awarded around $11 million in a recent year. In a previous year, the foundation awarded more than $10 million, but the bulk of that went to a donor advised fund. Learn more about this funder’s recent giving by examining its tax records. Grantmaking is largely focused on San Francisco and the Bay Area of California.  

PEOPLE:

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CONTACT:

Sakana Foundation
1 Maritime Plz., Ste. 1400
San Francisco, CA 94111