San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed, the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD), Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and Community Vision today announced $3.1 million in financial assistance for nonprofit organizations. The grant funding will help neighborhood-serving nonprofit organizations acquire space, relocate or renovate their facilities, and secure long-term leases or ownership, and advances Mayor Breed’s ongoing efforts to promote San Francisco’s economic recovery.

The Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative is aligned with several key recommendations from the Economic Recovery Task Force. The grants stabilize and preserve operations for nonprofit organizations that ensure access to affordable housing, advance job connections, meet the basic needs of the City’s most vulnerable residents, and promote accessible arts and culture programming. Additionally, the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative provides a model of advisory services for commercial tenants that the Economic Recovery Task Force recommended the city expand to avoid foreclosures and evictions.

“During this pandemic, our Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative investments have shown the power and potential of owning your own space,” said Mayor Breed. “We’ve seen the Mission Resource Hub spring into action for food security and family resources, we’ve seen La Casa de las Madres and the Asian Women’s Shelter address a heartbreaking rise in domestic violence, we’ve seen Meals on Wheels grow meal production and jobs in the Bayview. These nonprofits are all prior recipients of NSI funding, and they’ve been crucial to the City’s pandemic response by providing key services and resources to thousands of residents. San Francisco’s nonprofit community will play an important part in our economic recovery, ensuring that we keep up our focus on equity, and continue our investments in neighborhood organizations and our most vulnerable residents.”

Nonprofit organizations are invited to apply for this funding, which is part of the San Francisco Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative, a multi-agency collaboration to address key challenges facing the nonprofit sector, including the high costs of real estate. San Francisco’s groundbreaking approach to create and sustain the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative has been adapted regionally and across the country.

“Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative grants have strengthened Black, Latinx, immigrant and women led organizations so they may continue their service to our diverse communities. Our City’s neighborhood and community-serving nonprofit partners have been vital in addressing essential needs as well as longstanding inequities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic,” said Joaquín Torres, Director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development. “We continue to hear from nonprofit leaders that real estate investments are critical to their resilience —allowing them to predict costs, work together, build equity, and deliver essential services to our most vulnerable residents while promoting San Francisco’s economic recovery.”

The Mission Resource Hub, owned collectively by Jamestown Community Center, Mission Neighborhood Centers, Inc., and the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) and operated in collaboration with the Latino Task Force and Mission Language and Vocational School, was a recipient of the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative. The organization received a $1 million grant to acquire their new space. Today, the Hub serves as the primary resource center for wraparound services.

“The Mission Resource Hub has been a lifeline for Jamestown Community Center’s youth and their families in the Mission and Excelsior,” said Nelly Sapinski, Executive Director of Jamestown. “With the Mission Resource Hub in place, our families are receiving basic needs support such as food and financial assistance as well as connection to essential services such as COVID testing and healthcare during this challenging time and unprecedented crisis.”   

Over the past three and a half years, San Francisco’s Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative has supported the ownership and stabilization of nonprofit space for 59 organizations for an average lease term of 7.1 years. San Francisco organizations have been awarded a total of $12.37 million. Twelve nonprofits have secured permanent homes including organizations supporting youth, seniors, immigrants, survivors of domestic violence, artists, and people with disabilities.  In August, Mayor Breed announced $3.1 million in grants, including $2.15 million in vital support for Latino-led organizations expanding their space and services at new affordable housing sites in the Mission District.

The nearly 6,600 nonprofit organizations that call San Francisco home are an important part of the City’s unique fabric and economic recovery. Many of San Francisco’s nonprofits deliver critical services to support the most vulnerable in our communities, advance racial equity, and enrich and expand appreciation for the arts and culture during the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately one of every 14 employees in San Francisco works at a nonprofit, accounting for approximately 49,000 jobs. This includes 37% of all healthcare and social assistance workers, 64% of educational service providers and 21% of those employed in the arts, entertainment, and recreation.

Nonprofits that are eligible for the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative grants may apply for support in the following four categories:

• Acquisition: $2.2 million to seed acquisition of newly nonprofit-owned space and incentivize philanthropic investment in space stabilization.
• Relocation and Renovation: $675,858 to mitigate the destabilizing impact of one-time costs for relocation or renovations necessary to extend a lease of three years or more.
• Community Cornerstones: $250,000 available for eligible organizations to support tenant improvements for nonprofit space at 100% affordable housing sites.
• Technical Assistances: Community Vision will build skills of nonprofits seeking to better understand and evaluate real estate opportunities, negotiate a lease, and secure real estate resources.

Nonprofits interested in applying for assistance can visit communityvisionca.org/sfsustainability for program details, eligibility guidelines, and to register for information sessions. Information sessions will take place on Thursday, December 3 at 5:00pm and on Wednesday, January 6 at 10:00am. Applications must be received by 12:00 pm, January 29, 2021 to be considered for awards.

“Even in these unprecedented times, security of place continues to be a priority for nonprofits,” said Saul Ettlin, Director of Consulting at Community Vision. “These critical funds help organizations stay in the communities they serve and deliver on their missions.”

The Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative complements San Francisco’s funding of nonprofit services and resources for low-income residents and aims to maintain and expand these vital services by deploying financial assistance, professional services, assessment tools and other resources to address key challenges facing the sector, including the high costs of real estate. In 2019-20, the City’s financial investment in nonprofit services and resources in San Francisco totaled more than $995 million supporting access to health care, housing, legal assistance, counseling, job training, arts education, child care and other vital services and resources.

For more information on the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and to learn more about the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative, visit oewd.org/nonprofits.

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