Northern California Grantmakers

Snapshots of Philanthropy is a special year-long series that aims to better demonstrate the scope and impact of our members’ work. These short “snapshot” stories showcase the positive impact organized philanthropy has in northern California, and will be used to educate external audiences about why our members fund who they fund, and what changes are happening as a result of these investments. Learn more about the series and read other stories online.

This week’s Snapshot features the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund in San Francisco. On January 19, 2011, the Fund announced plans to cease operations on December 31, 2012 after more than 60 years of operation. Founder Richard Goldman, who passed away in November 2010, had long planned to have the fund disbanded following his death. The remaining assets will be divided among the foundations of his three children. Read a recent NCG blog post to learn more.

Latest Snapshot: Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund

Lands End, a national park at the edge of San Francisco that is part of the Golden Gate National Parks system, attracts more than one million visitors each year. Its trails and rocky coastline offer breathtaking 30-mile views stretching from the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands and Point Reyes to the Farallon Islands and Pacific Ocean. The area attracts many local visitors as well as out-of-town tourists because of its close proximity to a large residential neighborhood and easy access by public transportation.

Unfortunately, by the late 1990s, the Lands End area had fallen into disrepair as a result of years of wear and tear, vandalism, landslides and overgrown vegetation, making it a dangerous and less attractive recreation destination.

At the same time, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, a private family foundation with a long history of supporting restoration projects in the Golden Gate National Parks System, was exploring new opportunities for improving local parks for the people of San Francisco.

The Goldman Fund reached out to the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy for help in identifying places where restoration efforts could make a real impact. Lands End caught their attention. The project was attractive because the area was used by a diverse group of San Francisco residents, and the Parks Conservancy knew they could mobilize strong volunteer support from the community for the effort. In addition, the Goldman Fund knew that the Parks Conservancy had a strong track record of leveraging private philanthropic funds to increase federal funding for improving these parks.

The two groups formed a partnership with the National Park Service (NPS) and launched an effort in 2004 to restore and revitalize the trails, forests and native habitats at Lands End. Since then, the Goldman Fund has donated $8.6 million to this collaborative undertaking. The area has been transformed with paved parking areas, a new scenic overlook with benches and safety walls, expanded trails, improved visitor amenities, and restored views of the ocean by trimming back trees and other growth.

The restoration efforts have also attracted robust community support through a volunteer program run by the Parks Conservancy and NPS called the Lands End Stewardship Program which has close to 900 community members working to take care of the park. Along the way, other organizations such as the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the California Coastal Conservancy have offered support to the project as well.

In 2010, the project was honored with an award from San Francisco Beautiful for improving the quality of life in San Francisco.

There is more work to underway to continue to enhance this special place, but the project has made huge steps towards restoring Lands End to a beautiful, safe recreation area for all to enjoy.

Read the whole story [downloads as PDF]

Read Snapshot 1: S.H. Cowell Foundation online.

Read Snapshot 2: Horizons Foundation online.

Read Snapshot 3: The James Irvine Foundation online.

Read Snapshot 4: The Christensen Fund online.

Read Snapshot 5: Sierra Health Foundation online.

Read Snapshot 6: Akonadi Foundation online.

Learn more about NCG’s Snapshots of Philanthropy series online.

As many in the Bay Area philanthropic sector know, Richard Goldman passed away in November 2010. Richard and his late wife Rhoda Haas Goldman founded the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund in 1951, a foundation that in its sixty year history has distributed almost $700 million to 2,600 nonprofit organizations throughout the world.

Yesterday the foundation announced that it would close its doors at the end of 2012.

The closing of the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund marks a change — but not an end — to the family’s tradition of giving. The assets of the Fund itself will be distributed over time amongst the respective philanthropic foundations of the three Goldman children.

Foundation staff and Goldman family members explain that Richard Goldman had never intended for his fund to continue in perpetuity. Douglas Goldman explains, “[Our father] believed that each generation should address the most pressing needs of their day and intended that the foundation would have an orderly closing after his death.”

Though the foundation will be closing, the Goldman Environmental Prize, “another cornerstone of Richard and Rhoda Goldman’s philanthropic work, is a separate entity and will not be affected by the Fund’s closing.”

As a result of the impending closure, the foundation will no longer accept applications for grants. It will however, “provide farewell grants to selected organizations, which will be determined through an internal process.”

In a recent San Francisco Chronicle article, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation CEO and NCG member Bill Somerville saw the silver lining:

“This will bring in some fresh points of view and outlook, and philanthropy needs that because it gets stale and stuck in the same old stuff.

“I can’t remember the last time a fund anywhere in the nation of this size was broken up like this…It will be fun to see what the kids come up with on their own.”

Read the Goldman Fund’s press release online.

Read the San Francisco Chronicle article on the closure online.

This morning NCG learned of the passing of San Francisco philanthropist Richard Goldman.

Richard Goldman made an indelible mark on the philanthropic landscape, not just here in the Bay Area, but internationally. In 1951 Richard and his late wife Rhoda Haas Goldman, a great-grandniece of Levi Strauss, established the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund to support a variety of causes: supporting the Bay Area, the environment, the Jewish community, Israel, and reproductive rights. To date, the Fund has distributed more than $680 million dollars to nonprofit organizations and causes around the world.

Green, a generation before it was in style, the Goldmans established the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1990 which annually awards $150,000 to six grassroots environmental heroes, one from each of the world’s inhabited regions.

This past year, Richard awarded $20 million in legacy grants to five San Francisco Bay Area organizations that reflect his and his late wife Rhoda’s passions. Five million dollars each was awarded to Congregation Emanu-El, Stern Grove Festival Association, University of California at Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, and Golden Gate Parks Conservancy for Lands End.

Richard’s peers described him as natural leader, extremely loyal, and a “caring and constructive and intuitive philanthropist.”

He is survived by three of his children, John D. Goldman and his wife, Marcia, of Atherton, CA; Douglas E. Goldman and his wife, Lisa, of San Francisco, CA; and Susan R. Gelman and her husband, Michael, of Chevy Chase, MD. He is also survived by his daughter-in-law Susan Goldman, widow of his son Richard W. Goldman, who predeceased his parents. In addition, Mr. Goldman is survived by his 11 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and his sister Marianne Goldman of San Francisco, CA.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, December 3, 2010 at 10:30a.m. at Congregation Emanu-El, 2 Lake Street (at Arguello) in San Francisco.

The family encourages memorial donations be made to Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy; Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties; University of California at Berkeley Department of Intercollegiate Athletics; or a charitable organization of the donor’s choosing.

Read the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund’s press release on Richard Goldman’s legacy online.

Read the San Francisco Chronicle article celebrating Richard Goldman’s philanthropic legacy online.