The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund is a private foundation established in 1953 by
Evelyn D. Haas and
Walter A. Haas Jr.
As of 2019, the Fund has awarded nearly $625 million in philanthropic grants.
Based in
San Francisco, California, the Haas Fund supports
nonprofit organizations and initiatives in five main program areas: Immigrant Rights and Integration; Gay and Lesbian Rights; Education Equity; Nonprofit Leadership; and Community Partnerships and Initiatives.
The foundation supports
San Francisco Bay Area institutions such as the
University of California, Berkeley and the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and local efforts such as the ''
San Francisco Chronicle'' Season of Sharing Fund and the transformation of
Crissy Field
Crissy Field is a public recreation area on the northern shore of the San Francisco Peninsula in California, United States, located just east of the Golden Gate Bridge. It includes restored tidal marsh and beaches.
Crissy Field is a former ...
from a military base to an urban national park.
History
Haas's great-great-uncle
Levi Strauss, an immigrant from
Bavaria, arrived in San Francisco in 1853 and started a dry-goods house that grew into a prosperous business and eventually became
Levi Strauss & Co. A donor to organizations serving children and the poor, as well as the University of California, Berkeley, Strauss was credited in a 1902 obituary for his "numberless un-ostentatious acts of charity in which neither race nor creed were recognized."
Evelyn and Walter's three children and three grandchildren are the foundation's Board Directors: Walter J. Haas, Robert D. Haas, Betsy Haas Eisenhardt, Elise Haas, Jesse Eisenhardt, and Walter A. Haas.
References
External links
* {{official website, http://www.haasjr.org
Foundations based in the United States
Human rights organizations based in the United States
Organizations based in San Francisco