Anthropic puts $50 million into a San Francisco Foundation fund for Bay Area nonprofits
The donor advised fund, announced Nov. 10, is to make its grants to local community organizations by the end of 2027. Its first four grants, $500,000 in all, go to a food bank, GLIDE, a winter shelter and a firefighters' toy program.
San Francisco. Anthropic, the San Francisco artificial intelligence company, has committed $50 million to a donor advised fund at the San Francisco Foundation, which is to make grants to community organizations across the Bay Area, with a focus on San Francisco, by the end of 2027. The foundation announced the partnership on Nov. 10.
The fund's first four grants, totaling $500,000, are being made immediately, and more are to follow through 2027, the foundation said. The release describes a donor advised fund as a charitable fund set aside for giving; this one is held at the foundation, a community foundation.
The first four grants
The first grants go to organizations that provide food, shelter and help for children. The SF-Marin Food Bank works with 265 community organizations across San Francisco and Marin counties. GLIDE, in the Tenderloin since 1963, serves three free meals a day, 364 days a year. The Interfaith Winter Shelter, founded by the San Francisco Interfaith Council, has for more than three decades brought together over 50 faith communities to offer people a bed, a hot meal and a shower in winter. The San Francisco Firefighters Local 798 Toy Program, run by active and retired firefighters since 1949, provides toys to children starting over after a fire or disaster, or living in family shelters, hospital wards or protective custody.
The foundation did not say how the $500,000 is divided among the four.
Who picks the next grantees
Anthropic will draw on the foundation's nearly 80 years of experience as it decides who receives grants from the fund, the release said. The company chose the foundation to build quickly on its roots in the Bay Area, according to the release. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the money is not open to applications, and that Fred Blackwell, the foundation's chief executive, called it one of the largest corporate gifts in the foundation's history.
The Chronicle also reported that the announcement came on the day Anthropic set pricing for its initial public offering.
“San Francisco has always been a place of enormous possibility, but that possibility isn't shared equally by everyone.”
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