Update: this round of voting has ended. We'll release the names of the top seven finalists soon
Back in September, we called upon you to tell us about the Bay Area charitable organizations that matter most. After receiving a staggering number of nominations (way to go, San Francisco!), we've narrowed the nominees down to the top 49. It's time for round two of San Francisco's Favorite Charities Contest, sponsored by SF's own Pacific Gas & Electric Company.
The top seven finalists that you select will receive $2,000 from PG&E, while the winning charity will win $10,000 and recognition at a festive event held in their honor at a SF hot spot this holiday season. It's the perfect way to thank these local organizations who work tirelessly thoughout the year to make our community the best that it can be.
Check out the nominees below, and go VOTE! Voting will continue through Friday, November 7th.
826 Valencia is a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting students ages six to eighteen with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write.
Academy of Friends annually produces the world’s premier Academy Awards Night Charity Gala as the centerpiece of its efforts to raise funds, award donations, and encourage volunteerism that benefit a diverse set of HIV/AIDS direct care and prevention education agencies in the Bay Area.
The American Heart Association aims to help build healthier lives that are free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.
The Breast Cancer Emergency Fund’s mission is to provide quick and compassionate emergency financial assistance to low-income people battling breast cancer in order to cover basic human needs, lessen financial burdens, and improve quality of life.
California Clean Money Campaign
The California Clean Money Campaign's vision is achieving an open and accountable government that is responsive to the needs of all Californians. They are a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to pursue that vision by building statewide support for public funding of election campaigns.
Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA SF)
Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA) is one of the country’s largest supporters of direct care for people living with HIV/AIDS and preventive education for those at risk. Merging care and commerce, supporters of DIFFA come from all fields of fine design and the visual arts, including architecture, fashion design, interior design, photography, and consumer product design.
Edgewood Center for Children and Families
Edgewood Center for Children and Family’s mission is to promote the behavioral health of children, youth, and families and to support a positive transition to adulthood.
The mission of Food Runners is to help alleviate hunger in SF, to help prevent waste, and to help create community. Food Runners currently delivers over 15 tons of food a week that would otherwise be thrown away. With help from their volunteer coordinator, paid truck driver, and community members, they can provide enough food for 3,000 meals a day in SF.
Glide's mission is to create a radically inclusive, just, and loving community mobilized to alleviate suffering and break the cycles of poverty and marginalization.
Guide Dogs for the Blind is more than an industry-leading guide dog school; they are a passionate community that serves the visually impaired.
Habitat for Humanity – Greater San Francisco
At Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, their mission is to provide local families with a springboard to secure, stable futures through affordable homeownership, financial literacy, and neighborhood revitalization.
Haight Ashbury Psychological Services
Haight Ashbury Psychological Services’s goal is to improve the lives of people in our community by providing low-fee psychotherapy to those in need, and education, training, and supervision to those who serve.
Huckleberry Youth Programs’s mission is to educate, inspire, and support underserved youth to develop healthy life choices, to maximize their potential, and to realize their dreams.
Job Corps is a no-cost education and vocational training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor that helps young people ages 16–24 improve the quality of their lives through vocational and academic training.
KEEN SF provides free recreational opportunities to children and young adults with disabilities by pairing them with trained volunteers for fun, noncompetitive activities.
Kiva Zip is a pilot program launched by Kiva, the world’s first and largest micro-lending website. Kiva became famous for enabling anyone with an internet connection to lend as little as $5 to alleviate poverty. Kiva Zip aims to help entrepreneurs access the financial services they need and lower fees and interest rates to make borrowing affordable and cultivate community between borrowers and lenders. .
The mission of La Cocina is to cultivate low income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance, and access to market opportunities. La Cocina focuses primarily on women from communities of color and immigrant communities.
The mission of Larkin Street Youth Services is to create a continuum of services that inspires youth to move beyond the street. They nurture potential, promote dignity, and support bold steps by all.
Lava Mae’s mission is to deliver dignity and unlock opportunity for those experiencing homelessness—one mobile shower at a time.
Literate Nation’s Mission is to empower our nation’s citizens with the literacy skills needed to thrive in the dynamic, global environment of the 21st century.
Little Brothers–Friends of the Elderly
Little Brothers–Friends of the Elderly is a national network of nonprofit, volunteer-based organizations committed to relieving isolation and loneliness among the elderly. They offer to people of goodwill the opportunity to join the elderly in friendship and the celebration of life.
Mental Health Association of San Francisco
The Mental Health Association of San Francisco advances the mental health of people of SF and leads the global community in advocacy, education, research, and supports that promote recovery and wellness while challenging the stigma associated with mental health conditions.
Mission Graduates is a nonprofit organization that increases the number of K–12 students in SF’s Mission District who are prepared for and complete a college education.
Northern California Family Dog Rescue
Northern California Family dog Rescue is dedicated to the proper care and socialization of their rescued animals and to making a great connection between dogs and humans. It’s their special mission to select dogs that do well with children and adults to help ease the adoption transition for families with children.
The mission of Oasis For Girls is to partner with girls and young women of color from under-resourced communities in SF to help them cultivate the skills, knowledge, and confidence to discover their dreams and build strong futures.
Pacific Community Ventures works to create jobs and economic opportunity in lower-income communities. They achieve their mission through small business loans, impact investing policy, and business advising and consulting.
Performing Arts Workshop is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping young people develop critical thinking, creative expression, and basic learning skills through the arts.
Project Night Night’s mission is to provide Night Night Packages, free of charge, to homeless children from birth to pre-teen who need childhood essentials to feel secure, cozy, ready to learn, and significant. Each Night Night Package contains a new security blanket, an age-appropriate children's book, and a stuffed animal, all nestled inside of a new canvas tote bag. Project Night Night establishes a foundation for lasting change through the hands-on volunteer opportunities that they provide to tens of thousands of individuals each year.
Project Open Hand is a nonprofit organization that provides meals with love to seniors and the critically ill. Every day, they prepare 2,500 nutritious meals and provide 200 bags of healthy groceries to help sustain their clients as they battle serious illnesses, isolation, or the health challenges of old age. They serve San Francisco and Alameda Counties, engaging more than 125 volunteers every day to nourish our community.
Queer Woman of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP)
QWOCMAP creates, exhibits, and distributes new films that authentically reflect the lives of queer women of color and address the vital social justice issues that concern multiple communities. They actively bridge seemingly disparate populations to transform and empower filmmakers, audiences, and communities through art, activism, and community building.
Rocket Dog Rescue is a volunteer-based organization serving the greater Bay Area, dedicated to saving homeless and abandoned dogs from over crowded animal shelters. They also help dogs from other areas that have compelling situations where they are in danger of abuse, neglect, or euthanasia. Rocket Dog Rescue places dogs into temporary foster homes where they are socialized, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and treated for any medical or behavioral conditions limiting their adoptability.
Ronald McDonald House of San Francisco
When families stay close to their hospitalized child, the child heals quicker and the family copes better. The Ronald McDonald House works to keep families rested, healthy, strong, and pulling together during their time of need.
Room to Read envisions a world in which all children can pursue a quality education, reach their full potential, and contribute to their community and the world. Room to Read focuses on making an impact in literacy and gender equality in education. They work in collaboration with communities and local governments across Asia and Africa to develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children and support girls to complete secondary school with the life skills they’ll need to succeed in school and beyond.
San Francisco Community Land Trust
The San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT) is a membership-based, nonprofit organization whose mission is to create permanently affordable, resident-controlled housing for low- to moderate-income people in SF through community ownership of the land. They focus on acquiring small apartment buildings and assisting the tenants with forming housing cooperatives through which they share ownership of the building, while SFCLT maintains ownership of the land to ensure permanent affordability.
The San Francisco Education Fund believes that strong public schools are critical to SF's viability and that the community must take action to ensure their success. By acting as a bridge between the community and the classroom, the Education Fund increases the availability and impact of resources for students and teachers throughout SF public schools.
San Francisco Housing Development Corporation
San Francisco Housing Development Corporation (SFHDC) is a community-based, non-profit organization focused on preventing and reversing gentrification in low- and moderate-income, minority communities. A hub for comprehensive financial services, SFHDC provides direct service as well as referrals to an array of trusted partners who share our vision of a healthy and vibrant community.
San Francisco Women Against Rape
San Francisco Women Against Rape provides resources, support, advocacy, and education to strengthen the work of all individuals and communities in SF that are responding to, healing from, and struggling to end sexual violence. SFWAR believes that no single individual, organization, foundation, or business alone can stop the epidemic of sexual assault, but by responding as a whole community, we each bring our piece of the solution.
For more than half a century, Save The Bay has given the Bay a voice and shown that Bay Area residents can work together to make positive changes in their communities. Save the Bay focuses on learning about how our past inspires our current and future as leaders in environmental advocacy.
SF AIDS Foundation works to end the HIV epidemic in the city where it began, and eventually everywhere. Through education, advocacy and direct services for prevention and care, they confront HIV in communities most vulnerable to the disease.
The mission of the SFSPCA is to save and protect animals, provide care and treatment, advocate for their welfare, and enhance the human-animal bond.
Shanti enhances the quality of life, health and well-being of people living with life-threatening illnesses, including Breast Cancer and HIV/AIDS. All of Shanti's direct service and educational programs are aimed at easing the burdens and improving the well-being of people in difficult life situations.
The mission of St. Anthony Foundation is to feed, heal, shelter, clothe, lift the spirits of those in need, and create a society in which all people flourish. They are committed to providing the poor of SF with basic needs and services as a gateway to reclaiming their sense of dignity and progressing toward stability.
Summer Search’s mission is to help low-income teenagers transform what they believe is possible for themselves and develop the skills they need to become college-educated leaders who give back to their families and communities.
Susan G. Komen Bay Area Affiliate
Komen SF Bay Area is an independent 501c3 with strong roots and community ties right here in the Bay Area. With the help of donors, volunteers and sponsors, Komen SF Bay Area helps to meet the health needs of low income, under-insured and uninsured women and men in the Bay Area.
Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation
TNDC provides affordable housing and services for low-income people in the Tenderloin and throughout SF in order to promote equitable access to opportunity and resources.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society-Greater Bay Area Chapter
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is the world's largest voluntary, nonprofit health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services.
Tipping Point makes sure the most effective nonprofits—those that create real opportunities for Bay Area individuals and families in need—get the support they deserve.
W.O.M.A.N., Inc. is dedicated to empowering domestic violence survivors to create lives free of violence. W.O.M.A.N., Inc. values teamwork and consensus, inclusion of all communities, and respect for survivors of domestic violence.
The YMCA of San Francisco builds strong kids, strong families, and strong communities by enriching the lives of all people in spirit, mind and body.
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