June 30, 2021

Serving the community in which we live has long been ingrained in the values of Bailard and the mindset of its employees. The desire and effort of helping our communities was foundational for the company, but there had never before been a formal channel to organize or amplify Bailard’s service. To solidify the company’s commitment to our communities and increase the impact of what Bailard, its employees, and clients support, the Bailard Foundation was created in May of 2019 in tandem with the Firm’s 50th Anniversary. The Bailard Foundation supports initiatives that the Firm, its employees, and its clients value, as we seek to collectively improve the communities in which we live, work, and engage. The four focus donation areas of the Bailard Foundation are Affordable Housing, Homelessness & Poverty, Financial Literacy, and International Impact projects. Since inception, the Foundation has donated $126,508 to various grantees and remains appreciative of the incredible support received by clients, employees, and friends of the Firm.

Giving Highlights

Pandemic Relief: The pandemic drove a number of the Bailard Foundation’s charitable strategies over the past year. Given exceptional economic need, the Foundation focused on accelerating grant giving within its core values of Homelessness & Poverty and Affordable Housing. The jeopardizing of basic human needs such as shelter and food steered the Foundation’s giving to a number of food banks including SF-Marin Food Bank, Second Harvest Silicon Valley, Alameda County Community Food Bank, and the Food Bank of Contra Costa & Solano Counties. The Foundation also gave to a several San Francisco Bay Area grantees addressing homelessness, including First Place for Youth, Glide Foundation, and Larkin Street Youth.

Black Lives Matter Movement: In regards to the Black Lives Matter movement, the Foundation implemented a number of initiatives beginning in the summer of 2020, starting with a $500 match on any employee gift to an organization that seeks to address and end systematic racism and oppression of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). Additionally, the Foundation gave new contributions in support of Larkin Street Youth Services, Hope SF, and the San Francisco Bay Area chapters of 100 Black Men and 100 Black Women. Through both campaigns, nine organizations received close to $19,000 in grants.

New Grantees: The Bailard Foundation’s new grantees over the past year spanned all four focus areas of Financial Literacy, Affordable Housing, Homelessness & Poverty, and International Impact. A notable new grantee within the Homelessness & Poverty focus area includes First Place for Youth, which helps Bay Area foster youth transition to responsible adulthood. In regards to International Impact, the Foundation granted $5,000 to Raising the Village, which partners with rural communities in Uganda on economic self-sufficiency initiatives, helping lift villages out of poverty. On the Financial Literacy front, the Foundation made a new $5,000 grant to Able Works, which supplies youths and young families with financial education and life skills to help overcome economic hardship.

Grantee Highlight – First Place for Youth

Mission: First Place for Youth helps foster youth build the skills they need to make a successful transition to self-sufficiency and responsible adulthood.

Services: Each year, more than 25,000 young people “age out” of the foster care system and face the prospect of independent living. First Place for Youth steps in to support young people coming of age in the foster care system whose families can’t be there for them. Beginning with safe places to live, program participants are then matched with mentors, housing and employment specialists and youth advocates who help them to persist and succeed in school, build life and job skills, and work toward careers in high-growth fields.

Grantee Highlight – The Samburu Project

Mission: To provide access to clean water and continue to support well communities with initiatives that promote health, education, women’s empowerment and general well-being.

Bailard’s Involvement: In 2020, The Samburu Project drilled seven new wells that now provide clean water to communities in Samburu, Kenya. One of these wells was co-funded by the Bailard Foundation, and will support the 670 people of the Pasinae Self Help Group of Lechur Village.

The Bailard Foundation supports initiatives that the firm, its employees, and its clients value, as we seek to collectively improve the communities in which we live, work, and engage. The Bailard Foundation has a board of directors that is led by chairwoman Terri Bailard, widow of firm co-founder Tom Bailard, and features both select friends of Bailard, Inc. and employees.