For more than 40 years, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation has supported an array of nonprofit organizations in the four counties of San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey, and also in Pueblo, Colorado, the birthplace of David Packard. This longstanding commitment to local communities continues today. Through its Local Grantmaking program, the Foundation annually provides up to $14 million in support to nonprofit organizations in these locations. Beginning in spring 2009, the Foundation will begin funding nonprofit organizations in San Benito County through a partnership with the Community Foundation for San Benito County.

Grants are made in five focus areas of the Foundation including the Arts, Children & Youth, Conservation & Science, Food & Shelter, and Population & Reproductive Health. By invitation only, the Foundation also supports a limited number of community initiatives outside of these areas.

Funding

The Foundation provides both general support and project support to a broad range of nonprofits working in the Foundation’s focus areas, in addition to supporting a handful of targeted initiatives that address issues within our focus areas. Typically, our average grant size ranges from $15,000 to $150,000. Grant size is dependent on a variety of factors including the size of the nonprofit’s operating budget, number of people served by the grant, project scope, project outcomes, financial need and sustainability, historical relationship with the Foundation, and other determining factors. The Foundation accepts proposals on an ongoing basis throughout the year. Details about our funding areas and philosophy follow.

Arts

The Foundation recognizes the essential role the arts play in enhancing the lives of people in the community, and the effect arts education has on developing young people. We believe that a healthy community has an array of performing and visual arts organizations that contribute to improving the quality of life for its residents. Further, a thriving community ensures that children have access to the arts, which in turn contributes to their overall development.

Children & Youth

The Foundation recognizes that newborns and toddlers need positive early learning experiences that foster their intellectual, social, and emotional development and lay the foundation for later success. Further, the Foundation recognizes that newborns and toddlers living in high-risk environments need additional support to promote their healthy growth and development. In particular, the first three years of life are especially critical as they are a period of incredible growth in a child’s development.

School-age children need safe places to go after the school day ends that offer educational, enriching activities. The Foundation recognizes that after-school programs are a bridge from the school day to after-school hours where learning can be reinforced in fun, creative ways. After-school programs also provide parents an alternative to their children staying home alone, unsupervised, during the hours of 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., when they are most vulnerable to engaging in negative behaviors.

Conservation & Science

Our Conservation and Science grantmaking supports nonprofit organizations that are engaged in local conservation work and/or providing environmental education for children in the local communities. The Foundation also believes that being out in the natural world and learning about the environment is a wonderful way to bring families closer together.

Food & Shelter

The Foundation believes that our local community should be a place where the basic needs of families in crisis are met. As such, the Foundation has a long tradition of supporting area food banks and, more recently, organizations that provide temporary housing for homeless families or families facing crisis as a result of domestic violence. The Foundation recognizes the need these vulnerable families have and supports proven programs that work to preserve the family unit and help the family return to permanent housing.

Population & Reproductive Health

For over 40 years, the Foundation has tackled major reproductive health challenges in the United States. The Foundation has helped individuals to fully exercise their reproductive rights through access to services like pre- and postnatal care, sex education, contraception, and emergency obstetrical care, understanding that this will have a lasting impact on families and communities. Support for reproductive health issues remains a priority in our Local Grantmaking program, as does support for education and programming around teen pregnancy prevention.

Information on how to apply for a grant in Arts, Children and Youth, Conservation and Science, Food and Shelter, and Population and Reproductive Health

Community Initiatives

In addition to providing funding in the Foundation’s five focus areas, the Foundation supports a limited number of community initiatives that may often fall outside the five focus areas. Applying for these funds is by invitation only.

Pueblo, Colorado

The goal of our Pueblo, Colorado grantmaking is to support nonprofit organizations that are located in and/or directly serve the residents of the city and county of Pueblo, Colorado, the city where David Packard was born and raised.