The Zellerbach Family Foundation is a left-of-center non-profit grantmaking foundation that focuses on providing grants to left-of-center organizations that focus on the arts, left-wing approaches to immigration, and “promoting culture.” ¹

It is a founding partner of the California Immigrant Integration Initiative and Bay Area Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and it seed-funded a “rapid response network” in Northern California to respond to enforcement of immigration laws. The foundation is also a founding member of Northern California Grantmakers and the Arts Loan Fund and a founding funder of California Children’s Trust. ²

History

The Zellerbach Family Foundation (ZFF) is a left-of-center non-profit grantmaking foundation founded in 1965 by Jennie B. Zellerbach with an initial contribution of $54,600. In its first year, it provided a total of $8,210 in grants. ³

When Jennie B. Zellerbach passed away in 1965, she left the majority of her estate, worth approximately $4 million, to ZFF making it one of the leading grantmaking foundations in California. The foundation contributed $1 million in 1966 towards the construction of the University of California at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, which opened in 1968. ZFF also contributed another $1 million to the creation of the San Francisco Performing Arts Center’s Harold L. Zellerbach Rehearsal Hall in 1974. ⁶

The Zellerbach Family Foundation signed the Joint Statement in Support of DACA, a left-of-center immigration policy that allowed certain illegal immigrants deferred action from deportation and a work permit, in 2017 after the Trump administration announced it would terminate the program. Other signatories of the statement include the California Community Foundation, California Endowment, California Wellness Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, Rosenberg Foundation, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. ⁷

ZFF partnered with Northern California Grantmakers and other left-of-center funders in 2018 to develop a “regional strategy” to increase participation among demographic groups likely to support liberal policies and the Democratic Party in the 2020 Census including illegal immigrants, minorities, and low-income workers. The project, which awarded grants through the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and East Bay Community Foundation, also admitted that an undercount of these “hard-to-count communities” in the 2020 Census would risk California losing a congressional seat in redistricting, which “would unfairly diminish the state’s political influence at the federal level.” ^{8 9}

ZFF is a founding member of Northern California Grantmakers and the Arts Loan Fund, both founded in 1981. It is also a founding funder of California Children’s Trust which was established in 2018. ¹⁰

Funding

The Zellerbach Family Foundation provides grants to various left-of-center organizations and receives most of its funding from the sale of its assets, investment income, and contributions, and grants from other organizations.

ZFF received just under $4 million in total revenue and $9.2 million in net investment income in 2018. The foundation had a total asset value of $131 million with $8.6 million in the form of government obligations, $55 million in corporate stock, $4 million in corporate bonds, and $60 million in other investments. ZFF’s total expenses amounted to $7.2 million. ¹¹

The foundation received $4.6 million in total revenue and $8.6 million in net investment income in 2019. It had a total asset value of $144 million with $13.4 million in the form of government obligations, $63 million in corporate stock, $3.8 million in corporate bonds, and $61 million in other investments. ZFF’s total expenses amounted to $7.8 million. ¹²

The Zellerbach Family Foundation granted $4,845,220 in total in 2019, with $1.8 million going towards left-of-center organizations that focus on immigration, $1.8 million to organizations that “improve human service systems,” $749,320 to “community arts,” $295,700 to “promoting culture,” and $172,200 to grant support. ¹³

ZFF has granted a total of 50 grants totaling $1,049,500 to various left-of-center organizations in 2021. These grants include $30,000 to Immigrant Legal Defense; $30,000 to the Innovation Law Lab; and $25,000 to the National Immigration Forum, an organization that advocates for granting legal status to most illegal immigrants already in the United States and staunchly opposes border enforcement policies. ZFF also granted $15,000 to Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, one of the nation’s largest philanthropic organizations that provide funding to groups that mostly have left-leaning social-change missions such as those related to race, the environment, and gender. ^{14 15}

The Zellerbach Family Foundation also granted $100,000 in 2020 to the Tides Foundation, a major center-left grantmaking organization and a major pass-through funder to numerous left-leaning nonprofits. The foundation has been called a “dark money” group by right-leaning groups due to its extensive use of donor-advised funds to funnel grants to left-of-center political nonprofits. ^{16 17}

1. “About Us,” The Zellerbach Family Foundation, accessed August 1, 2021, https://zff.org/about-us/#financials.
2. “About Us,” The Zellerbach Family Foundation, accessed August 1, 2021, https://zff.org/about-us/.
3. “About Us,” The Zellerbach Family Foundation, accessed August 1, 2021, https://zff.org/about-us/.
6. “About Us,” The Zellerbach Family Foundation, accessed August 1, 2021, https://zff.org/about-us/.⁴

   The Zellerbach Family Foundation began contributing money to left-of-center immigration organizations in 1975 when it made a grant to the International Institute to benefit Southeast Asian refugees. ZFF is a founding partner of the California Immigrant Integration Initiative founded in 2007 and partnered with other funders in 2012 to create Bay Area Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2012 to support education and legal services for illegal immigrants. The Zellerbach Family Foundation expanded its immigration program to cover Sonoma County in 2016 and seed-funded a “rapid response network” in Northern California to respond to enforcement of illegal immigration laws. ⁵ “About Us,” The Zellerbach Family Foundation, accessed August 1, 2021, https://zff.org/about-us/.

7. ^[1] Zff, “California Philanthropy United in Support of DACA,” The Zellerbach Family Foundation, May 25, 2019, https://zff.org/2017/09/california-philanthropy-united-in-support-of-daca/.
8. “2020 Census,” Northern California Grantmakers, September 19, 2019, https://ncg.org/2020-census.
9. “Request for Proposals – 2020 Census: Everyone Counts!,” siliconvalleycf.org, accessed August 1, 2021, https://www.siliconvalleycf.org/sites/default/files/documents/census/census-2020-rfp-2019.pdf.
10. “About Us,” The Zellerbach Family Foundation, accessed August 1, 2021, https://zff.org/about-us/.
11. Mike Tigas Ken Schwencke, “THE ZELLERBACH FAMILY Foundation – Form Form 990-PF for Period Ending Dec 2018 – Nonprofit Explorer,” ProPublica, May 9, 2013, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/946069482/01_2020_prefixes_94-95%2F946069482_201812_990PF_2020011617042512.
12. Mike Tigas Ken Schwencke, “THE ZELLERBACH FAMILY Foundation – Form Form 990-PF for Period Ending Dec 2019 – Nonprofit Explorer,” ProPublica, May 9, 2013, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/946069482/03_2021_prefixes_94-99%2F946069482_201912_990PF_2021030117772778.
13. “About Us,” The Zellerbach Family Foundation, accessed August 1, 2021, https://zff.org/about-us/#financials.
14. “Grants,” The Zellerbach Family Foundation, accessed August 1, 2021, https://zff.org/grants/2021-2022/0-400000/immigrants-and-refugees/all/.
15. “Featured Projects,” Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, January 17, 2019, https://www.rockpa.org/projects/issue-areas/.
16. “Grants,” The Zellerbach Family Foundation, accessed August 1, 2021, https://zff.org/grants/2010-2022/0-400000/immigrants-and-refugees/all/.
17. Editorial Writer and Oleksiy Fedorov, “Examiner Editorial: The Left’s Tides Foundation Is Leader in Secret Political Money,” Washington Examiner, December 10, 2013, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/examiner-editorial-the-lefts-tides-foundation-is-leader-in-secret-political-money.