Our Strategic Priorities

The Y&H Soda Foundation makes grants in the East Bay that advance equity so that everyone can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential, regardless of their race or economic and social status.

We believe that advocacy at the public systems level is key to achieving this vision. We seek to partner with organizations that address inequity by advocating for public policy changes that directly benefit low-income East Bay residents and redirect public and private funding into their communities. We prioritize initiatives that propose local solutions from impacted communities and lift up their collective voices to achieve lasting change.  By funding organizations and initiatives that combine advocacy with community organizing and narrative change, we believe that the East Bay will provide greater opportunity and inclusion for immigrants and people of color.

Our two areas of grantmaking focus are:

(1) Economic Justice:  building an inclusive local economy where everyone thrives

(2) Immigrant Rights and Inclusion: building a region that values immigrants and protects immigrant rights

We understand that these two areas are interconnected, and we will place a high priority on grant requests that work at the intersection of economic justice and immigrant rights.

EQUITY CENTERED GRANTMAKING

We approach all our grantmaking with an equity focus. This requires a critical examination of the East Bay’s history, policy decisions, governance structures and philanthropic practices that perpetuate racial injustices in the economy and limit the full potential and civic participation of immigrant communities. 

Organizations or initiatives requesting funding must have:

• Programming that identifies and addresses the root causes of inequity

• Expected outcomes that build toward lasting change

• Success indicators that are tracked by race and ethnicity, and the data is used to inform, revise, and strengthen the initiative

• Impacted communities who:

  • Participate in developing, assessing, or refining project goals and outcomes

  • Are provided meaningful opportunities for leadership development by serving on staff, advisory boards, or the Board of Directors

• Demographic alignment between the impacted community and the organization’s leadership and staff