We are excited to announce the launch of our first cohorts of power-building organizations in Santa Clara, California. Over five years, these two cohorts will each manage a $3.2 million pool of capacity-building funding, paving the way for increased collaboration and self-determined impact.
Santa Clara Valley is a region with a rich and vibrant history. As the ancestral homeland of the Ohlone, it’s long been shaped by labor movements, with many communities of color calling it home.
This history has been overshadowed, at least in part, by the rise of Silicon Valley. Once a hub for many labor organizing efforts, including the formation of the United Farm Workers’ Organizing Committee (UFWOC), Santa Clara County has experienced a visible shift in the workforce, characterized by rising wealth disparities and rapid gentrification that continues to impact the region and its residents—primarily Asian, Black, Native, and Latine communities.
As we began researching for our 2025 community engagements and learned more about the funding landscape in this community, it became clear we needed to expand our grantmaking to include new-to-us communities in the Bay Area that are organizing to build a new vision for the future.
Santa Clara: More Than Just a Tech Hub
Santa Clara County comprises 15 cities and carries a powerful legacy rooted in labor organizing, migration, and resistance. Today, patterns of wealth and income inequality, displacement, gentrification, housing insecurity, and unemployment are prevalent—the result of systemic inequities that have isolated communities of color and created deep and visible racial and economic divides in the region.
According to the 2025 Silicon Valley Pain Index, Santa Clara County has the highest number of unhoused residents of all nine Bay Area counties. In San Jose, communities of color comprise a significant portion of the unhoused population, with Latine residents making up 25 percent of the city’s population, Black residents accounting for just over 2 percent of the population, and Native residents comprising fewer than one percent of the population but accounting for 44 percent, 17 percent, and 7 percent of the city’s unhoused population, respectively.
San Jose is also the most expensive large city in the nation to live in, with home ownership requiring an annual household income of more than $460,000. In nearby Palo Alto, decades of discriminatory housing practices and gentrification have divided the city, pushing Black and Brown residents further away from the more affluent areas of Palo Alto.
Despite the data, Santa Clara holds plenty of promise—with an evolving landscape of grassroots organizations advancing solutions in direct response to these challenges. Through conversations with community members, nonprofit leaders, and local funders, we heard stories of communities uniting to share resources, strengthen connections, and build trust. We also heard calls for greater investment from institutions to support community well-being and equity.
Launching Our Santa Clara Power-building Cohorts
We’re excited to announce the launch of our first cohorts of power-building organizations in Santa Clara, California.
For these two cohorts, we will increase the pool of capacity-building grant funds from $2.5 million to $3.2 million over the life of each cohort as part of our initial response to rising inflation, paving the way for these six organizations to sustain and expand their impact.
Introducing Our Newest Cohorts
Santa Clara Power Builders #1
Climate Resilient Communities seeks to empower community voices and implement frontline, locally led climate solutions for unity, resilience, and justice that result in immediate & tangible improvements in the lives of residents.
People Acting in Community Together (PACT)
People Acting in Community Together’s (PACT) mission is to empower everyday people to create a healthier and just society by winning extraordinary victories for the community – not by speaking for them, but by teaching people how to speak up and take action in the public arena through grassroots organizing.
Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN)
Services Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN) supports immigrant and refugee communities in California as their own agents of change through community education, organizing, leadership development, legal services, policy advocacy, and civic engagement.
Santa Clara Power Builders #2
Day Worker Center of Mountain View
The Day Worker Center of Mountain View connects workers and employers in a safe and supportive environment, empowers workers to improve their socioeconomic condition through fair employment, education, and job skills training, and participates in advocacy efforts that support the day laborer community.
Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley
The Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley educates, prepares, and connects Latinas in civic engagement and leadership development, as an expression of our shared values of service, commitment, and appreciation for the Latinas who have paved the way for success.
Latinos United for a New America (LUNA)
Latinos United for a New America’s (LUNA) mission is to unify Latine immigrants in Silicon Valley to significantly improve the quality of life of Latine families and the future of Latine youth through advocacy and civic participation to achieve real, long-lasting changes in housing and environmental justice.
Looking to the Future
Santa Clara is more than just a tech hub—it’s also a community that’s rich with cultural history and steeped in the legacy of the Asian, Black, Native, and Latine communities who have shaped it into the abundant region it is today. We’re thrilled to spend the next five years partnering and learning alongside these six organizations, and making the case for other funders to follow suit.
