Public Advocates

Public Advocates is a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories to advance education, housing, transit, and climate equity. By engaging in strategic partnerships with grassroots groups representing low-income communities, people of color, and immigrants, the group seeks to increase their capacity to shape public policy and discourse. This is a general operating support grant. (Substrategy: Student and Community Voice)

An organizational effectiveness grant to Public Advocates will help them diversify their revenue stream through the development of an individual donor program. While the organization has a strong fund development strategy with respect to foundations this grant will allow them to strengthen support from individual donors. Specifically it will support Public Advocates to hire a consultant during the first year of the initiative who will provide fundraising training to the Board of Directors and staff as well as assist in creating effective donor-centric messaging and materials.

Public Advocates focuses on increasing public transit, affordable housing, and environmental justice through work in the Bay Area at the local, regional, and state level. This grant will complement the set of grants focused on Bay Area implementation of SB375 (California’s policy for urban planning that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions). During this grant period, Public Advocates will encourage Congestion Management Agencies to increase investment in transit service levels and expanded ridership. Work will also include leading coalitions to build equity, environment, and jobs into the revised regional transportation plans and sustainable community strategies.