Our 2023 Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund campaign raised and granted $793,000, an all-time record in the Weekly’s 30th year of raising money for local nonprofits serving families and children. Almost 400 donations of all sizes from individuals, local foundations and family foundations, including many anonymous donations, and the proceeds from the annual Moonlight Run & Walk made it possible to make grants to 81 organizations, also a record number.
A list of the grantees and donors are to the right, and articles written about previous grant recipients over the years are below.
A unique feature of the Holiday Fund is that every dollar raised is given away each year in grants, with no administrative or marketing costs. The Weekly covers all the expenses and donates all the advertising. The program is a joint effort of the Embarcadero Media Foundation and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. A team of Palo Alto Weekly employees and retirees review and evaluate all the applications.
It is a tribute to the caring people of the Midpeninsula that almost $10 million has been raised and distributed over the history of the Holiday Fund — all of it to local nonprofits working hard to serve those most in need in the Palo Alto and East Palo Alto communities. It gives us great joy to connect donors with grantees so that so much good work can be done to make lives better.
Holiday Fund: Connecting underserved students to tech careers
Circuit EPA offers hands-on, immersive experience with technology that East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park students wouldn’t normally have access to at home.
Holiday Fund: The little studio that could
East Palo Alto’s first and only school of dance combines music and dance in a way that not only exposes children and families to Western culture’s “high art,” but also melds more traditional ethnic and cultural traditions.
The little studio that could
Giselle De los Santos performed as Cricket in the August 2023 production of Pinocchio. Mannakin Theater and Dance Company’s en Avant School of Dance, East Palo Alto. Photo by Bruce Fram. From plié and pirouette to carretilla and zapateado, the enchanting performance of this year’s “Nutcracker” by the students of Mannakin Theater and Dance Company’s…
Palo Alto Weekly launches annual Holiday Fund campaign with $800K goal
The Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund supports local nonprofit agencies like Bay Area Friendship Circle, which pairs children with special needs with teen volunteers to create inclusion and friendship. Here, children visit the Baylands Nature Preserve duck pond during a Friendship Circle family nature walk in Palo Alto in 2022. Photo by Emily Margaretten The…
