New grantmaking initiative builds on work to create inclusive local economies in the East Bay
East Bay Community Foundation is deepening its commitment to building inclusive local economies by launching a new grantmaking initiative that will focus on community ownership and stewardship.
The inaugural round of grantmaking for this initiative will deploy $850,000 to advance EBCF’s vision of an East Bay where everyone has the economic freedom to dream, heal, and belong. This program strategy supports work that shifts capital, economic decision-making, and the stewardship of resources toward communities that are building inclusive local economies.
These groups are developing and implementing grassroots solutions to address economic inequities caused by systemic disinvestment. From community land trusts and real estate cooperatives, to worker-owned cooperatives, community governed investment, and mutual aid funds, communities are deciding how resources are invested into their neighborhoods and businesses.
This puts power in the hands of the community, creates a path to heal from financial trauma, and fosters a sense of real belonging in the East Bay. EBCF’s new community ownership and stewardship grants build upon our work supporting locally grown, East Bay-rooted small businesses through the Oakland Small Business Resiliency Fund, which allocated $2.3 million toward small businesses this year, and a long-standing partnership with REAL People’s Fund, a community-governed loan fund.
The new grants bring our total commitment in fiscal year 2025 to $3,652,230 in funding for initiatives that build inclusive economies in the East Bay.
“EBCF’s investment affirms the importance of grassroots, community-driven economic development…and helps us advance our mission of building community wealth through cooperative enterprise,” says Briana Sidney, Director of Cooperation Richmond, one of EBCF’s new grantees.
“From indigenous land rematriation, to community owned housing in the unincorporated areas of Alameda County, to Black-owned cooperative development, this group of grantees reflects and celebrates the diversity of our East Bay communities,” said Sabrina Wu, EBCF Senior Program Officer. “We are proud to support long-time and emerging leaders who are working toward a common vision of community ownership and stewardship.”
The inaugural list of 2025 community ownership and stewardship grant awardees:
Black Cultural Zone Community Development Corporation
Community Ownership for Community Power Fund
East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative
Northern California Land Trust (NCLT)
Oakland Community Land Trust (OakCLT)
Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC)
Uptima Entrepreneur Cooperative
Photo: Nearly 100 volunteers came together to beautify and celebrate Oakland’s historic Seventh Street Corridor. Credit: East Bay Permanent Real Estate Collective