Our 2024 Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund’s 31st annual campaign raised and granted $646,000 to 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 73 organizations.
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 over $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: The art of learning
Palo Alto Art Center Foundation program turns Ravenswood students into creators.
Holiday Fund: Finding their voice
Kareem Mokhtar isn’t afraid to plunge into new challenges. Over the past two years, the Gunn High School student has designed voting guides for local and national elections, created art to support animal shelters and participated in workshops on topics like burnout and time management.
Holiday Fund: East Palo Alto nonprofit evolves to support Latino needs
Nuestra Casa’s founding board members partnered with other local organizations and the city to obtain a grant and eventually create the nonprofit to support the emerging Latino community.
Holiday Fund: College readiness nonprofit helps students get a seat at the table
The organization, about to celebrate its 30-year anniversary in the spring of 2025, aims to increase the number of students who attend and graduate from four-year colleges.
Local family donates $100K to Holiday Fund
A Palo Alto family has made its 14th annual $100,000 donation to the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund, hoping to give the campaign a boost in its final weeks. As in previous years, the family requested that their name not be made public. The donation will be used to match the contributions of other donors…
Holiday Fund: Tennis and tutoring program helps kids ace goals
EPATT works with more than 600 local kids, nearly 90 percent of whom come from low-income families, most in East Palo Alto or the Belle Haven communities. The program reports all are accepted into college and the vast majority who attend will graduate.
Holiday Fund: Helping ‘neighbors in need,’ one food box at a time
“The funds allow us to purchase the necessities requested by our community,” said Lesia Preston, executive director of EHP.
Holiday Fund: Cash for classrooms makes an impact in East Palo Alto
Just this fall semester, the all-volunteer organization awarded 189 regular teacher grants at 67 new teacher grants, for a total of $163,227 awarded to teachers – with more on the way early next year. In the 2023-24 school year, the organization awarded more than $385,000 in grants across 12 schools and 500 projects.
Holiday Fund: Ada’s Cafe trains special people to sustain themselves
Over the course of a generation, a small but mighty team has built a middle-school project into a community sensation in south Palo Alto. Ada’s Cafe percolates from a strong grind of hard work, brewed with a sense of mission and sweetened by long-standing community connections.
Holiday Fund campaign to help local nonprofits kicks off with $700,000 goal
The annual Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund campaign is getting underway this week with the aim of raising much-needed funds for local nonprofits that provide a safety net for families, children and adults in need on the Peninsula.
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.
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Apply for a Holiday Fund Grant
Nonprofits serving children and families may apply for funds by filling out the Grant Application Form. Application deadline: 11:59 p.m. on Friday, January 10, 2025.</p>