“Surprise is an understatement,” said the organization’s executive director Bita Nazarian, emotion in her voice. “We were over the moon with so much enthusiasm.”
SF Standard’s Article on 826 Valencia’s Yield Giving Award
Julie Zigoris of The San Francisco Standard wrote this article on our recent award from MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving Open Call!
“The staff of literary nonprofit 826 Valencia—so used to working with words—were uncharacteristically at a loss for them. They had just received news of a windfall $1-million gift from MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving program.
The Yield Giving program represents the first time the billionaire ex-wife of Jeff Bezos offered an open call for her charitable giving. Community-focused and community-led organizations—like 826 Valencia, which supports underserved students with their writing—were invited to submit grant proposals for consideration, rather than blindly hoping Scott’s philanthropic team would call.
The response, in turn, was tremendous: 6,353 organizations applied in what became a yearlong, multi-round process. Last week, 826 Valencia, the Dave Eggers-founded nonprofit, learned it had become one of just 361 organizations to make the cut—5% of the total applicants.”