OVERVIEW: The S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation awards grants to California programs focused on education, the environment and nonprofit capacity building.
IP TAKE: This foundation is spending down all of its assets and is no longer accepting applications for funding.
PROFILE: Established in 2005, the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation is a private foundation based in San Francisco, California. The founder, Stephen D. Bechtel, always loved science, the outdoors, and California. He is the third generation in the family's global construction and engineering business. In addition to the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, he established individual foundations for each of the children and grandchildren in his large family to keep the Bechtel tradition of giving alive for generations to come. Bechtel died in March 2021. Grantmaking focuses on education and the environment.
Bechtel’s education funding has prioritized STEM education in the early grades. The foundation has supported Sesame Street's development of interactive games, videos, and hands-on activities. In Northern California, the foundation has also joined forces with other area philanthropies to implement common core state standards for math in the K-8 demographic. Bechtel’s environmental funding prioritizes the sustainable management, stewardship and conservation of water and land in California and has supported research, implementation of best practices and policy development in these areas. As it unwinds its operations, Bechtel has also supported nonprofit capacity-building efforts to strengthen local groups with similar goals.
Annual grantmaking has been between $120 million and $160,000 in recent years. View information about past grants awarded on the funder’s website. Grantmaking prioritizes Northern California, but Bechtel occasionally funds projects in other parts of the state.
The foundation is no longer accepting unsolicited proposals, discouraging letters of inquiry and only accepting and reviewing proposals on an invitation-only basis. Direct general questions to the foundation staff at 415-284-8675 or information@sdbjrfoundation.org.
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