Tipping Point Community

Tipping Point Community is a grant-making organization that fights poverty in the San Francisco Bay Area. Founded by Daniel Lurie in 2005, Tipping Point screens non-profits rigorously to find, fund and partner with the most promising groups connecting Bay Area individuals and families to the opportunities needed to break the cycle of poverty and achieve economic self-sufficiency. Tipping Point provides this management assistance through the strategic partnerships it builds with private sector corporations and non-profit organizations.

Tipping Point is modeled after the Robin Hood Foundation in New York, and has been praised by the San Francisco Chronicle for giving "young donors a place to make their first foray into the charity world by taking on issues of poverty and class." In 2008 "Tipping Point has quadrupled the number of donor gifts and increased the amount it gives away from $450,000 two years ago to $5.5 million this year." Its board is composed of local philanthropists including Nikesh Arora, Chris James, Katie Schwab Paige, Jed York and former San Francisco 49er Ronnie Lott. The board underwrites all fundraising and operating costs.

Special Initiatives

• The Mental Health Initiative - Launched in 2008. In partnership with UCSF, Stanford University, and other experts in the field, Tipping Point grantees receive a combination of direct services from clinical staff and post-doctoral interns, agency-specific training, and consultation. Since the initiative’s inception, more than 800 families have been referred to services through the Tipping Point Mental Health Initiative. In addition, Tipping Point offers about ten trainings every year for frontline and supervisory staff on a variety of mental health topics, including the impact of trauma on academic achievement, motivational interviewing, and self-care.
• See Well To Learn - Research shows that undetected vision problems disrupt academic, behavioral and social learning, causing young children to fall behind immediately, before they even enter kindergarten. In 2011 Tipping Point raised $500,000 to launch a comprehensive mobile vision care unit in the Bay Area. Replicating a similar model based in San Diego, the See Well to Learn initiative is a partnership between Tipping Point Community and Prevent Blindness Northern California, with support from University of California, San Francisco and fuseproject. The initiative provides comprehensive screening and follow up optometric and ophthalmological care for low-income children in San Francisco and Oakland school districts and Head Start program.
• SingleStop USA – at the 2008 Benefit, Tipping Point raised $1.5 M to seed 6 SingleStop sites in the Bay Area. SingleStop is a national program that connects low-income families with untapped public benefits, tax credits and essential services. Slate Magazine called SingleStop "the best poverty fighting bet."

External links

• Tipping Point Community – Organization Website