BOARD OF DIRECTORS

David Fleishhacker
President

John Ehrlich, Jr.
Vice-President

Mortimer Fleishhacker
Treasurer

Deborah Sloss
Secretary

Delia Fleishhacker Ehrlich
Jodi Ehrlich
Jeffrey Fleishhacker
William Fleishhacker
Lois Gordon
Edie F. Rindal
Laura Sloss
Robin Strawbridge

Christine Elbel
Executive Director

 

HISTORY OF THE FLEISHHACKER FOUNDATION

The Mortimer Fleishhacker Foundation was founded in 1947 by Mortimer Fleishhacker, a banker and businessman who was active in many non-profit and educational institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area. He had been a founder of the Community Chest (forerunner of the United Way) and was for many years a Trustee of the University of California. He also served on the boards of various cultural organizations in the City.

The original Trustees were his son Mortimer Fleishhacker, Jr., his daughter, Eleanor F. Sloss and Paul T. Wolf, an attorney and long time friend of the family who acted as Secretary and provided legal advice. The original contribution, and the only contribution for three decades, was a building at the southwest corner of Market Street and Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco which Fleishhacker had acquired many years before. The building housed an automobile showroom on the ground floor and a dancehall on the upper floor. The dancehall was a legitimate business, being a place where San Franciscans could go to dance popular ballroom dances to good orchestral music. This form of entertainment was very popular in the days before TV and large screen movies. As a consequence of this building's excellent tenancies, a reasonable amount of rent was generated which provided a basis for early contributions of the Foundation to worthy causes. However, the net income was fairly limited and did not provide enough for any major funding.

After Mortimer Fleishhacker died in 1953, his son Mortimer Fleishhacker, Jr. took over management of the Foundation. The Board made yearly contributions to causes in which members were interested. Most of the grants in the early days were in the art or music fields to such organizations as the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera. In 1970, the building at Market and Van Ness was sold to a hotel developer for a considerable sum (at that time) which provided a much larger asset base for the Foundation.

This money ($1,250,000) was turned over to Dodge and Cox, an investment management firm, which invested the funds in stocks and bonds. During subsequent years the funds grew and continued to provide income which allowed the Foundation to constantly increase its grantmaking.

In the late 1960's, Mortimer Fleishhacker, Jr. (who dropped the "Jr." after his mother died.) became interested in The American Conservatory Theater (ACT) after seeing their performances at the Stanford Summer Festival. ACT was looking for a new home since they were no longer able to find support in the cities on the East Coast and Midwest where they had been operating. Fleishhacker promised ACT that he would find additional support for ACT to come to San Francisco, and together with Cyril Magnin and Ben Swig, he established the American Conservatory Theater Foundation which brought ACT to the City and set them up in the Geary Theater where they continue to exist. Much of the seed money and considerable operating funds during the first several years of ACT's presence in San Francisco came from the Foundation.

In 1976, Mortimer Fleishhacker died and the management of the Foundation was taken over by his sister, Eleanor Spilker Sloss. The Trustees met about twice a year to review the many applications which were starting to arrive as foundation granting was becoming a more popular means for raising funds. The process was very informal; requests were discussed and approved on the basis of individual interest. No formal guidelines had been established and no true review system was followed. There was an ever increasing flow of applications, and the need for a more formal grantmaking system became evident.

In 1978 the Foundation engaged the services of two consultants, who, after about two months of study, recommended that the Foundation hire a part time Executive Director. An interview process was launched and within only a short time Susan Robinson (later Susan Clark), who had been working at Lone Mountain College was employed for the job.

Since then the Executive Director position has become full time and is now held by Christine Elbel.

Mortimer, Jr. had left $991,000 in his will for his wife to use for charitable purposes. With those limited funds, a new foundation was set up under the name of the Janet and Mortimer Fleishhacker Foundation. At the time of her death, the Janet and Mortimer Fleishhacker Foundation became the "property" of her children, Delia Ehrlich, Mortimer, III, and David. The two foundations were merged in 1987.

By 1990, the Foundation's assets totaled $6.5 million. Its two grant categories, arts and education, were structured into program interest areas, allowing a range of needs to be funded within a stated set of priorities.

In 1998 the Foundation moved to the Presidio which had been de-commissioned as an Army base and put to civilian use. The assets as of 2007 had grown to approximately $17 million.