Tipping Point Community is a grant-making anti-poverty nonprofit organization based in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
. It was founded by
Daniel Lurie
Daniel Lawrence Lurie (born February 4, 1977) is an American politician and philanthropist who is the 46th and current mayor of San Francisco, serving since 2025. He was elected in 2024, having defeated incumbent mayor London Breed. He is the fo ...
in 2005.
In 2017, Tipping Point committed $100 million to cut chronic homelessness in
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
in half by 2022. This initiative, in partnership with the City and County of San Francisco, aims to create housing, improve public systems like criminal justice and child welfare to reduce the rate of homelessness, and help the city leverage more state and federal funding.
Tipping Point is modeled after the
Robin Hood Foundation in New York, and has been described as "an organization that aims to not only help the poor, but actively change the systems that put them there in the first place." In June 2017, Tipping Point raised over $25 million. Its board is composed of local philanthropists, including former
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...
player
Ronnie Lott. The board underwrites all fundraising and operating costs.
On November 16, 2019, Tipping Point Community announced that founder and CEO Lurie would step down after 15 years of leading the organization, though he remained with Tipping Point as chair of the board. Sam Cobbs, Tipping Point's president, succeeded Lurie as CEO on January 6, 2020.
Special Initiatives
* The Mental Health Initiative - Launched in 2008. In partnership with
UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life ...
and
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, 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.
* Since 2013, Tipping Point has invested in research and development to fill gaps in the nonprofit sector and develop new poverty-fighting ideas. Known as T Lab, this R+D team exists to research, prototype, and test in partnership with Tipping Point grantees and the community at large.
* In October 2017, the
Northern California Firestorm destroyed over 8,000 structures throughout
Napa,
Sonoma and
Lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...
counties, displacing tens of thousands of people. Working with Bay Area enterprises including
Salesforce
Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, e-commerce, analytics, artificial intelligence, and ap ...
,
Twilio,
San Francisco Giants
The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...
, Another Planet Entertainment, and
Live Nation
Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American multinational Entertainment industry, entertainment company that was founded in 2010 following the Mergers and acquisitions, merger of Live Nation (events promoter), Live Nation and Ticketmaster. It ...
, Tipping Point produced the Band Together Bay Area benefit concert. Featuring
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
,
Dead & Company,
Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds,
G-Eazy
Gerald Earl Gillum (born May 24, 1989), better known by his stage name G-Eazy, is an American rapper. Based in Oakland, California, he began his career in 2006 and released two independent studio albums before signing with RCA Records to releas ...
,
Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq (; born Charles Ray Wiggins; May 14, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He rose to prominence as a vocalist and bassist for the R&B band Tony! Toni! Toné!, which he formed with h ...
and
Rancid, the concert raised $17 million to support North Bay nonprofits serving low-income victims of the fires. As of January 2018, $32 million has been raised for the Tipping Point Emergency Relief Fund.
References
{{reflist
Community foundations based in the United States
Poverty-related organizations based in the United States
Non-profit organizations based in San Francisco