A company aiming to build a new community in Solano County abruptly stopped taking applications last week for community grants it pledged to award to local organizations.
California Forever stopped accepting applications on Friday for community grants that it plans to distribute before June 30.
The company did not previously announce a deadline for applying and did not answer questions seeking clarification on how the grants or deadline were advertised to eligible organizations or individuals.
Nonprofit grantmaking involves transparent application and reporting requirements, but as a private company, the donations do not require any formal application process. Interested organizations were invited to email the company for more information.
A company spokesperson did not address questions about the evaluation process, including who would be selecting the organizations and what criteria would be used.
California Forever spokesman Brian Brokaw said in a statement that the company had offered the grants because it considered Solano County underinvested in by Bay Area philanthropies.
A 2016 study commissioned by the county’s Board of Supervisors showed that Solano County received far less philanthropic contributions than other Bay Area counties. A 2018 update showed meager progress, with foundation dollars received per capita increasing from about $4 to less than $6 for Solano County.
For comparison, per capita donations in San Francisco by charitable foundations went from about $1,300 in 2016 to about $2,000 in 2018. The closest to Solano County in 2018 was Napa County, which attracted $93 per capita in donations.
Brokaw declined to detail the amount for potential awards or how the process would ensure transparency in who was selected or how the funds would be used.
“There was an overwhelming number of applications and our team is in the final stages of selecting recipients,” Brokaw wrote in an email. “We’re looking forward to announcing the recipients in the coming weeks.”
The company is seeking to change Solano County’s general plan to allow it to build a new community on 17,500 acres east of Fairfield. The community would initially be planned to attract up to 50,000 residents before further expansion, with a goal of settling 400,000 residents in the agricultural area.
Signatures are being collected to place the potential change to the general plan before voters in November.
The plan to give $500,000 in what the company described as community grants was announced in December, along with a list of initial recipients.
One of the organizations, SafeQuest Solano, received a $15,000 donation at the time, according to the organization’s former executive director, Mary Anne Branch.
She said the organization did not apply for or solicit the donation, but the organization, which offers resources for victims of domestic abuse, was very grateful.
“We were very pleased we were chosen for the donation,” Branch said.
She said there were no stipulations on how the money could be used and that it would be used to support the organization’s programs that help survivors of sexual assault and domestic abuse.
She said the donation was offered by a former board member of SafeQuest, whom she declined to name.
On accountability and transparency
The organization was selected by California Forever despite recent questions about its accounting practices that led to an investigation and reexamination of a contract with the city of Fairfield in 2023.
California Forever did not respond to questions about future community grants, or whether future offerings would be contingent on voters approving their plan for a new community.
The Trust-Based Philanthropy Project, launched in 2020 to address power imbalances in grant giving, publishes a guide on best practices for new philanthropies.
It recommends giving multi-year, unrestricted funding, being familiar with recipients and their goals, and making the application process simple by minimizing paperwork. It also recommends being transparent and responsive, soliciting and acting on feedback, and offering support beyond a monetary donation.