The Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, a major San Francisco philanthropic foundation run by descendants of Levi Strauss, will shut down in 2028 after 75 years.
This move is designed to free up younger generations to continue their charitable donations independently, according to fund board chair Wally Haas.
The Haas Jr. Fund has given away more than $780 million since its founding and has about $500 million in assets remaining. In recent years, its giving has focused on immigrant rights, democracy and equity in college education.
Historically, the foundation was known for supporting Jewish causes, but grants in that area have become fewer and smaller over time.
In 2024, the Haas Jr. Fund gave the Jewish Family Service of San Diego $100,000 to support asylum seekers. In recent years, the fund made annual grants of $25,000 to the Jewish Federation Bay Area, $5,000 to the New Israel Fund, a left-leaning nonprofit that supports civil and human rights in Israel, and $1,000 to the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco.
Wally Haas, son of Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr., said in a June 1 letter on behalf of the board — which is made up of the second and third generations of the fund’s founders — that three significant grants will continue past 2028.
The fund will keep giving money to the Season of Sharing Fund, which offers housing and food assistance for low-income families in the Bay Area, to the Haas Pavilion at UC Berkeley and to San Francisco’s Crissy Field. The foundation donated $18 million in the late 1990s to revitalize Crissy Field, a former military base along the Bay. At the time, it was the largest cash gift in the history of the National Park Service, according to the foundation website.
“We are deeply grateful to the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund for seven decades of extraordinary philanthropic generosity in the Bay Area,” Danielle Foreman, chief strategy and impact officer for the Jewish Federation Bay Area, said in an email to J. “Their philanthropy is a living expression of how Jewish values build bridges to the civic community.”
The Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund should not be confused with the Walter and Elise Haas Fund — run by another branch of the same family and often referred to as the “Haas Sr.” fund. Jewish giving was a major focus of the Haas Sr. fund, but it pivoted to other priorities in 2023.
In two years when it shuts down, the Haas Jr. Fund will distribute its remaining assets to charities set up by various family members.
“As the children and grandchildren of Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr., we all remain deeply committed to using our philanthropy to make a positive and powerful difference for years to come,” Wally Haas wrote in his letter.
Walter Haas Jr., who died in 1995, was former CEO of Levi Strauss & Co. and the great-great-grandnephew of Levi Strauss. His wife, Evelyn Haas, a longtime director of the Haas Jr. Fund, died in 2010 at the age of 92.