Bay Area Inspire Awards

The Bay Area Inspire Awards Program has closed.

You can read about the former awardees and their innovative, community-oriented projects in Alameda and San Francisco Counties below.

2020 Winners

2017 Winners

2015 Winners

2014 Winners

Program Founders

Connie Rubiano and Peter Yedidia are retired healthcare professionals living in San Francisco. In recent years, they have become concerned about the Bay Area’s growing income inequality and the lack of capital for innovative, socially progressive young people to pursue fresh ideas for improving their communities. Inspired by the young people in their lives, they conceived of the Bay Area Inspire Awards and arranged for the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation to host the program in 2014.

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2014-04-11 10.00.43

Help us keep this community initiative thriving.

I believe that if a student is disengaged in education, this is because someone somewhere somehow failed them, and it is our job as educators to change that mindset. 

– Christian Martinez, Bay Area Inspire Award grantee