The goal is the protection of everyone’s basic human rights, including economic, social, cultural, civil, and political freedom. As defined by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, these are not privileges granted by governments, nor can governments abrogate them.

Access to food and farmland:

$50,000 to the AGRICULTURE AND LAND-BASED TRAINING ASSOCIATION (ALBA), Salinas, Ca., to finalize and implement a business plan that is informed by a community food assessment for expanding market opportunities for Latino organic farmers, including ways to bring fresh, local, organic produce to low-income communities in the Salinas Valley.

$50,000 to CALIFORNIA FARMLINK, Sebastopol, Ca., to support education, service, and policy programs to increase access to farmland for beginning farmers in California.

$50,000 to the COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY COALITION, Venice, Ca., for continuing support of the California Food and Justice Coalition, comprised of organizations and public agencies working in the areas of nutrition, public health, education, sustainable agriculture, anti-hunger, environmental justice, community development, and other sectors to increase state and public support for community food systems that serve all Californians.

$80,000, payable over two years, to the SAN FRANCISCO FOOD SYSTEMS COUNCIL, to improve low income students’ access to fresh, local, and seasonal produce through the National School Lunch Program. San Francisco Food Systems Council will work with the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to increase the quantity, variety, and quality of local and regional fresh fruits and vegetables offered by testing produce items among different student constituents, identifying and testing alternative vendors, and assisting Student Nutrition Services in reformulating the produce bid to allow for local and regional farmers to sell directly to SFUSD. San Francisco Foundation Community Initiatives Fund is the fiscal sponsor.

$100,000, payable over two years, to SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE EDUCATION, Berkeley, Ca., to support the development of Urban Edge Agricultural Parks as a replicable model that addresses land access needs of small farmers, local food systems needs, and the need to transform urban-rural interfaces into permanently protected, multi-functional places that contain sprawl while providing fresh food, open space, and educational and recreational opportunities for urban residents.

Electoral reform:

$50,000 to the CALIFORNIA VOTER FOUNDATION, Davis, Ca., for the California Election Verification Program to assure and monitor implementation of the new state requirement that electronic voting is backed up by a voter-verified paper trail, and that local election officials conduct random audits to assure that the electronic voting is accurate.

$50,000 to the CENTER FOR GOVERNMENTAL STUDIES, Los Angeles, Ca., to promote reform of state and local campaign finance laws to achieve public finance of political campaigns and to assist civic and governmental organizations in determining the best strategies for achieving public finance of campaigns with an emphasis on the clean election approach.

$50,000 to the CLEAN ELECTIONS INSTITUTE, Phoenix, Ariz., to preserve, promote, and defend Arizona’s voter-approved system of public campaign finance, and to further build public support for clean elections and prevent an expected repeal attempt in 2006.

$25,000 to HABITAT MEDIA, San Rafael, Ca., to produce The Lost Art of Tea Tossing, a feature-length, nonpartisan documentary film that will examine citizen efforts to restore a more functional and participatory democracy in the U.S. by means of democratically financed campaigns for elective office.

Elimination of prejudice and discrimination based on sexual and gender diversity:

$100,000, payable over two years, to the GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE NETWORK, San Francisco, for continuing support of this statewide organization led by youth activists who are working to end lgbtq-phobia and discrimination in California schools. The Tides Center is the fiscal sponsor.

$250,000, payable over two years, to the PROTEUS FUND, Amherst, Mass., for continuing support of the Civil Marriage Collaborative, a donor-advised grantmaking program supported by institutional donors to bolster strategic state-based efforts to strengthen a broad and diverse grassroots constituency to achieve civil marriage equality in the U.S. and to oppose efforts to limit or deny civil marital rights to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

$40,000 to WOMEN’S EDUCATIONAL MEDIA, San Francisco, to develop a major-donor fundraising plan and strategic marketing plan to diversify funding support for the organization and for its Respect For All Project, a documentary film and educational program designed to foster greater understanding of diversity of all kinds among school-age children, parents, and teachers.