FAQs

The South San Francisco Education Foundation is an independent, tax-exempt nonprofit founded in 2022 by a group of parents and community members who are passionate about improving education in the South San Francisco Unified School District. Our start-up Board of Directors is made up of SSFUSD community members with backgrounds in nonprofit and equity work, and a strong desire to support education. Our intention is to significantly expand our team to more fully represent the SSFUSD community, and ensure a broad diversity of decision maker voices and points of view. As we progress through our start-up phase, we are collaborating extensively with stakeholders to identify feasible initiatives that will yield the highest benefit possible for all students in SSFUSD.

Learn more about what we do in our About section and who we are in the our Team section.

In California, public education may be free, but quality education is not. South San Francisco is one of the only districts in the Bay Area without a supporting education foundation. Other local foundations raise millions of dollars to support their school districts. This leaves our students at a disadvantage when they are attending college and applying for jobs. Parents, schools, community donors, and SSFEF must work together to strengthen our schools.

California used to have the best performing schools in the country, but public school quality is now ranked 37th in the US. Public schools in the US depend on state and local funding. Prop 13, which was passed in 1978 to cap the rate and slow the growth of property taxes, effectively cut funding for public schools in California in half. Many communities responded in the 1980's by creating education foundations but SSF's education foundation did not continue. We are decades behind compared to other districts.

The South San Francisco Education Foundation and Parent Teacher Association are both essential pieces in the South San Francisco Unified School District's funding puzzle, and are necessary to ensure all students have the opportunity to learn and thrive from kindergarten through senior year. While the PTA focuses on enriching the quality of campus experiences at individual school sites, we aim to improve the quality of education programming with district-wide initiatives that impact all students. We hope that families will generously support both organizations. Learn more about how SSFEF and the PTA complement each other in our SSFEF and PTA section.

We are currently collaborating extensively with stakeholders to identify feasible initiatives that will yield the highest benefit possible for all students in SSFUSD. Along with working closely with the district administration, our board of directors hosts listening sessions with school site leaders, educators, parents, students, and other local foundations. We are also establishing an advisory board of community leaders and education experts to help advise the Board when needed. Learn more about how we decide what to fund in our Funding Priorities section. Our Board votes on how to allocate funds, guided by these priorities. Anyone passionate about education can apply to be part of our board, including teachers and staff, but the majority of the board is required to be parents of students in the school district.

One of SSFEF's four core values is equity. We always center equity in what we do and how we do it. Our intention is to significantly expand our team to more fully represent the SSFUSD community, and ensure a broad diversity of decision maker voices and points of view. In practice, this means that (1) The SSFEF team aims to be reflective of the SSFUSD community, (2) We will gather input from the community before making decisions and feedback from the community after decisions are made, and (3) The programs we fund will seek to address the biggest challenges SSFUSD students face. Depending on a range of factors (such as amount of funding and what we are learning from the community), this means at times we may fund district-wide efforts and at times we may fund targeted efforts.

Similar to other public school districts, many of the challenges SSFUSD faces are due to chronic underfunding from the government. Our foundation is focused on raising more funds in order to better support students and give them the education they deserve. Donations to SSFEF can help provide SSFUSD students with opportunities for support and enrichment that would otherwise be missing. Other education foundations in our area use similar donations to fund additional staff hours (aides, counseling, specialists and instructional assistants), enrichment programs (art, music, science, technology), and other initiatives.

The foundation's growing leadership team has expertise in education, nonprofit management, equity, and youth support services. While we seek to work in collaboration with SSFUSD to ensure successful implementation of our programs, we independently gather data on the needs of students in SSFUSD in order to develop recommendations on how your donations will be used to drive impact.

If you are unhappy about any part of your child’s education, please communicate with your teacher, principal, superintendent or school board.

Yes, to the full extent allowed by law. The South San Francisco Education Foundation (EIN 88-1191386) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization, and we are currently accepting fully tax-deductible donations. Your donation contributes to the vision of all students receiving the education and resources they need to achieve their highest potential.

Many of these avenues for donating will be available as soon as our pending 501(c)(3) application is approved (expected in early 2023). Please join our mailing list to get alerted when these options become available. In the meantime you can make direct, tax-deductible donations by cash or check.