The Buck Family Fund
For decades, the Buck Family Fund of the Marin Community Foundation has funded community-led initiatives that support the most marginalized Marin County residents. We fund nonprofits based in Marin and those based outside the county that bring high-quality programs and services to Marin residents.
While grantmaking is an essential way to support Marin’s hard-working nonprofit network, we have established many other additional resources to help in different ways.
Strategic Initiatives Grants
Every year, Wells Fargo, acting in its capacity as Investment Trustee of the Buck Trust, provides MCF with a distribution from the Trust. It uses a court-ordered formula to arrive at the amount, which is typically in the range of $25 - $30 million annually.
MCF’s three strategic initiatives are funded by the Buck Trust.
Every person deserves to live in a safe and secure home. However, the high cost of housing and limited supply of affordable homes in Marin forces many people into unjust housing situations or homelessness.
While projected impacts of climate change like extreme weather events in Marin County and beyond are stark, there are many ways that philanthropy can act to reduce the impacts on our communities.
Marin’s hardworking nonprofits deserve the opportunity to focus on the work at hand. With multi-year, general operating support grants, we recognize the effectiveness of these organizations and shift some of the power from the foundation to the community.
Grantees
Legal Aid of Marin
A grantee under the Affordable Housing & Homelessness initiative, LAM recently received a grant to hire an additional eviction attorney.
San Geronimo Valley Community Center
SGVCC received a three-year grant as part of the Community Power Initiative, which will support its dedicated efforts to care for the residents of the San Geronimo and Nicaso valleys.
Play Marin!
A new MCF grantee, Play Marin! received a multi-year, general operating grant as part of the Community Power initiative.
CommunityFirst Loan Fund
We provide financing options to nonprofits in Marin that may not be able to access or afford traditional commercial debt.
Organization funds
For many small and medium sized organizations, having an Organization fund at MCF is a better alternative to a traditional banking relationship. It allows your assets to be invested in one or more of MCF’s professionally managed pools; it provides the ability for your organization to receive complex assets easily; to accept planned gifts (such as bequests); and for MCF to handle all of the administration.
Local events
Saturday September 13, 2025,
Reception & Dinner at 6:00pm, After Party 9:00pm
San Francisco Warehouse 900 Pennsylvania Ave, San Francisco
Saturday October 4, 2025, 4:30-8:00pm
Black Mountain Ranch in West Marin
BOOK A CONFERENCE SPACE
If you are a nonprofit organization based in Marin, or a current Buck Family Fund grantee, we’re happy to be able to offer you meeting rooms at no cost. MCF offers three meeting rooms of various sizes in our office located in Novato.
Please follow the steps outlined here if you would like to take advantage of this offering:
Review Marin Community Foundation Meeting Room Reservation Program’s Policies and Procedures to find out more about our program offerings, requirements, and available rooms.
Request an on-site training and orientation by emailing reservations@marincf.org.
Visit the Meeting Rooms Reservation Calendar to login to your account and make a reservation request. If you do not recall your login information or if you are not sure if your organization already has an account, you can request information and assistance by clicking the appropriate link on the login page.
Once you have logged into your account, please select a date and time on the Reservation Calendar for your meeting. Be sure to include 30 minutes at the beginning and end of your meeting for set-up and break-down.
As a reminder, all requirements must be submitted and a training must be scheduled before a meeting reservation request is approved. If you have any questions, please reach out to Trevor Reeves at reservations@marincf.org or (415) 464-2508.
MCF looks forward to welcoming our nonprofit partners to the Hangar!
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Register with us
Are you a nonprofit organization looking for funding opportunities? We’d like to know about you! Register with us through our nonprofit profile form, and your organization’s information will be accessible to our entire Philanthropic Partnerships team, who work with our more than 560 donors.
