We hope you will take some time to explore and find delight in the Heart of Our Home, San Francisco Bay.

From all of us, to all of you, wishing you a healthy and happy holiday season.

The Bay Savers at Save The Bay

Have you been meaning to mix up your holiday shopping with some holiday giving?

A donation to Save The Bay could help us create habitat, prevent pollution, or connect students to wetlands they might not otherwise have the chance to explore.

Plus, we’re happy to share: checks and credit cards aren’t the only ways to support our work!

Ways You Can Protect the Heart of our Home:

• Vehicle Donation Program – Yes, cars can help our cause! Save The Bay’s vehicle and boat donation program provides crucial support to our programs. Making the donation is easy – visit www.savesfbay.org/vehicle-donations to turn your unwanted vehicle into a charitable contribution.
• Donating your IRA Assets – Use your traditional IRA to make your charitable gift. The IRA Charitable Rollover allows people age 70 ½+ to make charitable gifts up to $100,000/year directly to Save The Bay without incurring federal income tax on the withdrawal. Contact Katie Reitter at KReitter@saveSFbay.org or 510-463-6837 to get the process started.
• Planned Giving – When you include Save The Bay in your will, trust, or beneficiary listings, you help ensure that future generations will enjoy a healthy, vibrant Bay. Your estate gift will have a lasting impact on the Bay, allowing diverse communities around the region to experience its beauty. Let us know that you have included Save The Bay in your estate plans and we’ll send you a beautiful framed Bay photo as a special thanks! Contact Katie Reitter at KReitter@saveSFbay.org or 510-463-6837.
• Stock Donations – Did you know that Save The Bay accepts stock gifts? By making a gift of stock held longer than one year, you avoid paying capital gains tax altogether. Visit www.savesfbay.org/stock for account information.
• Workplace Giving & Matching Gifts – Your employer may offer valuable ways for you to support Save The Bay’s programs. Visit www.savesfbay.org/employer-matched-gifts to learn if payroll deduction contributions and matching gifts are possibilities at your organization.
• AmazonSmile – Give back while you shop this holiday season! Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible purchases to Save The Bay whenever you shop on AmazonSmile.  Simply visit www.smile.amazon.com and select Save The Bay as your charity of choice.
• Make a Tribute Gift – You can even celebrate a loved one while championing our programs. Give to Save The Bay in honor of a friend’s birthday, wedding or other special event. You can also give the gift of membership! Visit www.savesfbay.org/tribute to make your tribute gift today.
• Become a Bay Sustainer – Of course, traditional donations are always welcome! Bay Sustainers are a special group of Save The Bay members who make regular monthly gifts. Sign up to be a Bay Sustainer and we will send you a limited edition Save The Bay t-shirt: www.savesfbay.org/baysustainer
• Volunteer – 44,000 pounds of weeds can’t remove themselves! Our dedicated volunteers were behind that breathtaking stat and many more this year. Save The Bay is profoundly grateful to have the support of thousands of people who show up rain or shine to pitch in at our restoration events. Their hard work helps us create habitat, protect wildlife, and improve water quality across San Francisco Bay. Check out our calendar to get involved: https://www.savesfbay.org/volunteer/calendar 

All of these options help Save The Bay protect the heart of our home for future generations.

For more information on the numerous ways to give please, contact Jackie Richardson at Jackie@saveSFbay.org or at 510-463-6835.

 

One of the most enjoyable events I get to run in my role is Save The Bay’s Brunch by the Bay. On Saturday, August 19^th we hosted more than 60 guests, including many founding members, at the Berkeley Yacht Club to commemorate the organization’s founding and discuss our plans for the future.  We look forward to this event every year as a way to honor the organization’s deep roots and remind ourselves that our founders accomplished “impossible” things against all odds.  Sylvia, Kay, and Esther were three women living in a world dominated by men in the 1950s and 1960s. Their world had no environmental protection laws, and they successfully banded together for the good of the Bay and the communities that call it home.

I have spent my entire adult life and the majority of my decade long career standing up for women’s rights. When I learned about the founding of Save The Bay and the three fearless women who started a revolutionary movement to prevent Bay fill, I immediately wanted to join the cause. I enjoy working for Save The Bay because of our inspiring founding story, my Bay Area roots, and most importantly so I can teach my 18 month old daughter the importance of fighting climate change through proactive and nature-based solutions.

A commonly held goal amongst parents is to make the world better for our children and generations to come. This sentiment was echoed at the Founder’s Brunch by Allison Chan, our Bay Smart Communities Manager, who is making real strides on behalf of Save The Bay to help the Bay Area reach zero trash by 2022. One thing that drives Allison is the hope that her baby girl will grow up in a cleaner and healthier environment. Our other speaker, Kenneth Rangel, spoke about his work on the habitat restoration team and how some of the students he takes to the shoreline have never seen the Bay despite growing up just a few miles away. Thanks to Kenneth and his fellow restoration colleagues, Save The Bay leads over 5,000 volunteers to restore the shoreline every year.

We must honor the unprecedented victories of our founders and continue to protect, preserve, and restore our beautiful Bay, which is at the heart of our Bay Area community. By joining the Save The Bay Legacy Society, you can support this vision! Your legacy can be to leave this beautiful community stronger and more resilient for those who come after us.  I am so moved that Save The Bay has received almost a quarter of a million dollars in legacy bequest gifts this year.  This unexpected funding allows us to hire and retain staff, like Kenneth and Allison, and equip them to engage more volunteers and advocates.

In the spirit of legacy, I encourage you to join us as a member of Save The Bay’s Legacy Society. We are so passionate about our Legacy Society that we’re offering a special, one-time opportunity to receive a beautiful framed photo of San Francisco Bay if you let us know that we are a part of your estate plans.  To learn more about legacy giving and receive your Bay photo, please contact me at kreitter@savesfbay.org or 510-463-6837.

I continue to be inspired by the stories of our founding members—how the Bay was in a dire state before Save The Bay was formed and how our founders’ tenacity and grit helped to transform it. I am grateful to our founding members for making the Bay Area a better place for me, and I am committed to doing the same for my daughter. Thank you for standing with us.