The Bay Area antipoverty grant-making nonprofit founded by Mayor Daniel Lurie had its biggest gala haul yet
Words by CATHERINE BIGELOW
Photography by DREW ALITZER PHOTOGRAPHY
A whopping $40 million was raised in one fell swoop — along with the rafters at a postparty concert starring rapper Ludacris — on May 8 at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium during the annual Tipping Point benefit, aptly themed “Green Means Go.”
Mayor Daniel Lurie founded this Bay Area antipoverty nonprofit in 2005, and it has a unique structure among NGOs. Board members fund all Tipping Point operational costs, so every dollar raised annually goes back to its 50-plus grantees. The money assists some 120,000 people in achieving housing, education, job training, and healthy living initiatives.
The 2025 stats from Tipping Point are sobering: 1.8 million people in the Bay Area live in poverty, even though half of them have a full-time job. Yet the numbers are also hopeful: 93% of students in Tipping Point–funded programs enrolled in college and, over three years, job training participants experienced a 128% wage increase.
CEO Sam Cobbs was determined to welcome as many of the 1,110 supporters alighting on the green carpet with a hearty handshake. He shared that amid a volatile economy leaning heavily into AI automation, his devoted staff is way too busy.
“Our work matters: It’s the difference between somebody being housed and somebody not. It’s the difference between having access to a great education or not.”
“This past year, on a budget of $35 to $40 million, we served more people than ever. Poverty and inequality are on the rise, especially as technology replaces jobs and more people are on the verge,” he said. “But what inspires me every morning is that our work matters: It’s the difference between somebody being housed and somebody not. It’s the difference between having access to a great education or not.”
Thankfully, the night’s take also included a $25 million gift by Silicon Valley billionaire developer John Sobrato and his wife, Sue Sobrato, one of single largest gifts in the history of this philanthropic couple’s family foundation.
Eschewing the typical gala descriptor, the dress code instructed no black tie, marking it as a fundraiser favorite among sports stars and tech titans, who easily waved glowing fund-a-need batons to pledge a cool $1 million without breaking a sweat.
Among top tippers: First Lady Becca Prowda; Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom and his wife, Nicole; Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and NBA champ Andre Iguodala; actor Connie Nielsen; Sobia and Nadir Shaikh; fintech founder Dipanjan “DJ” Deb; and Tipping Point board members, including chairman Gabe Santos, Katie Schwab Paige, Alec Perkins, and Gregg Perloff, the music impresario who revived the Castro Theater and manages many stages, including the event’s auditorium.
“We can choose to use this moment to expand opportunity and access.”
Rows of tables were decorated like clear-sailing roadmaps created by designer Jon de la Cruz. McCalls Catering & Events served a three-course supper, including a spring salad and Jina Bakes’s viral sensation salt bread, accompanied by a surprise tune from Grammy-winning singer Maggie Rogers.
The evening also shone a spotlight on success stories of Tipping Point clients: Rivet School alum Alyssia Hewitt; JVS: Together We Work apprentice Diego Aguilar; and Homeless Prenatal Program Executive Director Shellena Eskridge, whose full-circle experience traces back to her mother, Shelley Eskridge, a recipient of life-saving housing from the early days of HPP — Tipping Point’s inaugural grantee.
In December, Tipping Point announced a strategic partnership with AI giant Anthropic to provide its grantees with cutting-edge tools and training to navigate the disruption of an AI-driven workplace.
“I can’t think about what we’re building at Anthropic without thinking about who it’s being built for,” said Anthropic president Daniela Amodei, who cofounded the company with her brother, Dario Amodei. Serving as event cochair, Amodei — a San Francisco native and proud Lowell High School grad — linked these Tipping Point success stories to her personal journey.
“San Francisco has always been two things at once: a place of enormous possibility [and] a place where that possibility is not equally shared by all of our citizens. At Anthropic, one of our cultural values is to hold light and shade, that two contradictory things can be true at once,” she said. “AI is going to shake things up in ways that are hard to predict: how we work, how we learn, how we understand our place and value in the world. It’s why Anthropic chose to partner with Tipping Point — so more of their time and dollars can directly go to the people who need them most. What worries me most isn’t the technology itself, but the choices we will collectively make about what we do with it. We can choose to use this moment to expand opportunity and access. Or, to continue to widen a yawning chasm of inequality.”
Feature image: Tipping Point Community Annual Benefit.
May 27, 2026
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