The Frieda C. Fox Family Foundation is a family-directed foundation, with a professional staff who have extensive experience in education and the non-profit sector. Grantmaking in Santa Clara County and Los Angeles County is guided by the foundations' Mission and Values, and focuses on supporting programs and innovations that impact children's education, leveraging public school/private partnerships to help close the achievement gap, improve high school graduation and educational goal attainment for underserved youth, and promote personal success for children and youth so they become engaged, productive members of our communities.

We do not accept unsolicited proposals for support, but offer organizations new to the foundation the opportunity to introduce their programs to us through a Letter of Introduction, an easy online submission process. For current and prior foundation grantees, we accept informal program and organizational updates via email, and invite proposals on a case-by-case basis for grants and/or technical assistance in response. Types of non-financial support include promotional videos and assistance with online marketing, fund development, organizational effectiveness, capacity building, scaling and collaborative projects with other community partners. We strive to be as paperless as possible, and strongly prefer that no materials are sent to us by regular postal mail.

The foundation's Board of Directors reside in the two counties we serve, and are family members and/or trusted colleagues of the Fox family. The eight members of the board are professionals with extensive experience in areas including business, law, accounting, internet technology, and education, and they take an entrepernurial, 'hands on' approach to their philanthropy.

Executive Director, Dana Marcus, has managed the foundation since 2003 when she implemented the initial grantmaking program and website. Since then, the foundation has provided financial and various types of high engagement support to over 100 non-profit organizations in the two communities we serve. Dana has over 25 years' experience in education and the nonprofit sector, having started her career as a public high school teacher and curriculum author in the New York City public school system. Dana has taught test prep classes for college and graduate school entrance examinations, and worked as a consultant, grantwriter and development director in the nonprofit sector prior to joining the foundation. Dana is an attorney and member of the State Bar of California. She earned her B.A. from Wellesley College and J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law.

The foundation has a very active "Junior Board," where our children aged 8 - 17 participate in and learn about philanthropy and community involvement. Each year, a few grants are made as a result of nomination and detailed presentation to the board by junior board members.

The foundation is an active member of the Association of Small Foundations, and the Council on Foundations, serving on various committees and supporting educational programming to strengthen the philanthropic sector. Our public outreach campaign, http://virtualsitevisit.org won a Bronze Award in the Council on Foundations' Wilmer Shields Excellence in Communications competition, March 2010.