About Us

The Civic Joy Fund is a branch of the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization the Civic Space Foundation and our mission is to revitalize San Francisco by investing and organizing projects that bring joy to the streets. 

Now let me tell you a bit about how this whole thing got started…
A few years back I had the idea of trying to raise funds privately to light up commercial corridors around San Francisco to bring joy, safety, and economic benefit to the streets that had been suffering from the pandemic. A year prior I had organized a gofundme campaign to light up Valencia Street and it totally transformed the street, bringing much needed love to my corridor and to the community. So I decided to challenge myself and see what we could do.  

That’s how the Light Up the City project was born and, after about nine months, working with community and private philanthropy we were able to light up 12 commercial corridors around San Francisco and change the way it felt to walk around these districts at night.

I had caught the bug and had many more ideas to bring together private funders with projects that could help raise the spirit of the city, help the small businesses thrive, and encourage a deeper sense of civic responsibility amongst my fellow San Franciscans. 

With that the Civic Joy Fund was born. 

I shopped around the idea to a group of potential funders to raise the first round of funding for five new projects along the same vein as Light Up the City. One of those potential funders I pitched to was Daniel Lurie who, in 2023, agreed to help raise the first round of funding for the organization as it’s co-founder. Daniel was super helpful in getting the organization off the ground and, once he decided to get involved in the San Francisco’s Mayor’s race in 2023 he fully stepped away from being involved in the Civic Joy Fund and hasn’t been involved since. 

Starting in early 2024 I decided to double down on our work activating the streets through joyous civic events, and raised a second round of funding to make those projects possible - call it Civic Joy Fund 2.0

Now in our second year of projects, the Civic Joy Fund has helped revitalize public spaces across San Francisco by bringing art, music, and cultural activities to city streets. We’ve teamed up with local artists, musicians, small business, and community leaders to transform public spaces and boost the city’s economic recovery. 

Some of the projects we are behind this year include Downtown First Thursdays, the Summer of Music, and the Night Markets all across San Francisco. We’ve got something happening in all 10 districts, with events every single weekend! None of this would be possible without the amazing support of our sponsors, in particular Chris Larsen, Bob and Randi Fisher, Joby Prtizker, and Levi’s all of whom helped us make the magic happen.

We’re just getting started.