{"id":12,"date":"2018-06-05T02:02:01","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T02:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF_copy\/?page_id=12"},"modified":"2026-08-05T18:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T18:25:18","slug":"who-we-are","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/","title":{"rendered":"Who We Are"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Founded in California in 1996, the Wakerly Family Foundation,\u00a0a private foundation, exists to provide financial assistance to qualified public charitable organizations, enabling them to conduct programs for the benefit of our communities. Our philanthropic interests include supporting private education; providing emergency assistance to at-risk populations; assisting immigrants to the United States with education, housing, and employment; promoting economic opportunities for disadvantaged households through low-income housing, job skills training, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship; strengthening emotional and mental health resources for children, individuals, and families; and improving quality of life for elderly populations and their caregivers. We support organizations that are funded primarily by non-governmental sources.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals at this time.<\/strong> Previous grantees are automatically invited to apply for future grants. For detailed grant application guidelines, click <a href=\"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/WFFGrantGuidelines2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>About Our Founders<\/h2>\n<p>Kate Wakerly and her husband John\u00a0Wakerly established the Foundation in\u00a01996. Kate passed away in 2004. Her vision and passion were instrumental in setting the course for the family&#8217;s philanthropy. Not only did she care deeply about the well-being of others, she was always ready to roll up her sleeves and get to work, whether this involved funding a new school in Nigeria, supporting community projects including the newspaper&#8217;s annual charitable fund, volunteering at a local shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness, or ensuring immigrants had a safe place to network, find jobs, and improve their English language skills.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_53\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-53\" style=\"width: 335px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-53\" src=\"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/MomVoice-240x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"335\" height=\"418\" srcset=\"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/MomVoice-240x300.jpg 240w, http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/MomVoice.jpg 384w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 335px) 100vw, 335px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-53\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kate Wakerly, Founding President (1948-2004)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The major service area of projects funded by the Wakerly Family Foundation initially included the San Francisco Bay Area counties of\u00a0San Mateo\u00a0and\u00a0Santa Clara,\u00a0California. After Kate&#8217;s death, the Foundation has remained committed to many of the causes she championed, while broadening its focus to charities where its board members currently reside, in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"color: #000000; font-size: 2rem;\">Our Board<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>John Wakerly,<\/strong> President<br \/>\n<strong>Gina Rich,<\/strong> Vice President<br \/>\n<strong>Ralph Wakerly,<\/strong> Treasurer<br \/>\n<strong>Michael Wakerly,<\/strong> Board Member<br \/>\n<strong>Susanne Robertson,<\/strong> Board Member<br \/>\n<strong>Marie Hoy,<\/strong> Board Member<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Founded in California in 1996, the Wakerly Family Foundation,\u00a0a private foundation, exists to provide financial assistance to qualified public charitable organizations, enabling them to conduct programs for the benefit of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199,"href":"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12\/revisions\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wakerly.org\/WFF\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}