Ira Hirschfield

Ira served as president and a board director of the Fund from 1992 to 2016. As president emeritus, he oversees the Fund’s investments and continues to play a leadership role in three of the Fund’s key community partnerships: Crissy Field, the Presidio, and the Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund.

Among the Fund’s signature achievements under Ira’s tenure as the Fund’s President was its leadership in the successful drive for marriage equality in California and across the country. Ira also played a key role in an array of major local and national initiatives that express the values of the Fund. Under his leadership, the Fund supported the transformation of Crissy Field from a former military base into a 100-acre national park. Similarly, Ira oversaw the Fund’s work as it helped turn the Presidio into a National Park destination, with extensive hiking and biking trails and San Francisco’s only overnight campground. He worked in close partnership with longtime Fund grantee U.C. Berkeley to create the Initiative for Equity, Inclusion and Diversity, a sweeping effort to make equity and inclusion a priority in every corner of the Cal campus. Ira also helped launch the San Francisco Chronicle Season of Sharing Fund, which has distributed more than $200 million to low-income Bay Area residents in need.