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Monica Pressley

Welcoming Monica Pressley

| by Denis Chicola in Fund News

The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund Names Monica Pressley as Chief Financial Officer

"Monica brings a wealth of experience in investment management and administration, along with a deep commitment to the power of philanthropy to strengthen our communities and change lives for the better" - Ira Hirschfield, president of the Haas, Jr. Fund.

The Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund announced today that Monica Pressley has been named Chief Financial Officer. She will assume her new position on November 2, 2016. Pressley joins the Haas, Jr. Fund from the S…

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Naturalization Ceremony

How Citizenship Made Our Family’s American Dream Happen

| by Cathy Cha in Immigrant Rights

Reflections on the power of citizenship

Program Director, Cathy Cha, shares the story of her immigrant father and how the New Americans Campaign is working to eliminate the barriers for naturalization.

During Welcoming Week, I am reflecting on the story of my immigrant father and the act of citizenship that made our family’s American dream happen. My father, Hyoju, was born on a rice farm in South Korea. At age…

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Citizenship fair

Citizenship and Its Privileges

| by Victoria Rodarte in Immigrant Rights

Reflections on helping new Americans navigate the path to naturalization

Less than 10% of people who could naturalize in the U.S. actually do. Victoria Rodarte talks about her experience volunteering at citizenship fairs, and what brings her to this work.

It was a typical foggy late summer morning in San Francisco. We were in an office in the Tenderloin district, which was set up for the day to help immigrants apply for citizenship. The room was filled to capacity, w…

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window of we are orlando Letter from the President

After Orlando

| by Ira Hirschfield in LGBT Equality

The next steps for LGBT equality

While marriage equality was a huge win for gay and lesbian rights, discrimination remains an enormous and deeply pervasive problem throughout the country.

As we mourn the victims of the Orlando shooting—shown above in window images on the Haas, Jr. Fund offices in San Francisco—let’s pledge to continue the work of making our country live up to its highest values and i…

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Newlywed lesbian couple

Winning Marriage Equality

| by Matt Foreman in LGBT Equality

How funders joined together to back a movement that fought for equality, and won

It’s not every day in a social justice movement when you can actually win and say that the job is done, but in the case of marriage equality, that’s exactly what happened.

This article was originally published in the Washington Monthly on June 22, 2016. On June 26, 2015, history was made when the U.S. Supreme Court made marriage equality the law of the land. This victory for soci…

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