Nancy Grand honors late husband, Stephen Grand, by naming the renovated San Francisco Hillel building the Nancy and Stephen Grand Building.

San Francisco, CA—SF Hillel announced today it had received a $2.5M gift from Nancy Grand, a local philanthropist and active lay leader in the San Francisco Jewish community. This gift provides the catalyst for the SF Hillel capital campaign to complete its fundraising, allowing a renovation to the existing building at 33 Banbury Drive.

In recognition of this transformational gift ,the SF Hillel house will now be known as the Nancy and Stephen Grand Building. This gift honors Nancy’s late husband, Stephen Grand (z”l), a long-time supporter of SF Hillel, who passed away in 2021.

"Stephen understood that San Francisco Hillel serves all Jewish students who attend secondary education in the city,” said Nancy Grand. “It is my hope that the renovated building will serve many more students at a time of critical need.”

This gift is contingent upon SF Hillel achieving its entire fundraising goal of $8.2M. The Grand gift enabled the campaign to lock in a $500K challenge grant from philanthropist Joseph Pedott, stewarded a new $400K gift from the Herbst Foundation and an individual gift of $250K. SF Hillel must raise an additional $2.9M to complete its campaign by June 30, 2025, to retain the Grand gift. Once this milestone is reached, construction can begin. Additionally, while the building is now named, there remain other important naming opportunities for the organization itself as well as other features in the new building.

“We are deeply grateful for this generous gift and hope it inspires others to help us complete the much-needed campaign goal. Our students need this safe space, now more than ever!” said Carol Weitz, SF Hillel Capital Campaign Chair.

While serving both graduate and undergraduate students at nine campuses across San Francisco, its current site has security limitations as exemplified by the recent graffiti and break-in attempt. It is also not ADA accessible, nor does it have the space to accommodate all students who want to participate.

“This capital project is not only critical to providing a safe and inspiring space, but also allows us to host large events inside rather than in the foggy backyard of the building,” said Roger Feigelson, SF Hillel’s Executive Director. “We also support many students with their basic needs and can provide larger storage for our food pantry and private meeting space for mentoring and pastoral care. This much needed gift from Nancy Grand is the boost we need to help us get across the finish line by the end of June.”

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​Please reach out to Roger or Emily Simons, our director of development, for any additional information or to support this once-in-a-generation campaign. We will keep you apprised of our plans in the months ahead.