The Simpson PSB Fund aims to create a world where all children and youth have the opportunity to reach their full potential through non-formal and formal education, art enrichment and the opportunity to live in healthy and safe families and communities. PSB grant making is need-driven, evidence-based and while not exclusive, prioritizes serving children in California or communities where family members are living.
The PSB Fund team works proactively to identify the highest-performing or highest-potential organizations to be recipients of PSB Fund grants. The PSB Fund, does not accept unsolicited grant proposals. PSB Fund grants are structured in ways that will leverage the PSB Fund’s investment and maximize overall impact for the organization’s beneficiaries.
Barclay Simpson and Sharon Simpson have supported causes in the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California for decades. They formed the Simpson PSB (“Put Something Back”) Fund in 1988 to give support for causes in arts and education. They included the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek; the California College of the Arts; Orinda-based California Shakespeare Theater; the California Symphony; the University of California Berkeley; Haas School Berkeley; University of California Athletic Dept; the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for Humanities at the University of Washington; Girls Inc.; GirlSMART; Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive; the Oakland Museum; Berkeley Library; University of California Library; Lafayette Library; and the Walnut Creek Library.
The Simpsons were among the very first major givers to many arts and education causes in Alameda County. They opened The Barclay Simpson Fine Arts Gallery in Lafayette in 1979 and operated it for over 13 years. The gallery was dedicated to modern art, but it also showed the Simpson’s collection of Rembrandt etchings and Whistler prints, which were later donated to the Berkeley museum. Each year, a group of graduate students at California College of the Arts would be given grants to create work that would then be exhibited at Simpson Fine Arts.
As generous as the Simpsons have been to the local arts community, they are even more passionate about education for young children. They started a reading program with Girls Inc. at Lockwood Elementary in Alameda Country to support children in kindergarten through second-grade with a reading program. The program offers academic enrichment activities, skill-building programs and counseling services to girls and their families. The Girls Inc Simpson Center for Girls in downtown Oakland was opened in 2014.