SFCM extends its heartfelt thanks to the Hearst Foundations, who announced a raft of grants of over $3 million to California organizations this week, with a $150,000 gift to the Conservatory. 

The Foundations are one of the Conservatory's oldest supporters: Since 1990, they have contributed over $700,000 to SFCM, helping fund, among other initiatives, The Ute and William K. Bowes, Jr. Center for Performing Arts, SFCM's award-winning "vertical campus" at 200 Van Ness Avenue.

The Hearst Foundation, singular, was founded by the iconic paper magnate William Randolph Hearst in 1946, who then went on to establish the California Charities Foundations, later renamed in his honor, three years later. Currently, the two foundations are managed as one entity, operating separately from the Hearst Corporation. (Other educational grants announced this week benefited literacy programs at Raising a Reader in Milpitas and the nursing program at Saint Mary’s College of California in Moraga.)

The "One Big Beautiful Bill" went into effect beginning in July, implementing major changes to the amount of federal student loans available to students and families, making gifts like the Hearst Foundations' all the more important to institutions like the Conservatory. 

In February, SFCM's Office of Financial Empowerment & Access Director Kellie Gaines (right) traveled to Washington D.C. for meetings with California Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff. SFCM was one of the few arts schools selected to meet with the senators, and Gaines discussed, among other things, issues like loan origination fees and issues facing international students. "Senator Padilla's office was the most engaged," Gaines recounted. "[They were] into what's going on in higher ed, how it was affecting us and how they needed to move."

Learn more about SFCM's Office of Financial Empowerment & Acccess.