The BASIC Fund Raises $1.7 Million in Nine Minutes
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, November 4, 2025
Panoramic views of the Bay greeted more than 200 community leaders, educators and philanthropists at the BASIC (Bay Area Scholarships for Inner-City Children) Fund’s Transforming Lives luncheon, held at the St. Francis Yacht Club on October 7. The event raised $1.7 million in nine minutes for early learning scholarships, thanks to a generous match of all donations made at the luncheon by Capital Group Chair and CIO Martin Romo, who serves on the BASIC Fund’s Board of Directors.
Keynote speakers included Romo, three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning author Thomas Friedman, Red Bridge founder Orly Friedman and BASIC Fund Chairman Jim Herbert.
Since its founding in 1998, the BASIC Fund has awarded private school scholarships to nearly 30,000 low-income preschool to 8th grade students across the Bay Area. Scholarship recipients have a 98 percent high school graduation rate and are five times more likely to graduate from college.
"The journey that so many of our families take, just getting here to St. James is a miracle,” said Alex Endo, principal of St. James Elementary School in San Francisco. “So we’re very fortunate to have a group of [BASIC Fund] families that are here that understand the value of what’s happening at our school. The BASIC Fund helps our students reach for their dreams.”
