Sand Hill Foundation

Sand Hill Foundation

Sand Hill Foundation was established in 1994 by Susan Ford Dorsey and Tom Ford, with wealth originating from Tom Ford's real estate development firm, Sand Hill Property Company. The foundation's corpus was substantially funded by proceeds from the sale of its 13-building office portfolio on Sand Hill Road, a stretch Tom Ford helped develop into the epicenter of venture capital on the West Coast. Susan Ford Dorsey, a former CFO of Ford Land Company, serves as President and directs the foundation's strategy, while her husband Michael Dorsey serves as Treasurer. The foundation deploys capital exclusively through grantmaking, having distributed over $154 million since 1995 to organizations in San Mateo County. Its dual mandate targets economic stability and wellness for low-income families alongside advocacy for a sustainable environment. Unlike many perpetual endowments, Sand Hill has publicly committed to accelerating its payout and plans to grant the majority of its assets by 2029, an explicit spend-down strategy that positions it as a time-limited vehicle rather than a permanent institution. Geographic focus remains tightly bound to the local community surrounding its Menlo Park base. Susan Ford Dorsey's governance footprint extends beyond the foundation through board roles at the Hoover Institution and as a Trustee of the Environmental Defense Fund. She also chairs the board of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health, a role that connects to the foundation's legacy — Tom Ford provided building and development counsel during the hospital's creation. The foundation itself participates in Thrive, the Alliance of Nonprofits for San Mateo County, reinforcing its hyper-local orientation. There are no disclosed adjacent investment vehicles, operating businesses, or co-investor networks connected to the foundation. The foundation's most significant structural differentiator is its finite lifespan. Where most family foundations are designed for perpetuity, Sand Hill Foundation has a declared endpoint — a 35-year deployment arc that redirects the Ford family's real estate wealth fully into community institutions by the end of this decade. This sunset provision shapes every grant decision, removing long-term endowment preservation as a constraint and enabling larger, faster payouts than a perpetual foundation's required 5% minimum distribution would allow.