Fred Blackwell, CEO of The San Francisco Foundation, calls up nonprofit and city government leaders before announcing a $34 million anonymous donation to the City of Oakland through The San Francisco Foundation during a press event at the East Oakland Youth Development Center in Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday, July 14, 2015. (Laura A. Oda) 
 
 It was the call that philanthropists dream of. 
 
 An anonymous donor wanted to give $34 million to benefit underserved residents in Oakland. And the donor wanted that money "in the streets" by the summer. 
 
 The staffer at the San Francisco Foundation who answered the phone in February knew this was big -- for the foundation, but mostly for Oakland. 
 
 A $34 million cold call to benefit the Bay Area's most embattled city was unheard of, said Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation, which was founded in 1948, has a $1.3 billion endowment and gives about $90 million annually in grants to nonprofits across the Bay Area. 
 
 "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Blackwell said at a Tuesday news conference at the East Oakland Youth Development Center attended by dozens of community leaders in government and other nonprofit community groups. "We have never gotten a phone call like that in the past." 
 
 The money will be invested in jobs, housing, education and health care across Oakland, with a full $6 million to support Oakland's public schools on early childhood education, African-American student achievement and adding community coordinators. 
 
 About one-third of the funds are earmarked for nonprofits specifically focused on East Oakland. The foundation estimates 813 jobs will be created and 136 new affordable housing units built in those neighborhoods. 
 
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 Councilman Larry Reid said he's never seen such a large investment during his time at City Hall. He was pleased that several groups in his district -- deep East Oakland -- received help. The East Oakland Youth Development Center, which was granted $1 million, is a safe refuge for kids to take shelter from the storm. 
 
 "If they aren't finding love at home, they can be loved and nurtured here," Reid said. "This could be the difference between young people dying on the streets or doing something constructive with their life." 
 
 Citywide, the money will help fund 731 new affordable housing units and create about 2,500 jobs. 
 
 News of the cash infusion was music to the ears of Mayor Libby Schaaf, who thanked the "generous soul" who recognized the potential of the city. Officials would not provide any additional information on the mystery donor. 
 
 Schaaf said the foundation -- and the donor -- share the city's vision for an equitable, vibrant Oakland where all citizens can find economic independence. 
 
 Partnering with like-minded philanthropists is vital for the region, especially as rents rise and more people flock to the city, Schaaf added. "Government can't do it alone," she said. 
 
 And there are shameful disparities in Oakland. Schaaf said the prosperity must be shared across the city to "make sure Oakland stays our Oakland," she said. 
 
 A good portion of the money was focused on technology opportunities. Oakland Codes, housed at the San Francisco Foundation, received $4 million. 
 
 Money was also given to support community re-entry programs for ex-cons and other housing initiatives. 
 
 The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, for example, received $1 million to create a restaurant worker training program to help formerly incarcerated residents find jobs that pay a livable wage. 
 
 This isn't the first effort to revitalize East Oakland, which although economically diverse, houses some of the city's most crime-ridden and poorest neighborhoods. 
 
 Dr. Tony Iton oversees a California Endowment initiative, Building Healthy Communities, to create better conditions in 14 low-income communities throughout the state, including East Oakland. 
 
 More than $15 million has been directly granted to support East Oakland initiatives in the past five years, Iton said. That doesn't include any indirect support, which includes lobbying regional and state agencies to affect policies in Oakland. 
 
 Iton, who quit his job as Alameda County public health director in 2009 to take the job with the California Endowment, said the anonymous gift is "absolutely fantastic." 
 
 His organization already supports about 70 percent of the nonprofits who will receive money from the San Francisco Foundation. Those combined efforts -- along with support from local government -- should help the city modernize and prosper. 
 
 "It's timely and exciting, and we're looking forward to leveraging these investments and building on the capacity of these organizations," Iton said. 
 
 Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley joked that Blackwell, who left his job as Oakland's city administrator last year after just one month to join the San Francisco Foundation, had kept his promise to keep working in Oakland. 
 
 "I mean, Fred definitely delivered here," Miley said. 
 
 Blackwell said after the news conference that "it always feels great to help out Oakland." 
 
 "This is where I grew up, where my family is, friends that I've known for years," he said. "It was a privilege and an honor to be in the position I was before, and it's still a privilege and honor to be in the position I'm in to be able to help the city." 
 
 For a full list of the organizations receiving money, visit http://sff.org/oaklandannouncement. 
 
 Mike Blasky covers Oakland City Hall. Contact him at 510-208-6429. Follow him at Twitter.com/blasky. ||||| Tens of thousands of fans take part in the Golden State Warriors 2015 NBA championship parade and rally in downtown Oakland on June 19, 2015. (Photo: MONICA M. DAVEY, EPA) 
 
 OAKLAND — Tuesday, it was Christmas in July for this hard-knocks city still giving thanks for an NBA championship in June. 
 
 Looking to help "underserved" residents, an anonymous benefactor has donated $34 million for education, jobs, health care, housing and technology skills. The gift will help build 731 affordable housing units, create about 2,500 jobs and channel millions for early-childhood education and African-American student achievement. 
 
 "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Fred Blackwell, CEO of the San Francisco Foundation and former Oakland administrator, told a news conference. 
 
 Mayor Libby Schaaf thanked the "generous soul," saying, "Government can't do it alone." 
 
 The foundation, which will disburse the funds to non-profit organizations, received a call in February from a donor who wanted the money "on the streets" by summer. 
 
 "We have never gotten a phone call like that in the past." said Blackwell, an Oakland native with deep experience in community development on both sides of the bay. 
 
 As the tech boom drives up housing prices and forces out San Franciscans, Oakland is experiencing the spillover effect. As people seek cheaper living across the bay, rents are rising quickly, pushing out poor and lower-income residents, particularly in East and West Oakland. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1MsI6MR ||||| Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his pediatrician wife on Thursday pledged $120 million to help schools in low-income Bay Area communities in what amounts to their biggest publicly announced donation to a local cause. 
 
 "The world's most innovative community shouldn't also be a home for struggling public schools," Zuckerberg said, announcing the pledge in an essay written for this newspaper's opinion section. He cited the example of chronically low test scores in the Ravenswood school district, which serves low-income and minority communities near Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park. 
 
 "There are many heroic educators doing their best to serve students here," Zuckerberg wrote. "But the challenges are much greater than the resources they receive." 
 
 The announcement comes at a time when Silicon Valley companies and affluent tech workers have drawn fire from critics who accuse them of driving up real estate prices and giving little thought to lower-income communities of the Bay Area. 
 
 Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have made headlines with big charitable gifts before: He gave $100 million to help schools in Newark, N.J., and the couple later donated stock worth more than $1.5 billion to a fund administered by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation -- which made them the nation's biggest charitable donors in 2013. The fund at the community foundation is intended to finance a variety of projects over many years, including a multimillion-dollar grant for health research and $5 million provided earlier this year to an East Palo Alto medical clinic. 
 
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 The latest gift, which also comes from that fund, will help "improve education for underserved communities" over the next five years, Zuckerberg said. Some of the $120 million will help start new public and charter schools in the Bay Area while the rest will pay for equipment, training and other programs at existing schools. The first $5 million will go to needy schools in the Ravenswood and Redwood City school districts and other "high-need" neighborhoods of San Francisco. 
 
 Zuckerberg, who turned 30 this month, is a Harvard drop-out who became one of the world's richest men. He's currently worth about $28 billion, thanks to his stake in the giant social networking company he co-founded in 2004. Chan is a children's doctor who once worked as a schoolteacher. 
 
 "Helping improve the quality of public education in this country is something we both really care about," wrote Zuckerberg, who in 2013 taught an after-school class in entrepreneurship for a Boys and Girls Club at Menlo Park's Belle Haven Community School. 
 
 Funds from the new pledge will be distributed by Startup:Education, an organization run by former educator and management consultant Jen Holleran. Zuckerberg and Chan created the group to oversee the 2010 donation to schools in Newark, after Zuckerberg was solicited to help fund reforms backed by then-mayor Cory Booker and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. 
 
 The Newark gift has proven controversial: The New Yorker magazine reported in a lengthy article this month that a big chunk of the funds ended up going to pricey consultants, while reform efforts bogged down in factional politics, without producing much improvement in student performance so far. 
 
 In his newspaper essay, however, Zuckerberg cited some initial milestones and added, "It's still too early to see the full results in Newark, but we're making progress and have learned a lot about what makes a successful effort." 
 
 Working through Startup:Education, Zuckerberg has also put money into such projects as Education Superhighway, a San Francisco nonprofit that works to provide Internet access to public schools, and Panorama Education, a for-profit Massachusetts start-up that makes surveys and other tools for schools to get feedback from their communities. 
 
 In the Bay Area, Zuckerberg said part of his gift will be used for "initiatives that provide computers and connectivity in schools, as well as teacher training and parent outreach." He said money would also go to leadership training for principals and to help students adjust to the transition from middle school to high school. 
 
 At the Redwood City school district, a spokeswoman said Zuckerberg's representatives have indicated they want to help "with closing the digital divide and helping parents become actively involved with their children's use of technology." She said specifics of the gift are still being discussed. 
 
 In a statement, Ravenswood schools Superintendent Gloria Hernandez-Goff said funds from Zuckerberg and Chan would help needy students in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park. "We are grateful for their support for everything we are doing to prepare our students for success in high school and college so that they, too, can launch careers in the increasingly competitive Silicon Valley workforce," she added. 
 
 Another portion of the $120 million will be earmarked for "working with partners to start new district and charter schools that give people more high quality choices for their education," Zuckerberg said. While he didn't provide details, school reform groups backed by local business leaders have recently campaigned to create more charter schools in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. 
 
 Charter schools are publicly funded but often operated by private groups, with more freedom to design programs and hire staff. A few local districts have also experimented with "small schools of choice," which operate with more autonomy under district oversight. 
 
 "We're excited for the opportunity to support so many amazing educators, leaders and entrepreneurs in the years ahead to create schools where students thrive," Zuckerberg wrote. 
 
 To date, he added, "the investments we've made are a drop in the bucket compared to the challenges schools face. But we've seen that targeted investments can be catalysts for much bigger changes in communities, and give vital support to leaders and organizations." 
 
 Follow this reporter at Twitter.com/BrandonBailey or google.com/+BrandonBaileyOnline or on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/ULIOfb.
– What to do with a spare $34 million? You could buy a private jet, a good-sized Caribbean island—or you could help countless people in one of California's most troubled cities. An anonymous donor went for the latter option, offering the San Francisco Foundation the cash to help "underserved" Oakland residents in areas including education and housing, Inside Bay Area reports. Foundation CEO Fred Blackwell says the donor, who called up out of the blue earlier this year, wanted the money "in the streets" by this summer. The funds will create around 2,500 jobs and more than 700 new affordable housing units, according to Inside Bay Area. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," Blackwell told reporters yesterday. "We have never gotten a phone call like that in the past." The money will go to at least 17 nonprofit organizations, including health clinics, early childhood education initiatives, programs that train young people for technology jobs, and programs that help ex-cons back into the work force, reports ABC7. Officials haven't provided any more information on the donor, whom Mayor Libby Schaaf describes as a "generous soul," reports USA Today. (An immigrant couple left their entire fortune to "America.")