Billionaire couple offers $150M to make San Francisco better to live in
Billionaire Michael Moritz and his wife Harriet Heyman have launched a $150 million global competition to fund innovative solutions for San Francisco's housing and economic challenges. The initiative, managed by Crankstart, seeks proposals from organizations worldwide to improve the city's quality of life.
Why it matters
This represents a significant private-sector intervention in urban policy, utilizing venture capital-style funding to address systemic municipal issues.
Billionaire Michael Moritz and his wife, artist Harriet Heyman, are offering up to $150 million for ideas that could improve life in San Francisco, launching a global competition to address the city's housing affordability crisis and post-pandemic economic decline.The open competition, called "Boundless San Francisco," was announced on Wednesday by Crankstart, the private family foundation run by Moritz and Heyman. Up to three winning organisations will receive between $10 million and $50 million each to carry out their proposals, according to an official statement from the foundation and reporting by Bloomberg.Any organisation from anywhere in the world can submit a proposal, regardless of the topic, as long as the project directly benefits San Francisco residents."The best ideas rarely come from where you expect them," Moritz, 71, said in an emailed statement.Structured evaluation process for global applicantsOrganisers are running the competition with Lever for Change, a non-profit organisation that connects philanthropists…
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