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| SF Tomorrow | |
|---|---|
| Name | SF Tomorrow |
| Founded | 2010 |
| Type | Nonprofit think tank |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California |
| Leader title | Executive Director |
| Leader name | Maria Chen |
| Website | Official website |
SF Tomorrow is a San Francisco–based nonprofit think tank and civic laboratory focused on urban resilience, technological innovation, and equitable planning for future metropolitan challenges. It conducts research, convenes stakeholders, and pilots policy experiments bridging local practice with national and international models. SF Tomorrow publishes reports, hosts forums, and partners with academic, private, and public institutions to translate foresight into actionable projects.
SF Tomorrow was founded in 2010 amid post-2008 recovery debates involving policymakers from San Francisco and planners influenced by scholarship from Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Early collaborators included leaders from San Francisco Planning Department, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and community organizations aligned with initiatives launched by the Knight Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation. The organization’s formative years coincided with high-profile urban experiments like High Line and regulatory reforms such as the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that reshaped municipal finance conversations. SF Tomorrow’s advisory board featured practitioners with links to McKinsey & Company, The Brookings Institution, and Urban Institute, while project funding drew from philanthropic sources including Ford Foundation and Open Society Foundations. During the 2010s the organization expanded programming in response to challenges highlighted by events such as the 2014–2016 California drought and policy debates around Proposition 13 (1978) reform, increasingly engaging with regional authorities such as the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (California) and national laboratories like Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
SF Tomorrow states a mission to advance equitable, resilient, and technologically informed urban futures drawing on comparative practice from cities such as New York City, London, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, and Copenhagen. Objectives emphasize applied research linking municipal innovation seen in programs like Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics (Boston) with regulatory pilots inspired by San Francisco Planning Code amendments and zoning reforms modeled on Inclusionary housing precedents in Los Angeles. The organization frames goals around influences from sustainability frameworks such as those promoted by United Nations Habitat and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, while aligning data ethics with standards advocated by Electronic Frontier Foundation and Center for Democracy & Technology.
SF Tomorrow’s programs span urban resilience, transit innovation, housing access, and civic technology. Notable initiatives include a resilience lab partnering with California Governor's Office of Emergency Services and disaster preparedness efforts informed by research from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and United States Geological Survey. Transit-related pilots have been developed with Caltrain, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and operators influenced by procurement practices of Transport for London and Société de transport de Montréal. Housing programs have referenced models from Habitat for Humanity, Enterprise Community Partners, and policies advocated by National Low Income Housing Coalition. Civic technology projects incorporate tooling from OpenDataSoft, standards from World Wide Web Consortium, and privacy guidance from International Association of Privacy Professionals. SF Tomorrow also runs fellowship programs modeled on exchanges like Fulbright Program and partnerships resembling the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation residencies at Harvard Kennedy School.
SF Tomorrow is governed by a board of directors with members drawn from academia, finance, and civic practice, including affiliates of University of California, San Francisco, Stanford University, Goldman Sachs, and Salesforce. The staff includes research directors with prior appointments at RAND Corporation, Pew Charitable Trusts, and International Monetary Fund. Program teams coordinate with municipal agencies such as San Francisco Department of Public Health and nonprofit partners including Public Advocates and SPUR (San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association). Legal counsel and compliance track regulatory frameworks like those administered by California Public Utilities Commission and grant reporting aligns with standards from the Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)(3) organizations.
SF Tomorrow’s funding portfolio combines philanthropic grants, municipal contracts, and corporate sponsorships. Major philanthropic partners have included Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and Kresge Foundation. Municipal collaborations have engaged City and County of San Francisco departments and regional agencies like the Association of Bay Area Governments. Corporate partners have encompassed technology and transportation firms such as Google, Apple Inc., Uber Technologies, and Tesla, Inc. while research collaborations have linked to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and private research groups like SRI International. SF Tomorrow also secures project-based grants from federal programs administered by Department of Housing and Urban Development and Department of Transportation.
SF Tomorrow has influenced zoning pilots, transit demand management strategies, and data-sharing agreements adopted by local agencies, citing examples comparable to policy shifts seen in Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Its public-facing reports have been cited by media outlets such as San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, and The Atlantic, and used in testimony before bodies like the California State Legislature. Critics have raised concerns about funding ties to major technology companies paralleling debates over Silicon Valley influence in civic affairs and conflicts similar to controversies involving Facebook and municipal data projects. Urban activists have argued that some initiatives echo gentrification patterns documented in studies of Brooklyn and Mission District, San Francisco, while privacy advocates have questioned surveillance risks comparable to debates around Amber Alert technology deployments. SF Tomorrow has responded by adopting transparency measures inspired by best practices from Sunlight Foundation and ethics guidelines promoted by Association for Computing Machinery and IEEE.