Gap Inc.
February 6, 2025
Last year, President and CEO Richard Dickson shared Gap Inc.’s commitments to San Francisco. As a proud SF-founded company, we’re not just present – we’re actively engaged and motivated to live our purpose of bridging gaps to create a better world. Gap Inc. continues to demonstrate its commitment through celebration of a dynamic and vibrant culture of creativity, investment of time and resources to make a real impact in our community, and increased opportunities for connection and collaboration at our hubs.
Creativity has been an integral part of Gap Inc.’s identity and at the heart of our legacy for 55 years. And this city, home to our brands and people, has always been a source of creative inspiration. In 2024, we were proud to kick off a partnership with Nest – a non-profit organization dedicated to creating equitable opportunity for all creative entrepreneurs and support makers who have gaps in access to education and resources. Together with Nest, we launched Makers United San Francisco, a program designed to bridge opportunity gaps and empower creatives across the Bay Area. With this partnership, we’re investing in the vibrant, diverse, and talented maker cohort in our hometown by providing resources and opportunities for local makers to grow their businesses.
Giving back to the communities where we operate is at the heart of how we do business, and we are committed to doing our part to uplift the city that is home to our founders, brands, and people. As a founding member of the Downtown Volunteer Coalition (DVC), our employees have been working alongside their peers from other Bay Area-based companies to create a cleaner and more vibrant city – including building park benches and priming walls to feature community murals during the DVC events in October and December.
Collectively, our employees stepped up to the challenge and logged around 1,800 more volunteer hours in 2024 with SF-based organizations than we had logged in 2023. One of the main ways that we are driving participation is by staffing shifts every Wednesday at GLIDE’s Daily Free Meals, a program that helps serve over 2,000 meals per day to people experiencing food insecurity. This commitment alone has allowed us to log around 840 volunteer hours since we kicked off the initiative in July. As one of our key volunteer partners in the Bay Area, GLIDE’s work deeply aligns with our purpose, and we are proud to continue supporting their mission as we look to double our employee volunteer hours.
In 2024, Gap Foundation awarded $555,000 worth of grants to several SF-based community partners revitalizing SF and aligned to one of Gap Inc.’s purpose pillars. This included a total of $325,000 to longstanding partner
GLIDE and $55,000 grants to four organizations:
Acción Latina, to honor and support the work they are doing to promote cultural arts, community media, and civic engagement,
San Francisco SafeHouse, to provide a safe space for every woman experiencing homelessness,
Boys & Girls Clubs Of San Francisco, to empower the growth and development of young people, and
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, to preserve and enhance the park experience. We also gave $10,000 to the
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals Foundation. The mission and work of these organizations align to our purpose pillars, our commitment to revitalizing San Francisco, and potential for future partnership and volunteerism.
As we look to energize historic downtown San Francisco, we are focused on creating inspiring work environments and experiences in our offices that increase attendance, drive collaboration and connection, and facilitate deeper engagement in our neighborhood. As part of our Nest partnership, we hosted a Holiday Makers Market at Gap Inc. Headquarters in Downtown SF. We took what’s been an anticipated annual event for our employees, invited in artists from across the Bay Area, and—for the first time ever—opened our doors to the public for a weekend-long event. More than 2,000 guests joined us on December 7 and 8, shopping 40 Gap Inc. employee and SF makers, participating in workshops like screen printing, punch needle and preserved moss art, and enthusiastically supporting SF’s creative community.
Throughout the year, we welcomed employees, community partners, and industry leaders to our San Francisco headquarters for several meaningful events celebrating connection and creativity. Alongside Acción Latina and our Hola@Gap Employee Resource Group (ERG), we co-hosted a Latin Heritage Month event to honor Latin culture and foster a sense of joy and belonging. Our headquarters continues to be a hub for meaningful conversations and innovative ideas, and we are excited to build on this momentum with impactful social and cultural events in the year ahead.
Outside of the office, Gap Inc. and our brands are contributing to energizing our neighborhood and San Francisco’s downtown. In the East Cut, 2 Folsom’s neighborhood, Gap Inc. donated to the East Cut Community Benefit District in support of a new park being built near our headquarters. In Union Square, Gap Inc. was a sponsor of the annual Winter Walk, a ten-day event that turned two blocks of the city’s core into a festive pedestrian plaza with winter cuisine pop-ups, arctic-themed decor, an ice-skating rink, and live entertainment. Banana Republic is also supporting local nonprofit SF New Deal to help bring a public art installation to Union Square’s Powell Street this year. We are committed to partnering with local organizations to bring vibrancy and joy to our neighborhoods.
In November, Gap Inc. also supported San Francisco’s continued recovery through local ballot measures. Gap Inc. provided input during the creation of Prop M, which reforms San Francisco’s business tax. Prop M was approved by voters – this will help streamline and stabilize the city’s tax structure, which we believe will encourage job creation and improve the fiscal health of the city. Gap Inc. also contributed to the campaign for San Francisco’s Prop B, which passed with over 70% of the vote. This bond measure aligned with our public goal of helping to energize the city’s historic downtown. The bond will issue up to $41 million to improve and modernize public spaces in downtown San Francisco, including areas around Powell and Market Streets – an important retail area that includes the BR store on Geary.
As Gap Inc. defines a new era for the company and what it means to work in this great city, we are forging ahead with our commitments to bridge gaps right here in our hometown. We are excited about the progress we’ve made with contributions that matter and are energized about continuing to imagine better as we embark on the journey ahead.
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