Announcing 2025 Application Dates for O2 Sabbatical Award
We are thrilled to announce the dates of the next application period for the O2 Sabbatical Award. Applications will become available on June 11, 2025, with a submission deadline of August 13, 2025.
The O2 Sabbatical Award honors dedicated nonprofit executive directors in San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa counties with a three-month break for essential rest and renewal. Sabbaticals recharge executive directors and empower shared leadership throughout an organization. The result is stronger and more resilient teams better prepared to partner with their communities to create positive change.
In these deeply uncertain times, nonprofits face greater pressure than ever. As always—and especially now—O2 is committed to investing in the sustainability of Bay Area leaders and organizations that enrich our communities and advance innovative solutions to our toughest challenges.
The O2 Sabbatical Award includes:
- $50,000 toward the cost of the executive director’s three-month sabbatical.
- $15,000 in flexible funding to support staff professional development, as well as stipends for the interim leadership team in recognition of the additional responsibilities assumed in the executive director’s absence.
- 25 hours of coaching to help organizations prepare for the sabbatical, advise interim leadership teams during the executive director’s leave, provide support with re-entry, and achieve organizational development goals (e.g., greater shared leadership, succession planning).
- Participation in the O2 Peer Network, including annual gatherings and shared learning opportunities. This diverse group of Bay Area nonprofit leaders collectively invest in each other and strengthen the sector through dialogue, collaboration, and mutual support. O2 alumni play a key role in the award program by serving on the selection committee and mentoring new awardees.
According to Mario Paz, 2024 O2 Awardee and Executive Director of Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, “For more than 35 years, I have been driven to give all of myself to my work, to my family, and to my community. The sabbatical gave me time to reflect on my career, to trust my heart, to continue leading with strength and kindness, and to rediscover that my purpose is clear.”
The leadership team at Good Samaritan added, “Mario’s sabbatical reinforced our ability to be adaptable and resourceful, and we came away from the experience with new skills and greater trust in our collective leadership.”
If you know an executive director who would benefit from a sabbatical, please share this announcement with them.
O2 Initiatives is committed to advancing race equity and strives to create a network of sabbatical awardees that is representative of the rich identities and communities in the San Francisco Bay Area. We strongly encourage executive directors who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to apply.
Please contact Program Officer, Allison Domicone (program@o2initiatives.org) with any questions.