On October 10 we announced that our Board of Directors approved $10.5 million in grants. Please see the below press release for more details.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 10, 2017
Contact:
Vaishalee Raja, Senior Communications Officer
213-283-2007
vraja@irvine.org

Irvine Board of Directors Approves $10.5 Million in Grants on October 6, 2017

The James Irvine Foundation Board of Directors approved 14 grants totaling $10.5 million last week. The grants will support a range of organizations increasing opportunity for the people of California, including organizations working to expand economic and political opportunity for Californians who are working but struggling with poverty. Read more about Irvine’s focus here.

The grants include four investments in organizations protecting immigrant rights in California, including efforts related to deportation defense, immigrants knowing their rights, and more effectively communicating the important contributions that California’s immigrants make to the state.

The board also approved two grants under Postsecondary Success, an initiative the Foundation is exploring to strengthen low-income students’ successful path from high school to a college degree or postsecondary credential. And the board approved significant grants to support the Foundation’s existing initiatives, including three grants to organizations strengthening and expanding Linked Learning throughout California, and two grants to support Voter and Civic Engagement.

The full list of board-approved grants includes:

Linked Learning

Californians for Justice Education Fund
A two-year grant of $400,000 to advance equity in Linked Learning practice and policy in four key districts implementing Linked Learning: Long Beach, Fresno, Oakland, and East San Jose.

Get Focused…Stay Focused Inc.
A two-year grant of $500,000 to build organizational capacity to meet demand for their classroom-based guidance curriculum in high schools and community colleges.

InnerCity Struggle
A two-year grant of $400,000 for general operating support. InnerCity Struggle develops the leadership and civic participation of East Los Angeles youth, parents, and residents around a vision of social equity through public education.

Postsecondary Success

Get Schooled Foundation
A two-year grant of $500,000 to support a partnership between Get Schooled, the California Student Aid Commission, and University of Southern California to expand direct-to-student communication tools around financial aid.

Hartnell College Foundation
A two-year grant of $500,000 to support efforts in the Salinas Valley to strengthen partnerships between local high schools, Hartnell College, and CSU Monterey Bay, in order to ensure a smooth transition to postsecondary institutions for high school graduates.

Priority Regions

Regents of the University of California
A two-year grant of $500,000 to support the creation and operations of the Center for Social Innovation at UC Riverside’s School of Public Policy.

Protecting Immigrant Rights

California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC)
A two-year grant of $625,000 to produce a communications resource guide for the state’s immigrant rights movement, and to support more effective communications for CIPC’s regional coalition partners in collaboration with USC’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity to tell the stories of immigrants and their contributions to California.

National Immigration Law Center
A two-year grant of $500,000 to support immigrants in California by protecting and advancing policies that promote their integration and safety through capacity building, education, and advocacy.

Sierra Health Foundation Center for Health Program Management
A one-year grant of $650,000 to protect immigrant rights in the Central Valley, including increasing “know your rights,” deportation-support services, and immigrant integration efforts in the San Joaquin Valley

Voter and Civic Engagement

PICO National Network
A two-year grant of $1.8 million to support PICO California’s voter and civic engagement work and strengthen organizational capacity.

San Diego Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center
A two-year grant of $500,000 to expand voter and civic engagement among underrepresented communities in San Diego County, through an entity such as Engage San Diego.

Research and Development

Faith in the Valley
A two-year grant of $400,000 for general operating support. Faith in the Valley is a unified, regional organizing effort encompassing the five multifaith, multiracial PICO affiliates in California’s Central Valley.

Additional Grantmaking

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc.
A 38-month grant of $2.5 million to support the creation of a strong, creative placemaking field and the adoption of creative placemaking practices across California (through an entity such as ArtPlace America).

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Inc.
A 36-month grant of $750,000 to strengthen nonprofit and foundation feedback practices to better listen to and use input from the people that foundations and the organizations that they fund seek to support.