The James Irvine Foundation Board of Directors approved 20 grants totaling more than $14.3 million last week. The grants included support for the Foundation’s two initiatives focused on low-income California workers (Better Careers and Fair Work), other grantmaking priorities (Priority Regions, Protecting Immigrant Rights, etc.), and for culminating initiatives (Linked Learning and Voter and Civic Engagement).

Initiatives

Better Careers
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
A three-year grant of $386,000 for a wage and employment outcomes study, providing insights into the earnings and employment outcomes of Better Career’s grantee program participants.

Third Sector Capital Partners, Inc.
A two-year grant of $2 million to accelerate workforce outcomes by partnering with Better Careers grantees and public agencies to codesign improvements to California’s public workforce funding system.

Fair Work
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus
A two-year grant of $850,000 to support the legal rights of immigrant and low-wage workers through education, training, and policy advocacy, including support for organizations engaged in strategic wage enforcement.

Engage R+D, Inc.
A three-year grant of $975,000 to support a multi-year developmental evaluation of the work of the California Strategic Enforcement Partnership.

Regents of the University of California
A two-year grant of $975,000 to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, including its Low-Wage Work Program, to strengthen its capacity to produce economic research, provide technical assistance, and promote leadership development focused on low-wage work and related issues.

Additional Grantmaking

Media
CALmatters
A two-year grant of $500,000 to support The California Divide, a statewide journalism collaboration to assess and document income inequality and explore potential solutions.

Southern California Public Radio
A two-year grant of $400,000 to support the creation of community-engaged journalism on economic security and advancement and to expand audiences in communities traditionally underserved by public media.

Priority Regions
Radio Bilingue, Inc.
A two-year grant of $550,000 to support organizational sustainability, high-quality journalism, educational, and cultural programming by and for Latino and Spanish-speaking audiences.

The Community Foundation
A one-year grant of $400,000 to establish the Inland Economic Growth and Opportunity (IEGO) initiative, a collective impact strategy for inclusive economic development.

Protecting Immigrant Rights
Community Initiatives
A one-year grant of $400,000 to support the California Campus Catalyst Fund in expanding support services to undocumented students and their families, through an entity such as Immigrants Rising.

Mission Asset Fund
A one-year grant of $400,000 to increase financial stability for low-income immigrants in California.

Other Grantmaking
California Budget & Policy Center
A two-year grant of $400,000 for general operating support. This grant will support the Center’s efforts to improve the economic and social well-being of low- and middle-income Californians through independent fiscal and policy analysis, and public education.

Family Independence Initiative
A two-year grant of $500,000 to support Family Independence Initiative’s direct investment model and build its evidence base to shift policy and practice regarding economic mobility.

FSG, Inc.
A 21-month grant for $619,000 to support the Talent Rewire Innovation Lab to reduce barriers for low-wage workers to be employed, retained, and advanced by building capacity within the workforce development system and among employers participating in its learning cohorts.

Public Religion Research Institute
A one-year grant for $360,000, in partnership with the Regents of the University of California, to expand public awareness, through an in-depth survey, about the experiences and perspectives of Asian-American and Pacific Islander workers in California.

Regents of the University of California
Per the above, a one-year grant of $275,000 to partner with PRRI to conduct a survey of the experiences and perspectives of Asian-American and Pacific Islander workers in California.

University of California Berkeley Foundation
A two-year grant for $1 million to expand the research and policy capacity of the Terner Center for Housing Innovation.

Culminating Work

Linked Learning
Foundation for California Community Colleges
A one-year grant of $800,000 to increase the impact of education reform that has a core commitment to improve equity and outcomes for low-income Californians, through an entity such as the Career Ladders Project.

Voter and Civic Engagement
Center on Race Poverty & Environment
A two-year grant of $500,000 for general operating support. This grant will support the Center on Race Poverty & Environment in addressing the disproportionate burden of pollution and environmental health hazards borne by low-income people and people of color in the San Joaquin Valley.

California Calls Education Fund
A four-year grant of $2 million for general operating support. This grant will support the Fund’s Integrated Voter Engagement project, statewide collaborations (such as the Million Voters Project), and the Black Census and Redistricting Project.