Today we announced a new set of board-approved grants. We encourage you to read and share the below press release.

The James Irvine Foundation Board of Directors approved $8.5 million in grants last week. These grants include investments related to the Foundation’s focus of increasing economic and political opportunity for California families and young adults who are working but struggling with poverty. (Read more about the Foundation’s focus here.)

Three of the grants are part of Career Readiness and Living-Wage Work, a new initiative the Foundation is exploring to ensure that low-income, working Californians can secure and succeed in family-sustaining jobs. Four grants are part of the Foundation’s exploration of opportunities to increase Postsecondary Success for low-income students.

The board-approved grants include:

Career Readiness and Living-Wage Work

California Business Roundtable

A one-year grant of $457,500 to develop concepts that can lead to viable public policy options to address issues affecting poverty, jobs, and upward mobility in California.

Fresno Community Development Financial Institution

A two-year grant of $1 million to expand Fresno Community Development Financial Institution’s support for low- to moderate- income entrepreneurs working to achieve self-sufficiency.

San Diego Workforce Partnership

A two-year grant of $1 million to expand the impact of the San Diego Workforce Partnership and broaden an innovative, tech-based platform to match 16- to 24-year-old young people with jobs in high-growth sectors in San Diego.

Immigrant Integration

National Immigration Forum

A one-year grant of $700,000 to increase support for immigrant integration and sound immigration policy through coalition building, civic engagement, strategic communications, and advocacy in California.

Linked Learning

Education Trust

A two-year grant of $500,000 to advance Education Trust–West’s community-based research and data hub strategy. Education Trust–West is an educational policy, research, and advocacy organization that works for the academic achievement of California students, with a focus on those students most often left behind — the 3.7 million low-income students, 4.2 million students of color, and 1.4 million English learners in California public schools.

Jobs for the Future

A 15-month grant of $1.5 million to support the Linked Learning Regional Hubs of Excellence. Jobs for the Future is a national nonprofit that works to develop innovative career pathways, educational resources, and public policies that increase college readiness and career success.

Postsecondary Success

Foundation for California Community Colleges

A two-year grant of $600,000 to support remediation reform through faculty networks in the community college system, via an entity such as the California Acceleration Project. Also approved was a two-year grant of $762,000 for the California Guided Pathways Project, which supports statewide scaling of a national reform movement to better structure experiences for community college students.

Foundation for Students Rising Above

A two-year grant of $500,000 to strengthen college success for low-income students in California by expanding the Students Rising Above College2Careers Hub. The Hub is an integrated online/in-person college support model that combines online community, information, and personalized relationships to support students from high school graduation through college completion.

uAspire

A two-year grant of $600,000 to expand uAspire’s Succeed program in California, in order to support high school graduates on the path to college completion. The Succeed program provides financial education for college success and includes in-person and text-based advising around financial aid renewal, balancing school and work, budgeting/money management, credit card debt and scams, and preparing for loan payback.

Voter and Civic Engagement

Advancement Project

A two-year grant of $900,000 for general operating support for the Advancement Project California. The Advancement Project promotes civic engagement to dismantle structural barriers to inclusion, securing racial equity, and expanding opportunity.