FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 18, 2023

Contact:
Luisa Montes,
Communications Officer
415-356-9940
lmontes@irvine.org

December 18, 2023 – The James Irvine Foundation Board of Directors approved 12 grants totaling $22.6 million last week. The Foundation also approved $13.4 million in grants this quarter that did not require board approval.

The grants primarily support the Foundation’s four initiatives focused on working Californians (Better Careers, Fair Work, Just Prosperity, and Priority Communities) and Irvine investments in Housing Affordability. More information about all grants can be found in the Foundation’s database here, and the board-approved grants include:  

Better Careers 

Community Partners 

A two-year grant of $1.2 million to support the Long Beach Undocumented Entrepreneurship and Microenterprise Project, a public-private partnership, to provide case management, business development coaching, education, and financial literacy training for undocumented residents through an entity such as ÓRALE (Organizing Rooted in Abolition Liberation and Empowerment).  

Just Prosperity  

USC Equity Research Institute  

A two-year grant of $1.5 million to empower historically underserved communities by providing actionable research and narrative that supports community-driven coalition efforts tackling economic, racial, and social inequities in California.  

Priority Communities 

New Energy Nexus  

A two-year grant of $2 million to support tribal economic opportunity and sovereignty by developing a high-road green industrial campus on tribal land now known as Imperial Valley, in partnership with the Torrez Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians. 

Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation  

An 18-month grant of $1.5 million to expand wraparound services of the Valley Entrepreneur Alliance that support underserved entrepreneurs and strengthen their capacity to create jobs in Fresno.  

Santa Cruz Community Ventures 

A three-year grant of $3 million to facilitate the growth and community ownership of Futuro Cooperative, a worker-owned business structure in the Salinas Valley.  

Housing Affordability  

Common Counsel Foundation  

A two-year grant of $1.55 million to support communities of color and immigrant communities in California to use land trusts, housing cooperatives, and other shared equity models to build local power, community wealth, and capacity for self-determination.  

2024 Leadership Awards 

Capitol Impact 

A one-year grant of $2.25 million for grants associated with the 2024 Leadership Awards, and a one-year grant of $2.14 million to administer the Awards program. 

Additional Grantmaking  

Amalgamated Charitable Foundation Inc. 

A three-year grant of $2 million to create the Long-Term Resilience Fund to support the organizational and financial resilience of smaller nonprofits in California, including those serving or led by people of color.  

Charitable Ventures of Orange County  

A 15-month grant of $2 million to learn about the history and priorities of Native communities in Orange County and provide grants to tribes, Native-led organizations, and economic justice organizations in the county led by people of color and with lived experience related to poverty and economic inequity. 

Humboldt Area Foundation  

A two-year grant of $1.5 million to support the Redwood Region Climate and Community Resilience Hub (CORE Hub) to ensure the benefits of public infrastructure and climate funds accrue to tribal and other underserved communities in California.  

Neighborhood Funders Group  

A two-year grant of $2 million to implement an equitable participatory regranting process and support coalition-building efforts between labor and community organizations in Imperial Valley through the Labor Innovations for the 21st Century (LIFT) Fund.