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2019-06-01
Engage R+D;
Strong, well-resourced nonprofits are an indispensable part of our social fabric and play a key role in providing critical services that contribute to thriving communities. In an era of growing need and decreased availability of government dollars, nonprofits are increasingly forced to do more with less. They are also faced with limited time and resources to build their own core infrastructure and strengthen their capacity to expand services and deliver them more effectively. As the leader in charitable giving services for Jewish philanthropists in Los Angeles, the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles (The Foundation) seeks to magnify the impact of its donor's giving, build enduring legacies, and strengthen the Jewish and local Los Angeles community through effective grantmaking. To help achieve those goals, The Foundation launched the Next Stage Grants pilot in 2017 to help Jewish organizations and institutions in the region build their capacity and increase their effectiveness. The Foundation designed and launched the pilot with four organizations, offering funding of up to $250,000 over a two to three-year period, a semi-structured approach and space for grantees to engage with The Foundation in testing and learning. This executive summary and the full report highlight key learnings and insights from the pilot, including gains, benefits and challenges as well as considerations to guide Next Stage Grants moving forward.
2019-04-01
California Community Foundation;
This report tells the story of BLOOM, its impact, and the lessons we learned along the way. Through the initiative, Brotherhood Crusade (BHC) and Social Justice Learning Institute (SJLI) developed programs that tap into the potential of young Black males through developmental relationships with male mentors along with positive peer relationships and accountability with other young Black men. Since its launch, BLOOM has impacted the lives of nearly 800 young Black men in South L.A. Over the past six years, California Community Foundation's (CCF) commitment of $500,000 per year, totaling $3.5 million, leveraged $3.3 million from other foundations, as well as contributions from individual donors, with an additional $3.2 million pledged over the next five years.
2018-01-01
Ersoylu Consulting;
This report is an evaluation of First 5 LA's 10-year grantmaking investment into policy advocacy.The document provides insights gleaned from the period beginning with the first year of theCommunity Opportunity Fund (COF) (2008) through the final year of the Policy AdvocacyFund (PAF), Cycle II (2018). During this period, the COF and PAF were the primary grantmakingmechanisms through which First 5 LA impacted systems and policy change, ultimately increasingopportunities for children prenatal to age 5 and their families. This report identifies the practices,strategic shifts and overall impact of these grantmaking initiatives. We hope that the lessonslearned will inform future grantmaking decisions for First 5 LA and other grantmakers looking tocontribute to making lasting, systemic change.
2017-01-23
Woodstock Institute;
This report examines bank lending to businesses in the Chicago five county region and in the Los Angeles and San Diego region. The purpose is to determine the extent to which banks are meeting the credit needs of businesses throughout those two regions. The focus of the report is on the smaller value loans under $100,000 that are most likely to support smaller, local businesses that provide employment and wealth-building opportunities for local residents.
2016-12-01
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation;
The Conrad N. Hilton Foster Youth Strategic Initiative (FYSI) grew out of an extensive research and synthesis process that included the perspectives of a wide variety of stakeholders. Ultimately, the process helped the Foundation better understand the challenges facing transition age youth (TAY) and identify successful models for change; this work became the foundation for FYSI. In February 2012, the Board of Directors approved FYSI and it launched in March 2012. The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) component (or evaluation) began in March 2013. The FYSI is focused on TAY 16–24 years old from two regions with large child welfare (and foster care) populations: Los Angeles County (LAC) and New York City (NYC). The Foundation chose to focus its efforts in LAC and NYC due to the strong commitment of the public child welfare and supporting agencies to issues affecting TAY and their readiness for policy and system reform and opportunities to leverage funding. To address the myriad issues facing TAY, those in care and transitioning out of care, the Foundation provides grants to organizations and entities with the potential to meet the three overarching goals of FYSI, to: (1) increase TAY selfsufficiency, (2) strengthen and increase cross-system collaboration and promote systems change, and (3) develop and disseminate new knowledge about the needs of TAY and effective strategies for meeting those needs.
2016-11-01
California HealthCare Foundation;
The John A. Hartford Foundation, Cambia Health Foundation, and California Health Care Foundation commissioned PerryUndem Research/ Communication to conduct focus groups among health care clinicians and patients on the topic of end-of-life care and wishes.
This qualitative research comes on the heels of a national survey we conducted in spring 2016 among primary care providers and specialists who regularly see patients 65 and older. The national survey showed that nearly all physicians consider advance care planning conversations important, while, as of early March 2016, only a fraction had billed Medicare for such conversations using a new Medicare reimbursement code implemented in January 2016.The national survey identified key barriers to having these conversations, such as not having a formal assessment process in place, feeling uncertain about what to say in conversations with patients, feeling unsure when to have the conversations, and having difficulty dealing with family disagreements.
The goal of the qualitative research was to explore experiences and ideas from both clinicians and patients around starting and having quality conversations about advance care planning and end of life. This qualitative research focused on various types of clinicians in contrast to the spring 2016 national survey, which only included primary care physicians and specialists.
2016-10-01
ABT Associates Inc.;
In 2011, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation partnered with Abt Associates Inc. to conduct an evaluation of the Hilton Foundation's Chronic Homelessness Initiative, with the goal of answering the overarching question: Is the Chronic Homelessness Initiative an effective strategy to end and prevent chronic homelessness in Los Angeles County? This final evaluation report provides an overview of the community's progress on selected metrics over five years, January 2011 through December 2015.
Although the community, with support from the Foundation, has made substantial progress in furthering support for permanent supportive housing (PSH) as a solution to chronic homelessness, significant challenges remain. In the January 2016 point-in-time count, 14,058 individuals were reported as experiencing chronic homelessness within LA County. This represents an increase of nearly 5,000 from the point-in-time count conducted in January 2011 at the start of the Initiative, despite the high number of housing placements during this same time period. Economic conditions, insufficient and shrinking availability of affordable housing, and unmet need for mental health and supportive services are credited not only with cancelling out the effect of the housing placements but also with adding to the count within the collaborative system.
We do not believe that these challenges and the increasing numbers of chronically homeless people suggest that the community's strategy on chronic homelessness is failing. Rather, the growth in numbers suggests that the new systems that coalesced through the work of Phase I of the Initiative are needed more than ever as of the end of 2015. Many stakeholders consider LA to be at a possible turning point, with significant new commitments of funding to address chronic homelessness and more alignment on the issue among elected officials and leaders of the key local government agencies.
There is no question that the landscape shifted between 2011 and 2015 and that the community reached a new standard for collaboration as of January 2016. Strong systems were in place, and public agencies had embraced new responsibilities. As the Foundation looks ahead to the next phase of the Initiative, the challenges of getting to the scale needed to end chronic homelessness will require all to take stock of their roles and assess their best fit within the collaborative system.
2016-09-01
Weingart Foundation;
The hope is that the NSI will help to further normalize the dialogue and activity around mergers and collaborations in the sector. The NSI's definition of success is: "By the end of the active NSI effort, Strategic Restructuring will be normalized in LA County's nonprofit ecosystem. This ecosystem understands, supports, and engages in SR as a tool for enhanced impact and sustainability." Part of the NSI's measure of success is whether we have helped to create an environment where nonprofits are more comfortable discussing strategic partnerships with their boards and with funders, where funders are more receptive to funding this type of work, and nonprofits have the tools and professional support needed to effectively engage in the work. The funders and the evaluation team believe that attitudes and perceptions around mergers and strategic partnerships within the local nonprofit and philanthropic sector have begun to shift since the launch of the initiative. However, the funders also recognize that beyond the life of the NSI, there may continue to be a need for education in the sector on the range of strategic partnership possibilities as well as training for consultants on facilitation of strategic restructuring and partnership work. Discussions are taking place among the funders now around what entity/entities might be best to carry that work forward.
This project has brought together funders and nonprofits in Los Angeles to focus on long-term sustainability issues in the nonprofit sector in a systematic way. The NSI continues to garner attention from nonprofits and funders throughout the country and is already being looked at as a model to support strategic restructuring within the nonprofitsector.
2016-07-18
Goldhirsh Foundation;
#PartyatthePolls was a series of events where we asked Angelenos for event ideas to improve voter engagement in the 2016 June primary election. Eight proposals received $3500 each to pilot events and improve voter turnout.
2016-04-01
Equal Measure;
In 2014, the Citi Foundation launched Pathways to Progress, a three-year, $50 million initiative in the United States to help 100,000 low-income youth -- ages 16 to 24 -- develop the workplace skills and leadership experience necessary to compete in a 21st century economy.
To achieve its ambitious goal, the Foundation enacted a multi-tiered strategy in ten cities: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Newark, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. The U.S. strategy also includes complementary national and local investments, including the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the National Academy Foundation, and the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues. In addition to the core and complementary program investments, the Citi Foundation's multitiered strategy includes substantial volunteer engagement by Foundation employees, and a significant communications platform -- augmenting grantee organizations' efforts to share their impact with the field.
In its efforts to advance youth economic opportunity on a significant scale, the Citi Foundation has invested in solutions that offer promise of sizeable and replicable impact.
2015-11-05
Los Angeles County Arts Commission;
Volunteer labor is at the heart of what makes nonprofits run. Managing those volunteers is one of a nonprofit's most significant tasks. Data reported by arts nonprofits in LA County to the Cultural Data Project (CDP) suggests this is as true in the arts as in other nonprofit sectors. Among arts nonprofits, volunteers take on responsibilities as artists, fundraisers, program staff or they may provide other general support.
This study begins by defining the term "volunteer," investigating the complexity of volunteers' varied motivations, exploring different ways to understand the value of volunteering, and examining the special role of artist volunteers in arts nonprofits. It concludes with a series of recommendations that may help arts nonprofits improve their volunteer management and think of their volunteers in a whole new light. The data presented here -- as well as our preceding salaries and benefits studies -- should be seen not as a definitive answer to questions about labor and compensation in local arts nonprofits, but as a starting point for conversations about the status of the nonprofit arts ecology in LA County.
2015-10-29
Westat;
The Conrad N. Hilton Foster Youth Strategic Initiative (FYSI) grew out of an extensive research and synthesis process that included the perspectives of a wide variety of stakeholders. Ultimately, the process helped the Foundation better understand the challenges facing transition-age youth (TAY) and identify successful models for change; this work became the foundation for FYSI. In February 2012, the Board of Directors approved FYSI. The FYSI launched in March 2012; the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) component (or evaluation) began in March 2013.
To address the myriad issues facing TAY, those in care and transitioning out of care, the Foundation provides grants to organizations and entities with the potential to meet the three overarching goals of FYSI: (1) to increase TAY selfsufficiency, (2) to strengthen and increase cross-system collaboration and promote systems change, and (3) to develop and disseminate new knowledge about the needs of TAY and effective strategies for meeting those needs. As of June 2015, the Foundation has awarded $32,772,500 to 39 grantees as part of FYSI.
