Our Grants

Black Women for Wellness (BWW) advances the wellbeing of Black women and girls through health education, empowerment, and advocacy. Our grant will help BWW monitor, evaluate, and strengthen the implementation of the many policies it has assisted in passing, all of which aim to dismantle barriers to accessing healthcare and support the elimination of health disparities faced by Black women, birthing people, and girls.

California Black Women’s Health Project is committed to ​improving the health of California’s 1.2 million Black women and girls through advocacy, education, outreach, and policy. The organization inspires and uplifts Black women to adopt self-care and advocacy; partners with communities and health-related organizations to encourage change; and provides hands-on educational programs.

California Budget & Policy Center is a research and analysis nonprofit, committed to advancing public policies that improve the lives of Californians who are denied opportunities to share in the state’s wealth and deserve the dignity and support to lead thriving lives in its communities. Our grant enables the organization’s focus on providing the most relevant analyses to advocates and leaders in the California to support policy advances in early learning and care.

Cherished Futures—a joint initiative of Communities Lifting Communities, the Public Health Alliance of Southern California and the Hospital Association of Southern California —is a multi sector, collaborative effort to reduce infant mortality and improve maternal patient experiences and safety for Black moms and babies in South Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley, California. Our grant supports Cherished Futures to expand to a new cohort of 3 4 hospitals, share promising practices from communities nationally with other local hospitals, and provide graduate level Fellows that will help with implementation plans.

The California Policy Collaborative builds the policy knowledge, expertise of and connections between policy staff through accurate and relevant learning content coupled with engaging and enriching learning experiences, all for the ultimate benefit of California’s children and communities. Our grant supports a non-partisan Early Learning professional learning infrastructure to support early-career legislative staff.

California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) provides transformational educational experiences grounded in culturally sustaining practices, innovative research, creative activity, and community engagement for undergraduate and graduate students. Its teacher preparation program is the primary feeder program for teachers who go on to work in South LA school districts. Our grant supports Toros Teach LA, addressing the severe shortage of early childhood educators by preparing, graduating, and placing culturally competent, racially diverse teachers and leaders in schools across the LA region.

California State University Long Beach (CSULB) provides undergraduate and graduate educational opportunities through teaching, research, creative activity, and service for the people of California and the world. The School of Education at CSULB prepares the most teachers in the 23-campus California State University. Our grant helps California school districts meet the urgent need for 12,000-15,000 credentialed pre-kindergarten teachers by developing and implementing a new PK-3 Early Childhood Education credential at CSULB.

California State University, Northridge Foundation (CSUN) is responsible for accepting, managing, investing, and disbursing all CSUN related philanthropic funds. Our grant supports CSUN to offer intensive training to 175 Los Angeles United School District teachers—serving predominantly Black and Latino K 2 students at the highest need elementary schools—for reading recovery and accelerated literacy growth through its highly successful Primary Promise program.

The Child Care Alliance of Los Angeles is a unique and significant partnership of 10 partner agencies that deliver services to thousands of families and child-care providers. Our grant supports Workforce Pathways to improve on foundational infrastructure and systems to support early educators to increase their qualifications through an augmented and integrated advisement program.

Children Now harnesses collective power to achieve transformational and systemic results for California’s kids. Our grant supports Children Now’s work to build a California that leverages every funding source and political window of opportunity to advance universal access to child care for families and children aged 0-3.

Early Edge California believes all children should have access to high-quality learning experiences so they can have a strong foundation for future success. It centers the voices of families, educators, and childcare providers to uplift their challenges and needs; educates lawmakers, leaders, and others about the need for investment in early learning and care programs; builds coalitions to recommend statewide funding levels and policy change; and promotes quality programs.

Educare Los Angeles at Long Beach increases access to high-quality early learning across southern California. It is a hub to model how early learning programs can provide quality early education, partner with families, and advocate for education practice and policy.

Families in Schools works to involve parents and communities in their children’s education to achieve lifelong success. It provides capacity building to education staff, empowers families to support their children’s education, and advocates for policies and practices that promote authentic family engagement.

Golden State Opportunity is dedicated to ending poverty by providing all Californians with the tools to build financial wellbeing. Our grant supports its outreach to more than one million low-income Angelenos, helping them to claim hundreds of millions of dollars from tax credits and improve their financial situations.

GRACE’s advocacy focuses on increasing cash resources for vulnerable families, enhancing the civic infrastructure that supports families by securing state funding for cradle to career networks that are serving families directly in their neighborhoods, and scaling up proven strategies. Our grant will support GRACE’s work to advance place-based poverty alleviation strategies and economic justice initiatives in Los Angeles County and California.

The LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment (PECI) invests in and promotes innovations that advance the lifelong health and well-being of LA County children ages 0-5. Our grant supports PECI’s efforts to involve, include, and amplify perspectives and voices of parents and childcare leaders to help inform the region’s early childhood policies and programs.

LA Partnership for Early Childhood Investment is a public private collaboration that invests in and promotes innovations to advance the lifelong health and well being of children ages 0-5 in Los Angeles County, California. Our grant supports the Village Fund to ensure that the needs and experiences of those weathering and experiencing the most adverse birth outcomes – Black families – are involved in developing and driving solutions to birth equity.

Learning Policy Institute conducts and communicates independent, high-quality research to improve education policy and practice. Our grant enables the organization’s research related to supporting California’s investment in universal pre-kindergarten.

Low Income Investment Fund mobilizes capital and partners in support of the vision that everyone in the U.S. should benefit from living in a community of opportunity, equity, and well-being. Our grant supports its work related to increasing the effectiveness of California’s Infrastructure Grant Program, ensuring Los Angeles-based early childhood education providers receive support to successfully stabilize and grow the licensed supply of childcare where it is most critical.

Para Los Niños (PLN) works with Southern California’s most underresourced communities to foster pathways to success through excellence in education, powerful families, and strong communities. Para Los Niños’ seven early education centers and three charter schools serve low-income children ages 6 weeks to 14 years old; while its two youth workforce services centers prepare youth ages 14 to 24 for success in post-secondary education and the workforce with a focus on drop-out recovery and prevention. PLN also offers mental health services to children from low-income families and provides families with in-home counseling, case management, and crisis intervention.

Partners for Children South L.A. is a collaborative effort of 40+ health and human services organizations that partner to provide links to services and cross-agency care coordination for children from birth through five years and their families. The organization works to improve access to high-quality healthcare, early education, and family supports, with an emphasis on children in kinship care and pregnant and parenting teens.

Philanthropic Ventures Foundation tests new approaches to creative grantmaking and to maximize the impact of the philanthropic dollar. Our grant supports their partnership with the California Department of Education to successfully implement and bolster the quality of universal Pre-K in California.

Raising A Reader helps families to build, practice, and grow reading routines at home to foster healthy brain development, healthy relationships, and the literacy skills critical for school success. Our grant expands early literacy and family engagement programs to reach children in Los Angeles County who face widening Early Literacy gaps in the wake of COVID-19

Reading Partners is a national nonprofit that mobilizes communities to provide students with the proven, individualized reading support they need to read at grade level by fourth grade. Our grant supports Reading Partners Los Angeles to expand its school-based, one-on-one tutoring model to reach significantly more students.

The University of California at Berkeley’s School of Education and its departments of economics and labor are working to ensure that young children and families furthest from opportunity reap the benefits of California’s recent investments in early childhood care and education. Our grant will help train district and school leaders serving underinvested communities in Los Angeles County, bolster and provide upward mobility for experienced teachers of color, and spread best practices of what’s working in L.A.

UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools is dedicated to advancing systems change in education through humanizing research, validating practices, and transforming policies to support equitable educational outcomes for historically underserved students. Our grant helps to identify Los Angeles Unified School District’s schools that successfully address systemic academic inequities faced by Black students and to elevate best practices to families, the district, and the county.

Sobrato Early Academic Language Program provides California educators and schools with research- and evidence-based tools that help dual-language and multilingual learners succeed. Our grant expands professional development so that more educators in the Los Angeles region can effectively support the diverse learning needs of underserved dual-language and multilingual students, using a proven approach that centers their cultural and linguistic brilliance.

Springboard Collaborative addresses the U.S. literacy gap by closing the gap between home and school, coaching educators and family members to help kids learn to read. With more than 60% of California third graders reading below grade level, this is an urgent issue. Our grant supports Springboard’s efforts to empower children from underserved communities in Los Angeles as thriving and engaged readers by catalyzing collaboration between families and teachers in intensive summer and after-school reading programs.

The Children’s Partnership advances child health equity through research, policy, and community engagement, increasing the influence of marginalized voices in advocacy. It harnesses the power of partnerships to create and implement policies that address systemic inequities and contribute to healthy children, resourced families, and safe and welcoming communities.

UNITE-LA advances equitable economic mobility and well-being by fostering collaboration that enhances systems, policies, and high-quality education and career pathways. Our grant supports UNITE-LA’s efforts to educate and cultivate business leaders as early childhood education (ECE) champions, positioning them as powerful allies for young children and families. Additionally, our funding will help UNITE-LA build greater cohesion in ECE workforce pathways, from apprenticeships to associate and bachelor’s degree attainment, ultimately strengthening California’s early care and education sector.

Fair Beginnings for Black Families is a three year project designed to improve health outcomes and significantly reduce health disparities impacting parents, expecting parents, and infants and children of low income, Black communities in Los Angeles County and throughout California. Our grant will support their work to create a home visitation program to set up Black families for success and positive health outcomes and partnership with LA community colleges to support Black students who are expecting or new parents.