Liberty Hill, Santa Monica’s largest public foundation, has announced its final grants to L.A. County nonprofits, bringing the 2005 total to $2.1 million.
For nearly 30 years, Liberty Hill has partnered with innovative and effective grassroots organizations to combat poverty and injustice.
From the beginning, its hallmark has been identifying and “seed-funding” innovative and emerging grassroots organizations. In many cases, Liberty Hill has provided the first grant to a fledgling organization that subsequently became an influential community organization.
In announcing the grants, newly-named executive director Jeffrey Richardson said, “We encourage everyone to make this season of giving a season of change. At Liberty Hill, we understand that until there is change, we will always need charity.”
Since 1976, Liberty Hill Foundation has given away nearly $27 million to grassroots community organizations in Los Angeles County.
Seed Fund Grant Recipients:
A New Way of Life Re-Entry Project, $20,000
Centro Binacional Para el Desarrollo Indigena Oaxaqueno, $20,000
Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools, $10,000
Collective SPACE, $10,000
Ex-Offender Action Network, $10,000
Faith Communities for Families and Children, $10,000
Greater Long Beach Interfaith Community Organization, $12,750
Khmer Girls In Action, $20,000
L.A. Voice, $12, 750
Los Angeles Youth Justice Coalition, $17,500
Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network, $15,000
Ne’ayuh, $10,000
Pilipino Workers’ Center of Southern California, $20,000
Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, $17,000
Progressive Jewish Alliance, $17,500
Southern Californians for Youth, $10,000
Women and Criminal Justice NETWORK, $17,500
Earlier this year, in the wake of L.A.’s election of the first Latino mayor in more than 100 years and national headlines putting Los Angeles in the spotlight, Liberty Hill awarded an unprecedented $735,000 to L.A. County community organizations.
“All eyes are on Los Angeles. This is a historic moment and many people are feeling optimistic about the prospects for expanding equality and dignity to everyone who lives here,” said Torie Osborn, Liberty Hill’s retiring Executive Director. “Liberty Hill’s investment this summer of nearly three-quarters of a million dollars is a reflection of our willingness to invest significant resources in expanding prosperity and equality in southern California. Now is the time to address L.A.’s massive housing and homeless crisis as well as the failure of many local jobs to provide a living wage.”
Among the groups that received grants was, in Osborn’s words, “one of the Westside’s most exciting community organizations,” Parents Organized for Westside Renewal, which went toe-to-toe with the country’s largest private developer recently to win additional affordable housing for the area.That round of grants included organizations based in both West and East L.A., Koreatown, downtown L.A. and South Los Angeles.
