Philanthropy Rooted in Community: LA2050
SJPLA Team members Sharon Stratton, Yolanda Enoch, Michelle Dominguez, and SJPLA Partner Meisha Rainman at the LA2050 Grantee Showcase.
We were honored to participate in the evaluation process for this year’s LA2050 Grants Challenge awarding $2.5M to local organizations creating a stronger future for Los Angeles. Congratulations to this year’s grant recipients! Check out all the applicants and learn more about the incredible work being done across our region.
This was our third year participating as the evaluation partner, supporting the Goldhirsh team by bringing together over 50 members from our SJP community to identify the strongest-fit applicants in each issue area. We feel so grateful for the trust and partnership of the LA2050 team in enabling us to flex our community-centered grantmaking muscles for this process.
Issue areas
The public had three weeks to vote for the issue areas that matter most to them. Eight thousand voters participated in selecting the issues they want to see funded, landing on the below 10 issue areas:
Learn
K-12 STEAM Education
Support for Foster and Systems-Impacted Youth
Create
Income Inequality
BIPOC- and Women-Owned Businesses
Play
Green Space, Park Access, and Trees
Community Safety
Connect
Public Transit
Immigrant and Refugee Support
Live
Affordable Housing and Homelessness
Climate and Environment
Applications
To create transparency, applicants could see the evaluation scorecard before applying. Four hundred eighty organizations submitted applications, and Goldhirsh amplifies their work by sharing them on the LA2050 site.
Evaluation
Over 50 SJPLA evaluation committee members reviewed applications and recommended the strongest-fit applicants in each category to the Goldhirsh Foundation.
We assembled evaluation teams made up of SJPLA programs alum, Partners, and nonprofit and philanthropy peers with a rich blend of backgrounds. One of SJPLA's core values is centering and following the wisdom of those with lived and professional expertise of the issues they're tackling. Our evaluation committee members know what it's like to be on both sides of funding, both as grantseekers and grantmakers. Many have also been deeply involved in other SJPLA grant processes, like our Accelerator applicant workshops and selection process, experiencing and co-creating various approaches to collective decision making.
“As someone who applies for grants, being an evaluator helps me do my job better. I get to be on the other side, be involved in these discussions, and hear how evaluators talk about the applications. It helps me decide what I’m including in my applications and anticipate what evaluators want to know about our work.”
Evaluators were given batches of applications to review and then spent time in deliberation calls. We then give our top recommendations for Goldhirsh to review.
Reimagining Philanthropy
We appreciate that the Goldhirsh Foundation has built an initiative rooted in the community and that they give us the opportunity to support building a more equity-centered process each year. SJPLA community members like Eileen Ung repeatedly return to participate in the process:
“I come back every year curious about who applies again and very hopeful to see that people are continuing to do this work. I get to see an evolution of this process and see year over year what changes are being made in a more justice-oriented way.”
Congratulations again to this year’s grant recipients and all the applicants. Los Angeles is lucky to have all 480 initiatives working to build a better LA for everyone.
If you want to learn more about the ways we are reimagining philanthropy and participate in grantmaking processes like this, we encourage you to become an SJPLA Partner.
If you’re a funder and would like to partner with us in crafting your grantmaking process, please contact cmargiotta@sjpla.org.