Announcing $4.2 million in new Unrestricted Operating Support grants
In July 2020, the Weingart Foundation awarded our first round of Unrestricted Operating Support (U.O.S.) grants for F.Y. 2021, funding 39 nonprofit organizations at a total of $4.2 million. These partners align strongly with our Foundation’s goal to advance racial and socioeconomic justice by providing critical direct services in communities of color and by building the power of people to change systems for the long haul.
The July U.O.S. grants span our five-county Southern California service area and include support for key place-based initiatives including the SELA Collaborative, low-wage workers’ centers like the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center, key homeless providers like the Downtown Women’s Center, and youth organizing groups like the Chispa Education Fund and Future Leaders of America. The Foundation is also committed to sustained support to address racism in all forms, with a focus on anti-Black racism. Black-led and serving partners include Congregations Organizations for Prophetic Engagement, the Coalition for Responsible Community Development, and the Los Angeles Community Action Network.
In order to expedite funding to core partners as they respond to the COVID-19 crisis, the Foundation instituted an invitation-only approach and suspended our practice of accepting unsolicited grant proposals. While the process has changed, we continue to use the same guidelines and priorities to guide our proactive decisions on what organizations we invite to apply. We focus on organizations that we have funded over the past several years that are strongly aligned with our goal to advance equity, as well as our strategies and priority funding areas.
Moving forward, our grantmaking will continue to follow the strategies outlined in our F.Y. 2021 Program Plan, which was released in July. Over the course of the fiscal year we will award a total of $20 million in unrestricted funding, which is our primary strategy for supporting our nonprofit partners as they serve communities and work to sustain their organizational infrastructure in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.
