The Weingart Foundation Advances Racial Justice by Investing Over $9.1M in Social Justice Nonprofits Across Southern California

Funds support organizations building civic and political power in communities most impacted by historic injustice

OCTOBER 16, 2023 (Los Angeles, CA) — The Weingart Foundation, a private grantmaking foundation that partners with communities across Southern California to advance racial justice, awarded $9.1 million to 42 nonprofits that provide direct services, build community power, and promote systems change strategies to meet their missions. In step with the Weingart Foundation’s commitment to support organizations led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, 88% of the nonprofits that received grants this cycle are led by BIPOC leaders.

“Through our intentional and ongoing efforts to operationalize our racial justice mission, we are increasingly evolving our grantmaking in support of organizations that are part of larger social justice movement efforts,” said Joanna S. Jackson, interim President and CEO of the Weingart Foundation. “Our partners work intersectionally, across issues and regions, to increase power and justice for historically marginalized communities. From supporting youth organizing to building racial solidarity, we’re proud to stand with our nonprofit partners in our joint efforts to dismantle racist and unjust systems.”

The Weingart Foundation invests in cross-racial solidarity building as part of ongoing efforts to eradicate anti-Black racism. For instance, a number of Weingart’s partners in South LA, a priority region for the Foundation, have a longstanding track record of strengthening relationships between Black and brown communities and organizing these communities to advance justice. This includes Dignity and Power Now, an anchor organization advocating for the reinvestment of public dollars away from the carceral system and into community-based systems of care. Another example of an organization strengthening ties and collaboration between Black and brown communities is the Brotherhood Crusade which works with Black and Latino youth, including young people that are system-involved or living in poverty, and creates more opportunities for young people and their families to thrive.

In an effort to increase investments to Indigenous and Native American communities, the Weingart Foundation made a $1.5M grant over three years to First Nations Development Institute supporting a pooled fund designed to strengthen and bolster tribal organizations and communities in California. In this cycle, the Weingart Foundation also provided grants to Native Americans in Philanthropy to advance equitable philanthropy; California Tribal Families Coalition for advocacy, legal support and coalition building. These efforts are part of an ongoing strategy to deepen the Foundation’s work with Native American organizations.

Also of note, the Weingart Foundation provided a significant investment to 10 organizations led by and serving Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities. This includes support to the South Asian Network a longstanding Weingart partner that provides programs in domestic violence, health and civil rights; United Cambodian Community that advocates for housing rights in Long Beach’s Cambodia Town; API Equality-LA, one of the few organizations that specifically serves the API LGBTQ community in the Greater LA area; and to the AAPI Equity Alliance, a coalition that includes many Weingart partners, that empowers the AAPI community through civic engagement, capacity building, and policy advocacy.

As these examples show, the majority of Weingart’s partners work on a number of intersectional issues and often in coalition to further their racial justice missions. While many of the Weingart Foundation’s nonprofits partners funded during this cycle are long-standing partners, Weingart program officers continue to foster new relationships as they identify opportunities to further advance racial equity.

“We’re proud to see the tremendous work of our nonprofit partners and their collaborative efforts to advance systemic change in communities most impacted by injustice,” said Monica Lozano, Board Chair of the Weingart Foundation. “We look forward to our continued partnership as we work together to build a more just and inclusive future for Southern California.”

For a full list of the Weingart Foundation’s September grants, please click here.

ABOUT THE WEINGART FOUNDATION
The Weingart Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation that partners with communities across Southern California to advance racial, social, and economic justice for all. Our vision is a dynamic and effective social change sector that is creating equitable systems and structures needed to achieve justice. Founded in 1951, the Foundation has to date granted over $1 billion to organizations, strengthening their efforts in human services, housing, health, education, and community power building. In addition, the Foundation builds networks and collaboratives with philanthropic, public sector, and community leaders to advance equity and justice together.

Message from Miguel A. Santana and Joanna S. Jackson

This is a time of transition: Today we mark Miguel’s last day at the Weingart Foundation, and Joanna’s first as Interim President and C.E.O.  Effective October 16, Miguel takes the helm of the California Community Foundation as its President and C.E.O.  As we note this moment in the trajectory of both foundations, we also take the opportunity to look back at F.Y. 2023 and share some highlights of the work that we accomplished together.

Working with the Weingart Foundation board, colleagues and nonprofit, investment, and philanthropic partners, we are proud of the progress made in operationalizing  the Foundation’s commitment to racial equity during fiscal year 2023 through both grants and impact investments. The cumulative impact achieved through the Foundation’s committed nonprofit partners and strategic mission-aligned investments bolster the power of communities most impacted by historic structural and systemic racism.

The Foundation advanced its mission through the focused utilization of its financial and philanthropic capital. Striving to build an investment portfolio that is 100% mission aligned, the Weingart Foundation committed a total of $50M in mission aligned impact investments in F.Y. 23 alone, including $10 million to Kah Capital to help borrowers stabilize payments, $8 million to 645 Ventures supporting women entrepreneurs and founders of color, and $5 million to Primestor, a Latino-owned real estate developer building affordable housing, and several other mission-aligned investments.

Committed to growing people power and movements, strengthening the infrastructure of the racial justice sector, and prioritizing communities historically marginalized, in F.Y. 23, the Foundation made over $38M in grants to 174 partners in the field, 22% of which are first time partners. The size of these grants averaged $200K, often a catalytic investment for many emerging community partners. These investments were guided by our strategic framework focused on:

  • Strengthening communities
  • Building power; and
  • Equitable and just systems

Using our own voices as racial justice leaders, we proudly endorsed the groundbreaking research and report by the California Task Force to Study Reparation Proposals that details the compounding and ongoing harms experienced by Black Californians. As a Foundation committed to addressing structural racism and the legacy of anti-Blackness, long-term investment in Black leadership and organizing in Black communities is a core part of our grantmaking including through collaborations like our $5 million commitment to the California Black Freedom Fund.

As we transition into our new roles respectively, we are reminded that our relationship as colleagues and friends mirrors the strong bond between the Weingart Foundation and the California Community Foundation, having partnered in service of immigrants, the unhoused, and young people and in strengthening the infrastructure of nonprofit organizations throughout L.A. County. We know that this collaboration will only get stronger as we continue to collaborate and advance equity in partnership with community leaders, movement builders, and collaboratives committed to justice.

Together in Justice,

Miguel A. Santana and Joanna S. Jackson

Read Our F.Y. 2023 Highlights

We’re delighted to share with you our F.Y. 2023 highlights of our work in partnership with frontline community leaders, funder colleagues, and cross-sector collaboratives in addressing structural racism throughout Southern California.

The Weingart Foundation Welcomes Diana Amparo Jiménez as the Foundation’s First Program Officer for Housing Justice

Working with the Weingart Foundation’s housing and homelessness partners, Jiménez will advance the Foundation’s housing justice strategy.

August 16, 2023 (Los Angeles, CA) – After an extensive search, the Weingart Foundation, a private grantmaking foundation that partners with communities across Southern California to advance racial justice, welcomes Diana Amparo Jiménez (she/they) as Program Officer for Housing Justice. In the newly created position, Jiménez will foster grantmaking, convening, public/private partnerships, advocacy, and communications to advance racial justice in the housing landscape in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura Counties. Jiménez will also work closely with the Foundation’s impact investing team to support housing justice opportunities.

“Diana Amparo Jiménez brings deep expertise and housing leadership that will help us advance lasting solutions to our region’s housing needs,” said Miguel Santana, President and C.E.O. of the Weingart Foundation. “Her professional background, lived experience, and deeply rooted commitment to social justice make her a valuable addition to our team as we continue to build power for systemic change across Southern California.”

Most recently, Jiménez served as Program Associate for the Homelessness Initiative at the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, where she supported the implementation of its five-year strategy aiming to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. Before that, Jiménez was a Project Manager at T.R.U.S.T. South LA’s Community Land Trust, where she established partnerships with community development financial institutions, commercial banks, and philanthropy for viable loan products and grants to secure creative financing for the purchase and rehabilitation of multifamily buildings through the implementation of LA County’s community land trust pilot.

“My personal experience as a child of migrants, growing up amidst housing insecurity, propelled me to pursue a career that invests in Black, Indigenous, and communities of color which have long been extracted from,” said Diana Amparo Jiménez, the Weingart Foundation’s incoming housing justice program officer. “I am looking forward to working with my colleagues and the Weingart Foundation’s partners to continue to serve communities most impacted by systemic racism.”

Jiménez is a first-generation graduate and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Policy, Planning, and Development – Sustainable Planning Emphasis from the University of Southern California, Sol Price School of Public Policy. Jiménez is a descendant of the Nahua and Raramuri-Tarahumara nations and remains rooted in their ancestral practices of land, housing, and environmental justice.

ABOUT THE WEINGART FOUNDATION

The Weingart Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation that partners with communities across Southern California to advance racial, social, and economic justice for all. Our vision is a dynamic and effective social change sector that is creating equitable systems and structures needed to achieve justice. Founded in 1951, the Foundation has to date granted over $1 billion to organizations, strengthening their efforts in human services, housing, health, education, and community power building. In addition, the Foundation builds networks and collaboratives with philanthropic, public sector, and community leaders to advance equity and justice together.

Message from Miguel A. Santana, President and C.E.O.

August 22, 2023

It is with mixed emotions that I announce that I will be ending my tenure as President and CEO of the Weingart Foundation effective September 30, 2023. I will embark on a new chapter as President and CEO of the California Community Foundation (CCF) starting October 16, 2023.

I have served the Weingart Foundation for more than seven years, initially as a board member and later as its chief executive. During that time, I am proud to have furthered the Foundation’s commitment to racial, social, and economic justice. Notably, we expanded our impact by integrating our grantmaking and endowment, resulting in over $88 million of mission-aligned investments in our community during the last fiscal year alone. This substantial investment represents more than 10% of the Foundation’s total assets.

We have also embarked on a journey of truth and reconciliation, a vital step in solidifying our commitment to being an anti-racist foundation. This process has enlightened our understanding of how racist policies contributed to the wealth we steward. This knowledge also grounds our commitment to our mission and the community.

I hold deep gratitude for the Foundation’s dedicated partners throughout Southern California, from Ventura, Orange and Los Angeles counties, the Inland Empire and the Antelope Valley, to South and East Los Angeles. I look forward to maintaining my relationship with these community partners in my new role at CCF.

My heartfelt appreciation extends to the Weingart Foundation Board of Directors, led by current Board Chair, Monica Lozano and past Chair, Aileen Adams. Equally, I extend my gratitude to the Leadership Team of Joanna Jackson, Vice President of Programs, Tim Ortez, Chief Financial and Investment Officer, and Brian Williams, Chief Operating Officer, and the entire Weingart team. We should all be comforted knowing the Foundation and its mission are in their very capable hands.

I look forward to working with the Weingart Foundation and the broader philanthropic community in the years to come to advance a more equitable and just Southern California for all Angelenos.

Miguel A. Santana
President & C.E.O.

The Weingart Foundation Applauds the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ Decision to Establish a Regional Governance Structure for Homelessness, Pledges to Fund the Creation of a Leadership Table to Further Regional Alignment

AUGUST 8, 2023 (Los Angeles, CA) — Miguel A. Santana, President and CEO of the Weingart Foundation, a private grantmaking foundation that partners with communities across Southern California to advance racial justice, released the following statement.

“We applaud the decision by the Los Angeles County Board Supervisors to establish a regional governance structure for homelessness. Further, the Weingart Foundation along with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, commits to support the creation of a leadership table that brings together the County, City of Los Angeles, Council of Governments, service providers, key civic leaders, and people with lived experience, to further regional alignment.

“We’ve invested in understanding the best practices in creating a regional approach for homelessness in Los Angeles, including sponsoring the report commissioned in September 2020, authored by Dr. Raphael Sonenshein at the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State LA. The report underscores the necessity of a stronger regional strategy to address the homelessness crisis.

“The regional governance structure that the Board of Supervisors approved today can help operationalize the unprecedented cooperation between the City and County of Los Angeles under the leadership of the Board and Mayor Bass.

“We thank the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for taking this critical and important step towards advancing solutions to our region’s housing and homelessness crises.”

ABOUT THE WEINGART FOUNDATION

The Weingart Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation that partners with communities across Southern California to advance racial, social, and economic justice for all. Our vision is a dynamic and effective social change sector that is creating equitable systems and structures needed to achieve justice. Founded in 1951, the Foundation has to date granted over $1 billion to organizations, strengthening their efforts in human services, housing, health, education, and community power building. In addition, the Foundation builds networks and collaboratives with philanthropic, public sector, and community leaders to advance equity and justice together.