Leadership in the Sector

The Weingart Foundation continues to use our voice, influence and resources to build a shared vision of equity that advances racial and socioeconomic justice for all Southern Californians. Listed below are our key leadership initiatives in the sector.

Bold Vision 2028

Bold Vision 2028 is a multi-sector effort to build a 10-year plus initiative that aims to fundamentally and positively improve the lives of a generation of children and youth of color in Los Angeles County by 2028. The 2028 hosting of the Olympic and ParaOlympic Games in L.A. inspired us to find a way to leverage this historic moment to do something bold that results in dramatic, lasting change in our community. The initiative recently completed a comprehensive stakeholder engagement process that mobilized leaders across Los Angeles to define specific policy and systems change priorities. We look forward to sharing more as the work progresses.

Committee for a Greater Los Angeles

As communities respond to the COVID-19 crisis, a new foundation-inspired effort will inform the roadmap for a just recovery. The Committee for a Greater Los Angeles is a collaboration between philanthropy, nonprofits, business, labor, Los Angeles City and County, other L.A. cities, and researchers from U.C.L.A. and U.S.C. The committee issues key data regarding disparate impacts in vulnerable communities, identifies critical issues, and makes recommendations for collective and transformative action. Current focus areas include: anti-Black racism, housing and homelessness, broadband access, and nonprofit sector capacity.

California Executive Roundtable

A number of California funders left the 2017 Achieving Equity convening committed to working together more systematically to move a shared vision of justice and opportunity. We formalized the California Executive Roundtable, a group of 16 foundation leaders from across the state focused on sharing best practices and taking aligned action to advance equity. The Roundtable meets regularly to share best practices and identify areas of collective action.

Strengthening Nonprofit Effectiveness

Nonprofit organizations play a critical role in our society, as changemakers, safety net providers, and employers. Yet too many are under-capitalized, especially those led by and working in communities of color. We believe that we can only make real progress toward justice when communities have the robust infrastructure and capacity needed to fully unleash their power. The Foundation works to promote full-cost funding and improved grantmaking and contracting practices from philanthropy and government, working with partners including Philanthropy California, Southern California Grantmakers, the California Association of Nonprofits, and Los Angeles County. We are currently supporting efforts to pilot a new process to allow nonprofit contractors to negotiate indirect cost rates with L.A. County.