Ahmanson Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Ahmanson Foundation supports education, mental health, housing, public health, arts, culture and humanities in greater Los Angeles. This funder prioritizes giving for capital projects.
IP TAKE: Making hundreds of grants each year, the Ahmanson Foundation is an important source of funding for organizations pursuing capital projects and major equipment purchases in the greater Los Angeles area. An accessible funder, Ahmanson accepts letters of inquiry at any time and responds to grantseekers within 30 days with invitations for proposals. More than half of this funders grants support education and organizations working with homeless and vulnerable people, but hospitals, arts organizations and libraries are also beneficiaries. Read over the foundation’s guidelines and eligibility information before reaching out.
PROFILE: The Ahmanson Foundation was established in 1952 by the late Howard F. Ahmanson, the founder of Home Savings of America, which became the country’s largest savings and loan association in the 1050s. The foundation is currently run by Ahmanson’s grandson, Michael Ahmanson. Since its founding, the Ahmanson Foundation has maintained the broad mission “to administer funds for charitable, scientific, educational, literary, and religious purposes, all for the public welfare.” Current grantmaking, however, focuses somewhat more specifically “on cultural projects supporting the arts, education at the collegiate and pre-collegiate levels, medicine and delivery of health care services, specialized library collections, programs related to homelessness and low-income populations, preservation of the environment, and a wide range of human service projects.” Grantmaking is mainly limited to the greater Los Angels area.
Grants for K-12 and Higher Education
Education is the foundation’s largest giving area. Although Ahmanson does not name specific goals for its education giving, it appears to favor projects for capital projects, including expansion, renovation and the purchase of new technology and equipment.
AT the K-12 level, a vast majority of grants support private, charter and religiously-affiliated schools, as well as some organizations that provide out-of-school learning opportunities. In Long Beach, the foundation bankrolled a new elevator at Intellectual Virtues Academy. Another grantee, Santa Monica’s Crossroads School for Ats and Sciences, received about $1 million for the construction of a new theater. Other K-12 recipients include the Chandler School in Pasadena, Mayfield Senior School of the Holy Child Jesus, robotics programs at THINK Together and the Seed School of Los Angeles County.
In higher education, the foundation has also made many grants for school expansions, additions and improvements. California Lutheran University, home to the Ahmanson Science Center, received upwards of $1 million for a roof replacement and HVAC project. Los Angeles’s Otis College of Art and Design received about $1 million to replace its elevators, and Biola University received funding to expand its Speech-Language and Pathology Clinic. Other higher education recipients include Claremont McKenna College, Cal State Northridge, the American Indian College Fund, Occidental College and Pepperdine University.
Grants for Mental Health, Housing and Homelessness
Human services are the foundation’s second largest giving area, with many grants focusing on mental health and related issues of housing and homelessness in the state of California. The foundation made a grant of $3 million to Los Angeles’s Union Rescue Mission, a faith-based organization fighting homelessness, for major renovations of its facilities. Another large grant supported dormitory renovations at the Los Angeles Mission, which provides emergency housing and basic needs to homeless and vulnerable people. Other grantees in these areas include the Optimist Boys Home and Ranch, the Downtown Women’s Center, Union Station Homeless Services and Awakening Recovery, an addiction recovery center in Los Angeles.
Grants for Arts, Culture and Humanities Research
As with Ahmanson’s other giving areas, Ahmonson’s grants for arts, culture and humanities fund organizational expansion, improvement and large equipment and/or technology purchases. However, grants in these areas also the development and expansion of specific programs and archival projects and libraries and research centers. An especially large grant of over $5 million went to the Henry E. Huntington Library & Art Gallery for the purchase of a work by the painter Francisco Jose de Goya. Other large gifts have supported major renovations at the Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles and the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. Grants for archival projects have gone to the Skirball Cultural Center of Los Angeles and American Cinemateque, and program development grants have supported the California Dance Institute and a Writing in the Schools Program by Pasadena’s Red Hen Press.
Grants for Public Health and Diseases
Health is a smaller area of giving for this funder, but grants regularly support hospitals and clinics in Southern California, often funding renovations, expansions or the purchase of new equipment or furnishings. A grant of over $1 million recently supported the purchase of a new MRI machine at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and the Orthopaedic Hospital of Los Angeles received funding to replace HVAC units at one of its buildings. Other grantees include Cedars Sinai Medical Center, the USC Verdugo Hills Hospital Foundation, Northeast Valley Health of San Fernando and the Beverly Hospital Foundation of Montebello.
Important Grant Details
Ahmanson’s grants range anywhere from $2,000 to $5.8 million.
This funder shows a strong preference for funding physical expansion, renovation and equipment purchases, although it also makes grants for programmatic and general operating support.
Grantmaking is mainly limited to Southern California.
The foundation provides a searchable database of past grants.
Letters of inquiry are accepted at any time via the foundation’s website. Applicants will hear back within 30 days with inviations to submit full proposals.
Submit general inquiries to this funder via email at info@theahmansonfoundation.org or telephone at (310) 278-0770.
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