OVERVIEW: The Wasserman Foundation funds education, health, arts and culture, community development and a few global development initiatives. Los Angeles is a geographic focus.
IP TAKE: The Wasserman Foundation gives broadly in Los Angeles and beyond, making over 100 grants a year to organizations of all sizes. It maintains deep connections to local schools, universities, hospitals, museums and civic institutions.
This is not an approachable funder, as it does not provide a way to get in touch or submit a proposal. For a prospective grantee, proposal writing won’t get you far. Map any possible connection to Casey Wasserman or a past grantee. Executive Director Rica Rodman has guided the foundation’s giving for more than a decade, while longstanding partners such as UCLA, Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, LACMA, MPTF and Los Angeles first-responder organizations point to the institutional networks where introductions may be most useful.
PROFILE: Founded in 1952, the Wasserman Foundation was created by Lew and Edie Wasserman. Lew was a talent agent, studio executive and manger at the former entertainment conglomerate MCA. While running MCA, he dominated Hollywood and represented stars like Bette Davis and Ronald Reagan. The Wasserman Foundation is currently led by Lew’s grandson, Casey, who previously worked as an entertainment executive, sports agent executive and owner of the Los Angeles Avengers arena football team. The foundation is “driven by the interests and passions of the Wasserman Family” and makes grants in the focus areas of Education, Health, Arts & Culture, Service and Global Initiatives.
Grants for Early Childhood Education, K-12 Education, and Higher Education
The foundation’s Education giving focuses on schools in the Los Angeles area and seeks to “improve the conditions under which students learn by partnering with organizations that are transforming Los Angeles public schools.” This program area receives the lion’s share of grants and foundation funding.
- UCLA is a site of steady support over the years. Recent tax records indicate individual UCLA Foundation awards of $2 million, $1.5 million and $1.5 million in a single year.
- Other grantees include Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, Los Angeles Unified School District, National Council on Teacher Quality, Teach for America, and Los Angeles Parents Union.
- This funder has also endowed scholarships at institutions of higher education including Brandeis University, Caltech, CalArts, NYU Tisch and Georgetown University.
Grants for Public Health and Diseases
The Wasserman Foundation’s Health program does not name specific areas of interest but supports “organizations that provide high-quality healthcare.”
- The foundation highlights its giving to institutions such as the Jules Stein Eye Institute, Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
- Other past grantees include Los Angeles’s MLK Health and Wellness Community Development Corporation, Epidermolysis Bullosa Medical Research Foundation and City of Hope, a cancer center serving the greater Los Angels region.
Grants for Arts and Culture
Wasserman’s Arts & Culture program supports “arts and culture institutions.”
- The majority of arts funding goes to museums and performing arts institutions in the Los Angeles area. Grantees include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Grammy Museum Foundation Inc.
- Other grantees the foundation has supported include Skirball Cultural Center, the D.C.-based American Pops Orchestra and Nashville’s Diversify the Stage program.
- New York cultural institutions can still be major recurring recipients, like the Met and the Shed.
Grants for Community Development and Civil Services
Wasserman’s community development programming focuses on Support Service groups, specifically for support service leaders including military, police, and fire.
- Previous grantees in this space include Los Angeles Fire Department foundation, Los Angeles Police Foundation, The Mission Continues, and YEO Network.
- Other community development grantees include Million Trees LA, Ciclavia Inc, Living Cities The National Community Development Initiative, and A Better L.A.
Grants for Global Development and Human Rights
The foundation supports global development through its Global Initiatives program, which seeks to “[p]artner with organizations that help meet global challenges.”
- Its key global development interests remain vague; however, it predominantly awards large international groups such as the Clinton Foundation, ONE, and charity:water.
- The foundation also supports a few human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch.
- Wasserman provides little public strategy detail and least one featured website example—The Tony Blair Foundation— is obsolete.
Other Opportunities
The family has “endowed scholarships at six universities over the past several decades including Brandeis University, CalArts, Caltech, Georgetown University, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and UCLA.”
The foundation also maintains the Edie Wasserman Women in Hollywood Fund, which has supported participants in The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment mentorship ecosystem with laptops and educational support. The 2025 program involved girls from underserved Los Angeles communities; participation flowed through the mentorship program, not through a direct Wasserman application.
Important Grant Details:
Wasserman’s grants range from $500 to $500,000, although UCLA typically receives sums of up to $3 million. In a recent year, this funder gave $12.72 million in total grants.
- This foundation makes close to 200 grants each year, and Los Angeles is an area of concentration.
- Wasserman’s grants support organizations of all sizes, but its grantees tend to have strong reputations among the communities they serve.
- The foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications or requests for funding.
This funder does not provide a direct way to get in touch. Its phone number is listed as (310) 407-0200 and social media accounts are linked to the bottom of the website.
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