Roth Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Roth Family Foundation prioritizes Los Angeles and the surrounding areas of Southern California, but supports national and global initiatives as well. As of 2015, it no longer accepts applications for funding.
IP TAKE: Roth is a modest, progressive grantmaker that tends to support smaller and grassroots groups. Many of its grantees receive multi-year support. Roth stopped accepting applications for funding in 2015, having chosen, perhaps, to focus on existing relationships. A connection to the family or a past grantee will be key here. Use the contact page for general inquiries.
PROFILE: The Roth Family Foundation was established in Los Angels in 1966 by Harry, Louis and Fannie Roth, who were owners the apparel company Louis Roth Clothes. Subsequent generations of the Roth family are currently involved with the foundation. Giving is inspired by the Roth Family’s values of “[c]ompassion, justice, fairness, access and respect for others.”
The foundation’s Program Areas include Informed Citizenry, Healthy World and Education Opportunities. This funder mainly makes grants for both project and general operating support. It prioritizes organizations in Southern California.
Grants for Journalism and Media
The Roth Family Foundation’s Informed Citizenry giving is limited to public broadcasting organizations “whose programs are innovative and informative for radio, television and other media.”
Grantees include National Public Radio, Southern California Public Radio, KKJZ Jazz Radio of Long Beach California and Classical Radio KUSC of Los Angels.
Grants for Environment, Climate Change, Food Systems, Global Development and Global Health
The Roth Family Foundation’s Healthy World supports a broad range of projects supporting the health and well-being of underserved and vulnerable people around the world.
Giving for the Environment prioritizes justice, education, outreach, organizing, policy reform and “environmental beautification and school/community gardens.”
Grantees include Santa Monica’s Children’s Nature Institute, the Los Angeles Conservation Group and Tree People, a Los Angels group that “inspires and supports the people of Southern California to plant and care for trees, harvest the rain, and renew depleted landscapes.”
Grants from this program also support organizations involved in Food Security & Biodiversity. Areas of interest include “local farming and agriculture, providing agricultural education and nutrition, creating economic opportunities and sustainability, and celebrating traditional/cultural foods.”
Grants have supported organizations including the Los Angeles Community Garden Council and the Arroyo Vista Family Health Center in Los Angeles.
The foundation also gives to Global Programs that work in the areas of “water access, women’s and girls’ reproductive health, civil and political rights, and economic development.”
Grantees include the American Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, Well Bring Hope and Afripads, a social enterprise that manufactures and distributes menstrual supplies to women and girls in Africa.
Roth also names Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights and Sex Education as priorities for its global giving, although recent funding in these areas has mainly stayed in the U.S. in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobb v. Jackson decision.
Grantees include the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, Medical Students for Choice and the Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project of Los Angeles.
Grants for Education, Work and Opportunity, Housing and Community Development
Roth’s Education Opportunities giving names Economic Development and High School Dropout Prevention as areas of focus.
Economic Development grantmaking focuses on programs that “work toward the goal of a sustainable increase in living standards that include living wages, education, healthcare, and housing.” The program prioritizes organizations involved in labor organizing, leadership development, advocacy and policy reform.
Grantees working in these areas include the Long Beach Immigrants Rights Coalition, LA Family Housing, the LA Alliance for a New Economy and the Los Angeles Garment Worker Center.
Grantmaking in the area of High School Dropout Prevention is mainly limited to Los Angeles-area organizations.
The foundation has supported the LA Education Partnership and EdBoost, which works to “reduce educational inequality by making high-quality, individualized academic help accessible to all children.”
Grants for Women and Girls
Women and girls are prioritized by the foundation’s Global Programs and Educational Opportunities giving areas.
Global Programs giving supports programs for women’s and girl’s reproductive health, but grantmaking seems to have dwindled in this area, with reproductive health grants focusing on the U.S.
The Educational Opportunities giving area supports programs that empower girls, including but not limited to “educational enrichment, leadership development, and tutoring, mentoring, and financial literacy.”
Grantees include Los Angeles’s Girls Academic Leadership Academy and the Youth Mentoring Connection, also of Los Angeles.
Grants for Arts Education
The Roth Family Foundation’s Educational Opportunities program names Arts Education priority giving area. Grantmaking prioritizes music education for underserved communities.
Grantees include the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles, the Neighborhood Music School Association, the Los Angeles Music and Art School and the Bellingham Music Festival in Washington.
Important Grant Details:
Grants are relatively modest and typically fall between $5,000 to $55,000.
More than half of Roth’s grants stay in Southern California, but this funder does work nationally and globally, as well.
The foundation offers project and general operating support.
Many grantees receive ongoing support.
This funder stopped accepted applications in 2015.
View past grantees here.
Use the foundation’s contact page to reach out with questions.
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