Carol and James Collins Foundation

OVERVIEW: The Carol and James Collins Foundation supports education, arts, health and community development in the Los Angeles area. Grantmaking prioritizes programs for children and youth.

IP TAKE: The Carol and James Collins Foundation has made some large gifts to initiatives at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine. Recently, however, giving has focused on education and programming for Los Angeles’s underserved youth. Grants tend to stay under $50,000, but many recipients receive ongoing support. This is a low profile funder, but it appears to accept letters of inquiry at any time. Contact information is provided below.

PROFILE: Established in 1985, the Carol and James Collins Foundation was established by restaurant mogul James Collins and his wife, Carol Collins. Born in 1926, James A. Collins served in the U.S. Navy and graduated from UCLA with a degree in civil engineering in 1950. In 1952 he opened a “hamburger stand,” Hamburger Handout, in Culver City. A few years later, he purchased a KFC franchise. With these early successes under his belt, he bought the Sizzler Family Steak House chain in 1967. He consolidated his businesses and took them public in 1968, forming Collins Foods International (CFI), which was restructured in the early 1990s as Sizzler International. The company currently operates about 300 Sizzler restaurants around the world and over 100 KFC operations in Australia. Carol Collins also attended UCLA and has served as a board member for Women & Philanthropy at UCLA and the UCLA Lab School, which she attended as a child.

The foundation maintains a simple webpage on James Collins’ personal website and does not provide significant details about its grantmaking interests. The foundation’s mission is “to enrich the lives of children, youth and families, particularly the underserved, in the Southern California area.” It pursues this mission by giving “people the tools to become educated, healthy, self-reliant, contributing members of society.” Most grantmaking focuses on education, arts and culture, health and community development.

Grants for K-12 and Higher Education

Education is the Collins Foundation’s largest giving area. The foundation does not name specific goals for its grantmaking but demonstrates interest in out-of-school learning, youth development and college readiness. The foundation has provided support education initiatives at Proyecto Pastoral, a social justice-oriented organization in the Boyle Heights area that supports “community school transformation strategies.” Other grantees include the Alliance College-Ready Public Schools Foundation, Communities in Schools of Los Angeles, the Boys and Girls Club of the LA Harbor and College Track.

Higher education is a smaller area of giving. Grantees include Mount Saint Mary’s University, California State University at Northridge and Loyola Marymount University. Past giving has supported the Collins’ alma mater, UCLA, and Cal Poly Pomona, home to the Collins College of Hospitality Management.

Grants for Arts and Arts Education

This funder provides steady support to arts and arts education organizations in Los Angeles, with many grantees receiving multi-year support. Grantees include the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, P.S. Arts, the Unusual Suspects Theatre Company, the Los Angeles Shakespeare Youth Festival and the Decorative Arts Society of Newport Beach.

Grants for Public Health

Carol and James Collins have made significant gifts for public health and hospitals over the years. At UCLA, a gift of $5 million established the James Collins Endowed Fund in Geriatric Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine. An additional gift of $1.25 million went to Geffen’s Alzheimer’s and Dementia Care Program in 2012, and in 2015, another million supported an Alzheimer’s Risk Reduction Initiative. More recent health-related giving has supported the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.

Grants for Housing, Human Services and Community Development

The Collins Foundation also makes grants to support housing, community development and human services in the Los Angeles area. Grantees appear to prioritize vulnerable children and youth. Grantees include the Mar Vista Family Center, CASA of Los Angeles, the Children’s Defense Fund and A Place Called Home of South Central, a “multi-service youth and community center.” The Collins family also provided funding to establish the Collins and Katz Family YMCA in Los Angeles.

Important Grant Details:

Grants are mainly awarded in amounts of up to $50,000, although some large gifts to projects at UCLA in years past have been much larger.

  • With very few exceptions, grantmaking is limited to the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

  • This funder supports organizations of all sizes and tends to provide funding for multiple years.

  • Education has been its largest giving area in recent years.

  • For additional information about past grantmaking, see the foundation’s recent tax filings.

  • This funder accepts letters of inquiry, but full proposals are by invitation only.

This funder may be reached via email at cathy@jamesacollins.com or telephone at 310-645-0113. A mailing address is provided below.

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CONTACT:

The Carol and James Collins Foundation
11911 San Vincente Blvd., Ste. 320
Los Angeles, CA 90049