Atlas Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Atlas Family Foundation funds direct services, interventions, educational programs, policy and advocacy for expecting mothers and infants up to three years old in Southern California.
IP TAKE: With its focus on early childhood, the Atlas Family Foundation aims to be responsive to the needs of the communities it serves; however, it does not accept unsolicited proposals, preferring to research it’s own grantees to invite for a grant. This tends to be a regional funder more than a national one.
PROFILE: Based in Los Angeles, California, the Atlas Family Foundation was established in 1985 by Richard Atlas, a former partner at Goldman Sachs, and his wife, Lezlie Atlas. The foundation invests in "community-based programs that place individuals on a trajectory to good health and success by serving the needs of young children and their families in Southern California." The foundation’s grantmaking is based on the principle that good early childhood development lays the foundation for better public health, school readiness, economic equality, and stronger communities. It primarily promotes prenatal and early childhood development by supporting direct service, intervention, and education programs in its giving regions.
Grants for Public Health
The Atlas Family Foundation supports a wide range direct service, intervention, and education programs aimed at promoting good prenatal and infant health. Atlas has helped fund The Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles’s preparation services pregnant women expecting an infant with “complex medical, genetic, or developmental abnormalities,” Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child, Maternal Mental Health Now’s general operating support and Planned Parenthood Los Angeles.
Grants for Early Childhood Education
The Atlas Family Foundation supports early childhood education broadly, naming direct services, mental health, parent education, policy and advocacy, program evaluation, strategic planning, educator and leadership training and communication strategies as types of projects that it funds. The foundation also aims to maintain "the fluidity necessary to respond to community needs and the current policy environment." Past grantees include the Blind Children's Center of Los Angeles, which recently added parent mentoring and social skills workshops to its traditional early childhood education programming, and Para Los Ninos, which used funding to expand its network of social services providers and early childhood education centers that serve Los Angeles's neediest families.
Important Grant Details:
The Atlas Family Foundation gave away about $2 million in a recent year. Grants range in size from $5,000 to $200,000, with an average grant size of $50,000. A complete list of recent grantees is available at the foundation's website. The foundation’s grantmaking primarily centers around Southern California, although it may occasionally fund organizations in other parts of the United States.
This funder is highly proactive about its grantmaking and does not accept unsolicited requests for funding
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