“No Going Back.” Funders Chart a Path to an Equitable Los Angeles, Post-Pandemic
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Grocery store workers in Los angeles in april. Cameron Venti/shutterstock
In March, a handful of foundations in Los Angeles set up a call to talk about something that was deeply worrying them—that the toll of the still-nascent COVID-19 pandemic would fall hardest on the marginalized communities they had long prioritized, including low-income, undocumented, homeless and LGBTQ+ Angelenos, and particularly people of color.
Wanting data to back up their fears and to guide their response, those funders and others brought together a coalition of leaders from the region, dubbed the Committee for Greater L.A., and partnered with two of the area’s top universities—University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California—to produce an analysis.
Last week, the collaborative published the resulting two-part report, No Going Back: Together for an Equitable and Inclusive Los Angeles. Its title is an endorsement of the increasingly common refrain in progressive philanthropy and beyond that society’s response to the pandemic—and the national reckoning on race that emerged at the same time—should aim beyond a return to the status quo that left many behind.
The vision it lays out is bold, broad and far-reaching. The report offers a high-level look at how the 10 Los Angeles-area foundations that funded it, including many of the largest funders in the state, may seek to address inequity and systemic racism in the years to come—and possibly influence their peers around the country, as well.
The report spans housing, health, the economic system, immigration, the nonprofit sector and beyond. It provides extensive statistics detailing the depth of inequities in the region, particularly along racial and ethnic lines, and is infused with quotes from community members convened as focus groups. Some of the more eye-catching of its dozen policy proposals include confronting homelessness by providing housing for all in the region, extending local voting to non-citizens, and establishing high-speed internet as a civil right.
“We plan to use the committee’s recommendations as our North Star for the foreseeable future,” said Fred Ali, president and CEO of the Weingart Foundation, which was part of the initial group, along with the California Community Foundation, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, and the California Endowment. “We’re hoping our colleague funders do the same.”
Ali believes foundations can be catalysts in pushing forward the report’s recommendations. Other funders of the report included the Annenberg, Eli and Edythe Broad, California Wellness, John Randolph Haynes, and Smidt foundations, as well as the Ballmer Group (be sure to check out our past coverage on the Ballmers’ growing role in the region). To build support for its framework and recommendations, the collective will also hold a series of briefings with philanthropies and groups like the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
“Philanthropy can be the laboratory for an agenda to overturn racial injustice, challenge white supremacy and nurture equity. It can also build support for new funding streams and new governance structures. Making real change requires courage. But going back to the policies that got us to his point is not an option,” he said in the report’s press release.
That’s not to say everyone will take the same approach. As Jacqueline Waggoner, vice president at Enterprise Community Partners and one of the committee members said on a press call of the broader coalition: “We won’t agree on everything. But we agree on a commitment to building equitable systems.”
While the report is largely focused on issues, philanthropy does get some prominent mentions in the top 10 principles outlined in the executive summary, including a now-familiar call for foundations to shift how they make grants and reconsider who receives funding. “Ensuring resources, harmonizing application and reporting requirements, providing multi-year funding, and supporting less visible sectors, like organizations supporting Native Americans, will all be critical,” it reads.
Of course, philanthropy is only one piece of the puzzle. The committee has already briefed Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and all of Los Angeles County’s supervisors. “In all cases, it’s been a very positive reaction, despite the boldness of the initiatives,” Ali told me.
What long-term impact it might have is an open question. As the report self-consciously notes, landmark events often prompt sweeping calls for change. In Los Angeles, both the Watts rebellion of 1965 and the 1992 uprising sparked by the beating of Rodney King led to ambitious—and largely unheeded—reports. But the committee is hopeful this time is different.
While conceived months before a series of killings of African Americans brought new attention to police brutality and systemic racism in America, the timing had a strong influence. “It always had a focus on racial equity,” Ali told me. “With the murder of George Floyd, the centering of racial equity and particularly anti-Black racism became more pronounced.”
“Address anti-Black racism” is the report’s No. 1 recommendation, and anti-racist approaches and addressing structural racism figure prominently throughout the report. The authors argue that the extent of current activism, the awareness of the damages of inequality and racial disparities, and the strength of the community organizations augur well for a reshaping of the status quo.
The focus of this report was on Los Angeles County, at least initially, according to Ali. But he believes that the cross-sector nature of the Committee for Greater L.A., which included partners from government, the nonprofit sector and the business community, could be of interest to philanthropic leaders outside of the region and the state. For the members, it’s definitely a success—originally envisioned as a time-limited effort, the committee now plans continued meetings.
California was once “where the future happened first.” In policy terms, it’s no longer consistently in the forefront, with other states moving forward first on issues like marijuana decriminalization. And yet, as the most diverse state in the nation by most measures, it remains a bellwether for a country undergoing steady demographic change. Time will tell whether it lives up to the expansive vision of this report—or whether that vision inspires foundation leaders beyond the state’s borders.
