A Look at the La Vida Feliz Foundation’s Commitment to Los Angeles

The La Vida Feliz Foundation (“Happy Life Foundation”) is the creation of Aaron Sosnick, who is primarily known for his Wall Street involvement and ties to New York City. However, this foundation also supports organizations in Los Angeles, which is the part of its giving we’re focusing on here. Sosnick typically maintains a low profile with his philanthropy, with only very limited public information available.

Here’s what we know so far about the La Vida Feliz Foundation and its SoCal giving.

Three main focus areas

In Los Angeles, the foundation’s grantmaking largely revolves around three topics of interest: arts and culture, education and community projects. As an example of its arts and culture commitment, the funder has donated to Friends of the Junior Arts Center in the past. Education grantees include Math for America Los Angeles and Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. Enrich LA, Friends of Griffith Park and Friends of the Los Angeles River are other foundation grantees. It is common for the foundation to support community projects that are linked to its founder’s specific interests as well.

Personal interests

Professionally, Aaron Sosnick runs a statistical arbitrage fund called A.R.T. Advisors. But he has other interests beyond his work that seem to guide some of his philanthropy—like biking and alternative transportation. Through his foundation, he has supported the development of better public transportation in Los Angeles County, especially to improve transportation access for underserved communities of color.

Civic engagement and the environment appear to be emerging interests as well, although grantmaking has not been as extensive in these areas yet. Sosnick is also a political donor who has supported numerous Democratic candidates over the years.

What’s ahead for La Vida Feliz?

It appears that Sosnick is still very much engaged in business in addition to his philanthropic pursuits. While the foundation is actually based in Wilmington, Delaware, there seem to be no plans to shift grantmaking away from Los Angeles and New York City. It’s been on the grantmaking scene since 2007 and is fairly well established by this point. But according to recent tax records, it does not accept unsolicited requests for funding and only supports organizations that it identifies and seeks out.

Learn more about the La Vida Feliz Foundation in IP’s full profile of this funder, which is part of our LA and SoCal funding guide.

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