The achievement of Irvine's mission and goals depends on the state having leaders at all levels and of all ages and backgrounds who take responsibility for strengthening communities throughout California. Accordingly, the Foundation is supporting strategies that help to build leadership within our areas of interest.

Irvine recognizes that leaders of all ages are needed to create a vibrant, successful and inclusive society. Our strategies, therefore, seek to build and cultivate the next generation of leaders for California, and also to sustain and nurture the effective and capable leaders of today.

We have developed two major goals to guide and organize our grantmaking to build leadership at all levels in California.

• Recognize Leadership — To support effective individual leaders and leadership organizations by drawing attention to their accomplishments and by providing direct financial support
• Build Leadership — To enhance the capacity of emerging and established nonprofit and community leaders to provide effective, collaborative and innovative leadership

Profiles of illustrative projects

Recognize Leadership

The James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards recognize individual leaders who are making a demonstrable difference to California's future. Irvine makes four to six awards every year to California leaders who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to some of the challenging issues facing the state.

Build Leadership

The goal of Irvine's Fund for Leadership Advancement is to enhance the leadership capacities of the executive directors of selected grantee organizations. Through this fund, we direct flexible grant support to enhance the abilities of executive directors to lead their respective organizations and achieve greater organizational effectiveness. The Fund offers individually tailored support to executive directors in the context of their day-to-day jobs, including executive coaching, visits to peer institutions, attendance at executive seminars, or focused technical assistance for research, facilitation or strategy development.