December 4, 2003

The James Irvine Foundation
Announces $15.9 Million in Grants

New grants bring total commitment in 2003 to $50.7 million; Board of Directors authorizes a 10% increase in grantmaking for 2004

San Francisco—The Board of Directors of The James Irvine Foundation today approved $15,920,000 in grants for 51 projects that advance the Foundation's mission of expanding opportunity for the people of California. With these grants, the Irvine Foundation concludes 2003 having committed a total of $50.7 million to various charitable activities across the State. The Foundation is one of the largest private philanthropies dedicated exclusively to California.

The Board of Directors also approved a grants authorization budget for 2004 of $56.3 million, representing an increase of more than 10% in grantmaking from 2003. The Foundation is able to direct additional resources to grantmaking as a result of increased assets and diminished operating costs.

"This has been a year of transition for the Foundation, as we devoted significant resources to ensuring a responsible exit from former program areas at the same time as we identified new programmatic directions," said James E. Canales, president & CEO of The James Irvine Foundation. "We have now completed our strategic planning process by focusing on those areas where Irvine's resources can make the greatest difference, and we are enthusiastic about our ability to commit significant resources to our three focus areas-Youth, Arts, and California Perspectives-in the year ahead."

With the recent completion of a comprehensive strategic plan, the Irvine Foundation is focusing its efforts in three areas: (1) Youth: to support low-income youth in making successful transitions from secondary education to post-secondary opportunities in education, citizenship, and the workforce; (2) Arts: to promote a vibrant and inclusive artistic and cultural environment in California; and (3) California Perspectives: to inform understanding and decision-making regarding significant issues of long-term consequence to California. More than $13.4 million in grants were approved at the December board meeting consistent with these new directions.

The Irvine Board also approved $2.5 million in grants to ensure a responsible transition for organizations that had been funded under program areas that the Foundation will no longer continue. With these final grants, the Foundation committed a total of $21 million in 2003 for such support.

The grants approved in December by the Board of Directors ranged between $50,000 and $1.6 million, with the most significant financial contributions being granted to the Catholic Charities of San Jose and Sacramento Children's Home-sponsored Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) Initiative for out-of-school programs and to the Irvine Dance in California Program, for diverse California dance artists. The approved grants are listed by program area:

YOUTH

100 Black Men of Los Angeles, Inc.

$200,000 To support the Young Black Scholars Program (YBS) to increase the percentage of African American students in California competitively prepared for admission to and graduation from college, payable over 2 years. (Inglewood)

Aspire Public Schools

$250,000 To develop and implement the "Hire and Higher" Program, a replicable, innovative model of secondary school-based career links for students in California's low-income communities, payable over 2 years. (Redwood City)

California State University, Fresno Foundation

$250,000 To promote programs, policies, and performance aimed at increasing college enrollment and completion among underrepresented youth in the San Joaquin Valley, payable over 2 years. (Fresno)

Catholic Charities of San Jose

$1,600,000 For the continued implementation in San Jose of the Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) Initiative, a community-based learning initiative designed to boost the achievement of children and youth through out-of-school programs, payable over 1 year. (San Jose)

The Finance Project

$250,000 To support the after-school field in developing effective plans for sustaining high-quality programs to better serve California's youth, payable over 1 year. (Washington, DC)

New England Foundation for the Arts

$100,000 To support the production and promotion of the PBS series Access to College in targeted California communities, payable over 1 year. (Boston, MA)

Occidental College

$200,000 To assist California families in understanding and accessing financial aid for higher education, payable over 2 years. (Los Angeles)

Project Grad Los Angeles, Inc.

$200,000 To support the College Liaison Program to increase college attendance and successful graduation from four-year colleges among Latino students in the Northeastern San Fernando Valley, payable over 2 years. (North Hollywood)

Sacramento Children's Home

$1,600,000 For the continued implementation of the Communities Organizing Resources to Advance Learning (CORAL) Initiative in Sacramento, payable over 1 year. (Sacramento)

The San Francisco Foundation Community Initiative Funds

$200,000 For the Foundation Consortium for California's Children & Youth to support the California AfterSchool Partnership, payable over 2 years. (San Francisco)

The Tides Center

$100,000 For the California Community Technology Policy Group, to continue statewide efforts to promote a public policy agenda that supports community technology within after-school programs, payable over 1 year. (San Francisco)

The Tomas Rivera Policy Institute

$200,000 To improve educational attainment and achievement in Latino communities through a two-year statewide college preparedness outreach program, payable over 2 years. (Los Angeles)

United Way of Kern County

$220,000 For the KernLearn Project to improve the academic achievement of students in Kern County through enhanced access and use of an innovative, self-paced academic and career assessment and tutorial web-based program, payable over 30 months. (Bakersfield)

ARTS

The Community Foundation

$450,000 To provide capacity building assistance and tools to smaller arts organizations and to expand audiences and delivery of art programs to the diverse and growing population in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, payable over 2 years. (Riverside)

Dance, USA

$1,000,000 To continue the Irvine Dance in California Program, an artistic regranting initiative for California dance artists representing a broad range of voices, genres, cultural traditions, and regions of the State, payable over 3 years. (Washington, DC)

East Bay Center for the Performing Arts

$250,000 To support core programming activities and the first year of the Community Leadership through Arts Study and Service (CLASS) program, payable over 2 years. (Richmond)

The Fund for Folk Culture

$200,000 To support a statewide regranting program for folk arts and traditional culture in California, payable over 2 years. (Santa Fe, NM)

Jewish Community Center of San Francisco

$200,000 To launch a new arts program celebrating San Francisco's ethnic diversity, payable over 3 years. (San Francisco)

The Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture

$100,000 To support the implementation of an organizational business plan, payable over 18 months. (Los Angeles)

Los Angeles Philharmonic Association

$750,000 To support core programming activities as part of the Cornerstone Arts Organizations Program, payable over 3 years. (Los Angeles)

Margaret Jenkins Dance Studio, Inc.

$200,000 For support of the Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange (CHIME) Project, which enriches the development of emerging California choreographers, payable over 2 years. (San Francisco)

Merced County Arts Council, Inc.

$100,000 To support participatory art workshops and performances for K-14 youth that promote civic engagement and cross-cultural communication, payable over 3 years. (Merced)

San Francisco Community Music Center

$100,000 To continue support for music instruction and performance programs for low-income youth, payable over 2 years. (San Francisco)

San Francisco Mime Troupe, Inc.

$50,000 To support productions in the Central Valley, payable over 2 years. (San Francisco)

Southern California Center for Nonprofit Management

$250,000 To establish an Arts Loan Fund to provide short-term loans to arts organizations in the Los Angeles area to bridge gaps in their cash flow, payable over 3 years. (Los Angeles)

CALIFORNIA PERSPECTIVES

The Advancement Project

$500,000 For core support to implement strategies for promoting equity and reforms of policing, criminal justice, and K-12 education systems in Los Angeles County, payable over 3 years. (Los Angeles)

Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California

$150,000 To support the California Voter Empowerment Circle, a network of voting rights advocates, to conduct statewide demographic research, and create a statewide demographic profile on Asian Pacific Islander communities, payable over 18 months. (Los Angeles)

Chinese American Voters Education Committee

$200,000 To increase and enhance Asian American civic and voter participation in all aspects of public life, payable over 2 years. (San Francisco)

The Commonwealth Club of California

$400,000 To stimulate public discussion in California about needed reforms in the State's system of governance and foster an effective movement to implement reforms, payable over 2 years. (San Francisco)

Pacific News Service

$525,000 To strengthen Pacific News Service's capacity to bring underrepresented voices into public discourse and promote the role of ethnic media in California, payable over 15 months. (San Francisco)

Viewpoint Learning, Inc.

$400,000 To experiment with new ways of rebuilding public trust between the people of California and their government, payable over 8 months. (La Jolla)

Water Education Foundation

$120,000 To educate decision-makers in the California State Assembly and Senate about water issues, payable over 2 years. (Sacramento)

SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES

Community Television of Southern California/KCET

$1,250,000 For support of the third season of California Connected, a public affairs television program, payable over 1 year. (Los Angeles)

Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Foundation

$250,000 To support "LA: Light, Motion, Dreams" a multimedia exhibition to educate the public about cultural and environmental change in Los Angeles, payable over 1 year. (Los Angeles)

MultiCultural Collaborative

$200,000 For core support of the MultiCultural Collaborative's work among diverse community leaders committed to strengthening Los Angeles, payable over 2 years. (Los Angeles)

Southern California Association for Philanthropy

$400,000 For support of the Los Angeles Urban Funders Initiative, payable over 4 years. (Los Angeles)

TRANSITION GRANTS
The Foundation is committed to a responsible transition for those organizations that had been funded in areas it will no longer be supporting. The following grants were made, therefore, as part of its transition support:

CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES

United Way of Tulare County

$100,000 For the Tulare County Youth Coalition to support capacity-building and improved coordination among rural youth-serving organizations throughout Tulare County, payable over 1 year. (Tulare)

CIVIC CULTURE

Faith Initiative of Santa Barbara County

$100,000For core support, payable over 1 year. (Isla Vista)

United African American Ministerial Action Council

$75,000 To evaluate a community organizing campaign to create a special needs employment resource center for ex-offenders in the Barrio-Logan community of San Diego, payable over 1 year. (San Diego)

University of Southern California

$200,000 For core support to the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, payable over 18 months. (Los Angeles)

Youth in Focus

$140,000 To support youth-led research, evaluation, and planning projects to promote educational equity in the Central Valley, and to provide administrative support to the Central Valley Partnership, payable over 1 year. (Davis)

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

Action Pajaro Valley

$300,000 For core support and organizational capacity-building, payable over 18 months. (Watsonville)

The Bay Area Video Coalition, Inc.

$100,000 For a donor management database and targeted consulting services to increase the capacity to cultivate, solicit, and steward philanthropic support, payable over 1 year. (San Francisco)

California Center for Land Recycling

$240,000 To assist communities in California in promoting brownfield redevelopment as an alternative to sprawl through training, re-granting, and policy reforms, payable over 18 months. (San Francisco)

Community Development Technologies Center

$150,000 For the Business Technology Assistance and Careers (BTAC) Program, a technology workforce training program for low-income, inner city residents, and businesses in South Los Angeles, payable over 18 months. (Los Angeles)

Orange County Business Council

$150,000 For the Center for a New Orange County, to address and improve infrastructure issues in Orange County, payable over 1 year. (Irvine)

Santa Barbara Region Economic Community Project

$150,000 To use the Regional Impacts of Growth Study to improve regional decision-making concerning land use, payable over 18 months. (Goleta)

Sierra Business Council

$150,000 For core support and organizational capacity-building, payable over 1 year. (Truckee)

SPECIAL PROJECTS

BoardSource

$200,000 To support programs for California nonprofits that promote and teach effective governance, payable over 2 years. (Washington, DC)

Peninsula Community Foundation

$200,000 For the League of California Community Foundations to undertake targeted professional development, capacity-building and knowledge development activities, payable over 2 years. (San Mateo)

Southern California Center for Nonprofit Management

$250,000 For core support in providing management and technical assistance to small and mid-sized nonprofits in Los Angeles, payable over 2 years. (Los Angeles)

About The James Irvine Foundation

The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation dedicated to expanding opportunity for the people of California to participate in a vibrant, inclusive, and successful society. The Foundation’s grantmaking is organized around three program areas: Arts, Youth, and California Perspectives, which focuses on improving decision-making on the significant issues that are shaping California’s future. Since 1937 the Foundation has provided more than $900 million in grants to nonprofit organizations throughout California. With current assets of more than $1.7 billion, the Foundation expects to make grants of $69 million in 2006 for the people of California.

For more information about the Irvine Foundation, please visit our Web site at www.irvine.org or call 415.777.2244.