December 7, 2004

The James Irvine Foundation
Announces $20.2 Million in New Grants,
$61 Million as Grants Budget for 2005

San Francisco—The Board of Directors of The James Irvine Foundation today approved $20.2 million in new grants to nonprofit organizations in support of the Foundation's mission of expanding opportunity for the people of California to participate in a vibrant, successful, and inclusive society. Today's action brings the total amount for grants approved by the Foundation's Board in 2004 to $53.7 million. The Foundation's grants budget for 2005, which was also approved today, will be $61 million, an increase of almost 13.5 percent compared with the total grants awarded in 2004. [For a list of grants that were approved today, click here.]

The Irvine Foundation's grantmaking is organized around three program areas: Arts, Youth, and California Perspectives, which focuses on increasing public understanding of critical issues facing the state and infusing new ideas into the policy development process. The Foundation created these three programs because it believes that intervention in these areas can deliver strategic, long-term benefits to the state and its diverse and growing population.

Under the Arts program, today's approvals include a set of grants in connection with a new initiative, Communities Advancing the Arts. Eight community foundations will receive grants totaling $3.5 million, payable over three years, that will be used for regranting in their communities and for building the community foundations' capacity to increase philanthropic support for the arts by implementing donor education and cultivation programs. (NOTE TO EDITORS: A separate release was issued today announcing Communities Advancing the Arts.)

Under the California Perspectives program, grants approved today include $500,000 to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) to fund statewide surveys on the state budget and to enhance PPIC's capacity to reach diverse audiences, and $400,000 to the Center for Governmental Studies to conduct and disseminate research regarding reforms of ballot measure processes, redistricting, and campaign finance.

Under the Youth program, grants approved today include $200,000 to MDRC, a nonpartisan social-policy research organization, to support a series of conferences and publications synthesizing key findings about successful high school reform efforts; and $500,000 to Career Academy Support Network (CASN), to extend the use of one of these proven school reform efforts, known as Small Learning Communities (SLCs). Irvine funding will support CASN's efforts to test the feasibility of using SLCs in low-performing schools to increase the number of low-income high school students who meet eligibility requirements for entry into the University of California and California State University systems. CASN is housed within the Graduate School of Education at the University of California at Berkeley.

About The James Irvine Foundation's
Grantmaking Programs

The Foundation's grantmaking is organized around three program areas: Arts, Youth, and California Perspectives, which focuses on increasing public understanding of critical issues facing the state and infusing new ideas into the policy development process. The Foundation targets these three programs because it believes that intervention in these areas can deliver strategic, long-term benefits to the state and its diverse and growing population.

In addition, while a statewide funder, the Irvine Foundation focuses its grantmaking on selected regions of the state, especially those that are underserved by philanthropy, where major demographic shifts and rapid population growth are taking place, and where there are large numbers of low-income residents. As a consequence of these priorities, geographic focus areas for the Foundation include the Central Valley, Los Angeles County, and the Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino counties).

For more information about the Foundation's grantmaking program, including how to apply for a grant online, call 415.777.2244.

The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation, with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Foundation was established in 1937 by James Irvine, a native Californian who devoted most of his life to business interests in San Francisco and the development of his 110,000-acre ranch in Southern California, which was among the largest privately owned land holdings in the state. Since 1937, the Foundation has provided approximately $750 million in grants to more than 6,000 nonprofit organizations throughout California. With current assets of more than $1.3 billion, the Foundation expects to make grants of $61 million in 2005 for the people of California.

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