Our mission: expand opportunity for the people of California.
Our singular goal is a California where all low-income workers have the power to advance economically. We focus specifically on California.
Our Focus
The James Irvine Foundation is a private, independent foundation that provided $158.7 million in grants in 2024 to organizations in California. Since our founding in 1937, Irvine has made more than $2.8 billion in grants throughout the state.
The Irvine Foundation has about 80 employees in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Our endowment, from which we make grants, totaled $3.3 billion by the end of 2024.
Our History
We hold ourselves responsible for achieving results for the people of California.
We are eager to learn and explore new things to make better decisions.
We intently listen to others to better understand who we serve and how.
We work for justice and fairness for all Californians.
We are flexible and ready to adapt to new ideas and ways of working.
We collaborate with leaders across sectors for greater collective impact.
We create trust by sharing information in a candid and timely manner.
The James Irvine Foundation defines equity as fair and just outcomes for all Californians — recognizing our differences and eliminating barriers that prevent full participation of all people. Every Californian — regardless of who they are, where they live, or how they came here — should have the opportunity to create a better life for themselves and their families.
We are committed to addressing barriers to economic opportunity due to racial discrimination as an important element of pursuing our North Star, “a California where all low-income workers have the power to advance economically.” While our focus here is on dismantling economic barriers based on racial discrimination, we also recognize that other factors, such as class, gender, sexual orientation, disability, parental background, veteran status, and geography influence economic opportunity for everyone.
Asian American, Black, Indigenous, Latino/a, and Pacific Islander people have poorer economic outcomes than White people, on measures like: median wages, unemployment, household wealth, access to capital, workplace exploitation, and post-incarceration workforce reentry.
Asian American, Black, Indigenous, Latino/a, and Pacific Islander people make up 80% of California’s low-income worker population.
Unequal access to economic opportunity because of racial discrimination has deep roots in California’s history and culture and the state’s economic, political, and legal systems.
Removing and replacing policies, systems, and structures that perpetuate barriers to economic opportunity based on race is necessary to ensure fairness for all.
Learn from the lived experience of low-income workers who have experienced systemic and structural barriers to economic opportunity that are based on race and use that knowledge to guide our decision-making.
Provide funding to organizations that are working to address barriers to economic opportunity that are based on race.
Build the organizational capabilities to understand those barriers and deploy grantmaking resources in ways that are effective at reducing those barriers.
Intentionally support new ideas and innovative solutions to repair historic harms and advance economic opportunity for low-income workers of all races. Ensure that our work effectively serves all communities across California.