The James Irvine Foundation Board of Directors approved $3,074,000 in grants at its quarterly meeting last week. The grants are part of the Foundation’s ongoing commitments to current grantees and initiatives at a time when it is also evolving its focus, specifically to expand economic and political opportunity for California families and young adults who are working but struggling with poverty. (Read more about that new direction here.)

Grantmaking as part of this new focus will occur in future months, and highlights of this current round of giving include:

Expanding Arts Engagement — Irvine will grant more than $1.97 million to the Socius Group for the Foundation’s New California Arts Fund, a signature initiative (funded through 2018) that supports arts organizations in making arts engagement core to their work. This grant will fund NCAF activities that build a learning community and curriculum, including 12-14 learning sessions that bring together 16 participating organizations from across the state. The grant will also build the capacity of participating organizations and share lessons more broadly with the arts field.

Voter and Civic Engagement — A grant of $600,000 was approved to the Movement Strategy Center to support efforts to increase voter turnout and civic participation among low-income, young adults in California. The grantee will build a statewide network of local organizations working toward this goal in order to increase learning and knowledge-sharing opportunities.

Linked Learning — The Foundation will grant $500,000 to the Linked Learning Alliance as part of its ongoing efforts to increase the number of Linked Learning pathways serving high school students across the state. The Alliance is a statewide coalition of education, business, and community organizations focused on better preparing California high school students for college and careers.