Foundation to Send More Money to Poor Areas

The California Community Foundation, criticized after the Los Angeles riots for channeling too little money to the most needy, has launched a four-year program to help groups in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The foundation’s new Community Bridges program will divide at least $250,000 annually among 10 to 20 groups across Los Angeles County.

Foundation President Jack Shakely said the grants are intended for “grass-roots organizations where people who live in public housing, who live in block groups, come together to solve a problem.”

Shakely said the program represents a significant shift of direction for the 78-year-old foundation with an endowment of $100 million. The funds for the new program will be diverted from arts and health organizations.

Even groups that have not acquired federal tax-exempt status will be considered for the grants, he said. Foundation staff members will help the groups apply for and administer the money.

An advisory committee of 16 community representatives has been appointed to award the grants.

In a series of workshops last week, the foundation staff introduced the program to hundreds of nonprofit organizations.

The most important criteria is that the group and its leaders be from the community the project will serve, foundation officials said.

“Most of the money (will go) to programs whose impact is expected to be felt by people who have the least access to resources,” said foundation Vice President Terri Jones.

The foundation has been targeted in the past two years in critical reports by a Washington-based watchdog group, saying it has failed to address social needs.

In a 1991 report, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy faulted the foundation for giving only 22% of its 1989 grants to the disadvantaged. After the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the watchdog’s Southern California chapter repeated the complaint in an appeal to Rebuild L.A., challenging the foundation to designate 75% of its resources to programs for low-income populations.

Foundation officials countered that only about 30% of their grants are discretionary, the rest designated by the donor for a specific organization or purpose. Of the discretionary funds, about 40% went to community development, compared to 19% for health and 10% for arts, and the rest to a variety of other purposes, said foundation spokeswoman Lauren Kay.

The Community Bridges program will shift discretionary funding to community development, Jones said. She said planning for the program preceded last year’s critical report.