Awards

Newsletter Archive

Fave Five

LA History and Heroes

LA Bday Wishes

LA2050 Grants Challenge

Partnerships and Events

LA Gift Guides

Giving Tuesday

By LA, For LA

Team LA2050

LA2050 Reports

LA2050 Grantee Updates

Resources and Guides

LA2050 has been honored with multiple awards. 

LA2050 is an award winning initiative! 

Voting in the LA2050 Grants Challenge is open now until May 8th! Cast your vote today.

Thank you 2024 Outreach Partners!

The LA2050 Grants Challenge is featured in an article by Martha Ramirez in 

LA2050 and Goldhirsh Foundation featured in Inside Philanthropy

Exciting news! Legendary public media outlet 

 has joined the LA2050 Grants Challenge as one of our media partners. We're grateful for their help engaging Angelenos.

Listen to the LA2050 Grants Challenge on KCRW!

Meet the 183 Awesome Angelenos Serving as LA2050 Youth Ambassadors!

Votes can be cast online at LA2050.org. Also, new this year: 24 volunteer opportunities

Public Voting Begins Today for the $2 Million LA2050 Grants Challenge

Join Team LA2050 as Assistant to the President!

Each year, LA2050 gives $1 million to nonprofits and other social impact organizations making Los Angeles better through the LA2050 Grants Challenge. Angelenos determine the issue areas that will receive funding – from homelessness and income inequality to park access – through voting. Voting takes place on 

 from April 2nd to May 8th, and is open to all ages and available in 10 languages.

Introducing our LA2050 Volunteer Activation Hosts!

Ed. note: Born and raised in Los Angeles, 

– a Goldhirsh Foundation and LA2050 Social Media and Communications Fellow – describes herself as an expert-beginner in skateboarding, taco stands, and the local music scene. She is a writer who has witnessed the changes and prospects all across Los Angeles, from backyard music shows to new cultural centers, and city-funded support programs. As a witness to these moments of growth, her observational skills have transcended from visions to resources. Now, she wants to share some of these tips with you. All below is Gabrielle’s guide to help readers understand more about what the city has to offer beyond its glitter:

Los Angeles, Who Makes You? 

LA2050 is an initiative of the Goldhirsh Foundation.

Goldhirsh Foundation Names Groundbreaking All-Female Investment Committee

, an interactive, half-day workshop focused on offering nonprofits and social impact organizations practical insight into how artificial intelligence (AI) can be leveraged in their work.

LA2050 Hosts “Artificial Intelligence for Social Good” Workshop

 to cast your vote in the current election cycle.

24 Iconic Places to Vote in ‘24

For this week’s #FaveFive, we’re excited to feature Freya Estreller, Chief Operating Officer of Dignity Moves.

#FaveFive featuring Freya Estreller of Dignity Moves

The Goldhirsh Foundation and LA2050 have won a 

, the organization behind the prestigious prizes announced today. The honor is in the 

, and is for the 2023 LA2050 Grants Challenge. Congratulations to all our fellow winners and nominees!
The Anthem Awards honors the purpose and mission-driven work of people, companies, and organizations worldwide. In each of the past two years, LA2050 received Silver Anthem Awards. This year, we also received a 

Bronze Anthem Award in the "Local Awareness Campaign" category

, again, for the LA2050 Grants Challenge.

The Goldhirsh Foundation and LA2050 initiative have won a Gold Anthem Award!

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner!

From LA2050 With Love: Dates for Good across Los Angeles! 

Thank you for your interest in this opportunity. As of February 28th, 2024 at 5pm PST applications have closed.

APPLY NOW! $5,000 Mini-Grants for Volunteer Activations

2024 LA2050 Youth Ambassador Program – Open Now!

LA2050 Youth Ambassadors Dream of a Future of LA

Recently, our colleague LeAnn Kelch Melendez, Director of Grants and Programs appeared on 

Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy Los Angeles

’ panel called “Innovations in Philanthropy: Leveraging Pooled Funds, PRIs, and Community-Guided Grantmaking."

Our teammate LeAnn Kelch Melendez shined on EPIP LA's Recent Panel + Key Takeaways

Our 2022 LA2050 Grantees Share Final Updates!

Every January, we commemorate the remarkable life and triumphs of Martin Luther King Jr. Join us in embracing the spirit of his legacy through acts of service and community enrichment.

Unity in Action - Volunteer Opportunities for MLK Day of Service 2024

Thank you to all applicants for your interest in collaborating with us and for taking the time to submit thoughtful applications. After careful consideration, we have chosen to pursue a different direction at this time. 

Seeking: Contract Front End Developer 

Established in 2011, the Leadership Academy is a training program with the purpose of teaching organizing and advocacy skills, civic engagement, and local community action. Since its inception, the Leadership Academy program has graduated more than 215 participants from diverse backgrounds (77% identify as low-income and 90% identify as BIPOC (black, indigenous, people of color), many of whom have successful environmental careers as park rangers, community organizers, educators, artists, storytellers, etc.

Nature for All is Connecting People from Underrepresented Communities to Nature

The RightWay Foundation’s program Operation Housing First disrupts the cycle of generational poverty and trauma for emancipated foster youth in Los Angeles County. In order to stop the foster care to homelessness pipeline, RightWay secures safely-located apartments for emancipated foster youth at risk of becoming chronically unhoused, signs the master lease, supplies the security deposit, and pays a portion of each month’s rent for one year while helping our youth build financial independence and healthy lives through our intensive programs and services.

The RightWay Foundation’s Operation Housing First shelters 50 youth

Thanks to LA2050, Compton Creek Natural Park was able to reach its potential as a cultural, educational, and recreational hub for its neighborhood. LA2050 funding supported young people with paid work experience and on-the-job training. They spent their time learning park operations and performing community beautification. Park operations included staff support for community programming and extended open hours for the public.

Compton Creek Natural Park sees increase in visitors thanks to LA Conservation Corps

The Anti-Recidivism Coalition is a leading justice reform organization based in Los Angeles that serves system-impacted Californians statewide. We are proud of our work to empower formerly and currently incarcerated people to thrive. To ensure our communities are safe, healthy, and whole, we provide a support network which includes formerly incarcerated people, comprehensive reentry services, inside programming for those who are currently incarcerated, and opportunities to advocate for policy change.

 ARC gives formerly incarcerated youth access to creative industry employment 

For the 2022-2023 school year, Sharefest’s Youth Leadership Academy (YLA) expanded to six Continuation High Schools in the South LA and Harbor areas of Los Angeles: Avalon (Wilmington), Angel's Gate (San Pedro), Patton (Harbor City), Simon Rodia (Watts/South Gate), Moneta (Gardena), and, new this year, William J. Johnson Community Day School (San Pedro). In three of the schools (Angel’s Gate, Patton, Moneta) our Career and College Development Courses were a required weekly class during the school day – meaning, every student in the school benefited from YLA programming. In the other schools, the courses were available at the end of the day as electives.

Sharefest’s Youth Leadership Academy enrolls more than 380 students

As we reflect on our LA 2050 Grant-funded project, we are proud of the impacts our team, partners, interns, and community accomplished and are inspired to continue this work! Receiving LA 2050 funding allowed us to transform The Rebel Garden Project from a small pilot program into a larger, much more impactful offering, and catalyzed us to receive other supplemental funds from partners like Sony Pictures Entertainment, Monat Gratitude and The California Arts Council.

RuckusRoots’ Rebel Garden Project engages 29 systems impacted students

Lost Angels Children's Project (LACP) is a non-profit organization with the mission to serve disadvantaged youth, families, and distressed communities through innovative vocational training, social enterprise, and outreach programs. LACP was founded in 2014. Since inception LACP has trained and mentored youth in the Antelope Valley. LACP empowers and employs transitional age youth (TAY) within the Antelope Valley community and Greater Los Angeles area by offering a paid vocational training program that provides a direct path to sustainable job placement. LACP program participants are socioeconomically disadvantaged, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, single parents, young women, justice and/or foster systems-impacted transition-aged youth. LACP is a vocational skills training and youth development organization that engages at-risk and foster youth through classic car restoration and customization, to learn a trade, gain life skills and become empowered through team building activities.

Lost Angels Work Program engages at-risk youth in classic car restoration

All information presented in this report was possible through the support provided to LA CAUSA YouthBuild- Proyecto Avanza by the LA2050 grant opportunity. The Proyecto Avanza (https://www.lacausainc.org/project-avanza) was officially announced opportunities available in our website and a marketing flyer was distributed to all partnerships, as well as through various social media platforms and community spaces. The aim of the recruitment plan was to focus on young individuals who have been impacted by the system and coming from underprivileged or disadvantaged backgrounds. As a result, we effectively engaged with 308 individuals between the ages of 16 and 24 from low-income communities in East Los Angeles through our outreach efforts. As a result, 110 youth enrolled into our program. Through this grant opportunity, we provided services to a diverse group of young individuals who faced various challenges such as mental health issues, drug and alcohol dependency, involvement in the justice system, teenage parenthood, gang affiliation, and being victims of violence. Our program offered activities that were tailored to the needs of these young people, with the goal of motivating and empowering them to create positive changes in their own lives and in their communities. In acknowledgement of their journey and the challenges they overcame, we had a graduation venue in celebration of their academic accomplishments and determination.

LA CAUSA Youth Build-Project Avanza reaches more than 300 East LA Youth

Homeboy Industries’ Youth Re-entry Center (YRC) is the first program of its kind in Los Angeles County, and an important resource for at-risk and/or formerly gang involved or incarcerated youth. There are currently 207 youth actively engaged in programming at the YRC. Here, we help youth participants address gang involvement, recidivism, unemployment, and complex trauma by combining evidence-based therapeutic case management services with education, career development, and comprehensive wraparound services. We work in partnerships with Learning Works Charter School, Homeboy Art Academy, as well as several local universities to ensure that we are able to provide holistic, effective support to youth in our community.

Homeboy Industries Youth Reentry Center:  Provides Hope and Healing for Formerly Gang-Involved or Incarcerated Youth

Before we bid farewell to 2023, we want to take a look back.

Our 2023 LA2050 Yearbook

Support from philanthropic partners including LA2050 allowed Fulfillment Fund to expand its reach in Los Angeles and beyond, providing deeper, more individualized, and robust support to students and parents over the last year. In total, Fulfillment Fund served 3,660 unique students through our growing College Access and Success Programs in academic year 2022-23. Among those served last year, 99% identify as individuals of color, 94% live in socioeconomically disadvantaged households, and just 13% speak only English at home.

Fulfillment Fund’s College Access and Success Programs serves more 3,000 students

The core of Foster Nation’s work is the belief that we all have the power to be better than the circumstances we were born into. And sometimes we all just need a meaningful connection to help us reach our greatest potential. Over the past year, we have been able to improve, expand, and scale the CareerX coaching program that helps Los Angeles foster youth develop life, social, and professional skills in order to be self-sufficient after foster care.

Foster Nation’s CareerX Coaching Program Creates Connection & Community

The Urban Peace Institute (UPI) officially launched our South Park School Safety Collaborative with support from the Goldhirsh Foundation’s LA2050 initiative in 2022. Through the initiative’s PLAY area, UPI was able to reimagine community safety by supporting peacemakers and building community leaders throughout the year. Through the awarded funding, UPI was able to implement robust programs to provide South Park residents with support to implement safety strategies within their neighborhoods.

UPI works with South Park residents to implement safety strategies

Trust for Public Land is grateful for LA2050’s support in helping us to realize our goal of connecting Los Angeles residents to the joys and benefits of the outdoors. Over the past twelve months, and with the support of LA2050, Trust for Public Land has made significant progress in advancing our Parks for People efforts in Los Angeles. We opened the Central Jefferson and Quincy Jones green alley networks in South Los Angeles and made headway on two more greenways; completed 80% of construction of Urban Orchard in South Gate and advanced three additional neighborhood parks; began construction of Castellanos Elementary’s green schoolyard—our first in Los Angeles—and raised significant funds and community support for more green schoolyards across the region.

Trust for Public Land advances its Parks for People efforts

The Theodore Payne Foundation is pleased to present the final grant report for the “Climate-Ready Native Plant Landscaper Training'' project funded by LA2050. This initiative aimed to address the growing need for a knowledgeable landscaper workforce in Southern California, specifically trained in the cultivation and care of native plants. This transformative initiative, driven by the vision of preserving Southern California’s unique ecology, empowering landscape professionals, and fostering sustainable urban environments, has yielded remarkable outcomes. Through the California Native Plant Landscaper Certificate Program (CNPLC), a bilingual job-training endeavor, we have not only met but exceeded our goals, leaving a lasting impact on our community and the environment. This report details the achievements and ongoing commitment to building a resilient, water-conserving, and climate-friendly landscape industry in Los Angeles.

The Theodore Payne Foundation delivers bilingual job training for landscape professionals

LA2050 funded the Thai Community Development Center’s Thai Town Marketplace (TTMP), a new approach to urban revitalization and an innovative “green” community market. Creating the first “Health/Wealth Zone”, the TTMP will deliberately link health and economic outcomes, revitalize the area, help low-income residents start their first business, create 18 businesses every three years and over 60 jobs, teach vendors financial and health literacy, host monthly health and information booths for visitors at our adjacent farmers’ market, increase access to healthy foods by enrolling individuals into public benefits programs, and make local organizations’ social services more accessible.

Thai CDC's Thai Town Marketplace: Making an Impact Through Food, People and Place

During the past year, in the 2023 grant period, formerly the Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalition, now recently unveiled as ÓRALE, has indelibly supported the growth, leadership, and development of 43 community members who graduated via our immigrant liberation-centered leadership program for undocumented and impacted community members and their families. Astoundingly, in this past grant, we have bore witness to the incredible strength, resilience, and the powerful growth of innate leadership that exists within each and every of our leadership academy graduates. As shared by our organizing team, who directs the program, foundationally and at the heart of what every graduate and student goes through, is a real deepening of tangible organizing skills that they can later use in their professional careers as well as a transformative space where they are challenged to deepen their understanding of how systems of policy work coupled with systems of oppression work so as to inherently inform the challenges they and their families experience in their daily lives. ÓRALE’s leadership academy is unique in that it develops the innate leadership skills of immigrant community members while at the same giving students a deeper understanding of systems that have been designed to work against them and systems that are incredibly fraught with discrimination and xenophobia. Incredibly, ÓRALE’s Leadership Academy conducted a combined leadership training of a series of political educational workshops, with a total number 135 leadership and education training hours for community members. It is via the School for Unity and Liberation SOUL adapted training program that our community members received highly specialized instruction on topics that truly inform their capacity to feel empowered to lead in

ORALÉ fka LBIRC, announces 43 graduates of its immigrant liberation centered leadership program

The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) Equity Innovation Program (EIP) provides additional resources to historically underserved entrepreneurs (women, BIPOC or those from historically under-resourced/-represented communities). These small business founders gain additional coaching and mentorship with industry experts in zero emission transportation, renewable energy and circular economy sectors; business support services such as accounting, legal, and marketing; access to much needed capital; and technical guidance on how to grow and scale their businesses. EIP also helps founders develop and launch new pilots as proof points on the path to commercialization.

Historically underserved entrepreneurs reach success through LACI’s Equity Innovation Program

“Environmental Justice is the movement to ensure that no community suffers disproportionate environmental burdens or goes without fair environmental benefits.” Vans Jones

Clean Air Is a Human Right: Legacy LA's Natural Park Air Pollution Solution

The Tenant Power Toolkit (TPT) is a collaborative project between Inner City Law Center (ICLC) and the Debt Collective that prevents homelessness by helping low-income tenants stay housed. TPT is an unprecedented, free online resource that helps California renters respond to eviction complaints and stay in their homes. The TPT takes tenants online answers to simple questions (currently in English or Spanish and is being expanded to include 12 additional languages), applies all statewide and local laws governing evictions in their jurisdiction, and then generates the required legal paperwork, including an application for a waiver of hundreds of dollars in court filing fees.

Inner City Law Center and Debt Collective Collaborate to help low-income tenants stay housed

Healing California provides low-barrier, comprehensive dental and vision care services at no cost to individuals who would otherwise not have access to quality care. By partnering with other community and nonprofit organizations and a vast network of volunteer licensed health care professionals, we serve patients at community health clinics, Veteran Stand Downs and other locations throughout LA County. We remove as many barriers as possible to patients receiving care. We do not require identification or proof of income or citizenship; we limit paperwork to the minimum necessary; we do not charge for our services; we provide language interpretation when possible. Above all, we treat our patients with dignity and respect.

Healing California is connecting 500+ individuals to dental and vision care

is a one-of-a-kind restaurant and social enterprise of the Tiyya Foundation providing refugees and asylum seekers interested in culinary arts the platform to showcase their cuisines. Each featured chef is given the opportunity to hone their culinary skills in a restaurant setting, gain valuable work experience, and receive a percent of gross sales. Additionally, forty percent of Flavors from Afar’s proceeds helps maintain Tiyya’s programs providing economic resources for refugees, immigrants, and displaced indigenous communities.

Flavors From Afar is bridging the gap between refugee chefs and the local community

Education Through Music-Los Angeles is grateful for LA2050’s partnership which nurtured our post-pandemic recovery efforts in bringing music education back to under-resourced school communities across LA County. In the 2022-23 school year, ETM-LA reached approximately 18,500 students across 42 schools and 5 school districts with sequential, comprehensive music education yearlong. ETM-LA onboarded two new schools: Gil Garcetti Learning Academy and Washington Elementary in Compton. Despite the challenges due to the nationwide teacher shortage and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, ETM-LA successfully: provided weekly, sequential, yearlong in-school music instruction to all partner school students; worked with school principals to build individualized multi-year plans to guide sustainability; provided 100+ hours of customized professional development to music teachers and classroom teachers, including an emphasis on strategies to support students’ social-emotional well-being; performed ongoing assessment and evaluation; increased parent and community involvement to build support, awareness, and advocacy for core curriculum music education; and supported emerging practitioners in music.

ETM-LA is Bringing Music Education to 18,500 Students Across LA County

Over the course of the past few months, over 200 community members voted in the Climate Resolve “Hottest in LA: the Bus Stop Heat Bracket,” funded by LA2050 and the Goldhirsh Foundation. The Bracket consisted of the hottest, most-used bus stops in Los Angeles County

The Results Are In – The Final 4 of Climate Resolve's Bus Stop Heat Bracket

BWW x GSO: Collaborative Pilot Project CalFresh Education and Outreach

Thank you to everyone who participated in our 

Giving Tuesday Match Update: You Raised $24,000 for LA Nonprofits

The Goldhirsh Foundation and its LA2050 initiative announced today that Khalil Humphries has joined the staff of the organization as the assistant to the president.

New Assistant to the President Khalil Humphries Joins Goldhirsh Foundation and its LA2050 Initiative

The Goldhirsh Foundation and its LA2050 initiative have promoted two team members to new positions within the organization.

LeAnn Kelch Melendez and Carla Fuentes Promoted to New Positions at LA2050

Presents often involve a long list of materials: wrapping paper, tissue paper, bows, and packing peanuts, bags, boxes, and tape–gift wrapping creates so much waste! Besides being an added cost to gift-giving, the tradition of extravagant wrapping makes 

 of waste subsequently sent to landfills.

The Alt-Green Guide to Gift Wrapping

On November 14th, LA2050 hosted “Engaging with Elected Offices - How to Cultivate Relationships with Your Representatives,” a virtual panel and Q+A session for more than 50 LA2050 grantees and partners.

Key Takeaways from “Engaging with Elected Offices - How to Cultivate Relationships with Your Representatives”

NEW VIDEO: What’s better than visiting ONE intriguing Los Angeles location with the brilliantly funny actor, writer, director, and producer Andrea Savage? Visiting THREE places!

Andrea Savage stars in new video for LA2050's Social Impact Gift Guide

UPDATE: The match has concluded and all $10,000 has been allocated! You can still support your favorite nonprofits through our 

It's Giving Tuesday – Double Your Donation with LA2050!

Content Alert!

Micah Fluellen of the Los Angeles Times and LATimes.404 interviewed our president, Tara Roth, and put together 

LA2050 Featured on @LATimes and @LATimes.404 

We’re proud to share that, last night, we won a Shorty Impact Award!

LA2050 is a Shorty Impact Award Recipient!

This holiday season, give gifts that make a real difference – right here in Los Angeles! 

LA2050 Social Impact Gift Guide – Shop for good! 

It’s November, and the spirit of generosity is in the air.

2023 Volunteer Opportunities for the Season of Giving

The Goldhirsh Foundation and its LA2050 initiative announced today that Mariam Bagdady has joined the staff of the organization, as a Social Media and Communications Fellow.

New Fellow Mariam Bagdady Joins Goldhirsh Foundation and its LA2050 Initiative

Are you interested in trying new things, volunteering more, or getting involved in your community?

Stay in the Know – Newsletters from 42 Impactful Organizations

This week, the 2023 LA2050 Grants Challenge was featured in the Los Angeles Business Journal.

LA2050 Grants Challenge featured in the Los Angeles Business Journal

, foundations, social entrepreneurs, media members, elected officials, and district staff representatives came together to celebrate 42 social impact organizations working to make Los Angeles a better place.

2023 LA2050 Grantee Cohort Receive Nearly 300 Commendations From 17 Elected Officials 

LA2050 and Goldhirsh Foundation Receive Commendation Scroll from Los Angeles County Supervisors

Senator Anthony J. Portantino joined us at our

 as a speaker and guest. The Showcase is part of the annual 

Senator Anthony J. Portantino Presents Goldhirsh Foundation with Certificate of Recognition for LA2050 Grants Challenge  

Tara Roth Takes Summit Stage to Present Awards to Trio of LA2050 Leaders

The Goldhirsh Foundation honored 15 innovative social impact organizations making Los Angeles a better place as the winners of the LA2050 Grants Challenge at today’s second annual Grantee Showcase at Second Home Hollywood.

Goldhirsh Foundation Announces Winners of 10th LA2050 Grants Challenge

The world is here; here is the world. 🌎

Happy 242nd Birthday, Los Angeles!

Across Los Angeles, there are thousands of animals in shelters waiting to find a loving forever home. Adopting from shelters provides an ethical option for those wishing to add a new addition to enrich their lives and gives these creatures a second chance.

16 Animal Adoption Shelters in LA County

For the fourth year in a row, we are proud to have our friends at 

Social Justice Partners Los Angeles (SJPLA)

 facilitate the evaluation process for the LA2050 Grants Challenge.


Community Grantmaking with SJPLA

This year’s LA2050 Youth Ambassador cohort was made up of 140 engaged young people, ages 14 to 24, representing neighborhoods all across Los Angeles County. Together they helped spread the word about voting in the LA2050 Grants Challenge to friends, family, and neighbors, and engaged 3,000+ voters.

140 Youth Ambassadors engage 3,000+ voters in the LA2050 Grants Challenge! 

As you may have seen, each of the 615 submissions to the 2023 LA2050 Grants Challenge is now posted live at la2050.org.

Now featuring 615 new submissions on the LA2050 Ideas Hub! 

Sabra Williams is a powerful storyteller. And she needs to be, as do we all, but especially since she works for social good in the impact and civil society sector.

Storytelling For Social Good

The sun’s out, our abundant rainfall this year is keeping the grass green, it’s the perfect time for a summer picnic! The LA2050 team has compiled a list of our favorite outdoor natural places to host a picnic in L.A. County this summer.

23 Outdoor Picnic Areas for Summer of '23

LA2050, in collaboration with our funding partners, is granting $2 million to the issues that LA cares about most!

If you have questions, Team LA2050 has the answers! 

This past Monday, we hosted our first-ever 

 panel on Technology and Storytelling for Social Good in collaboration with the 

Our LA #TechWeek panel, “Technology and Storytelling for Social Good,” was covered by dot.LA

After 80,000 votes from almost 12,000 people, our LA2050 Grants Challenge Voting Pop-Ups have come to a close!


Recapping our final seven Grants Challenge voting pop-ups around LA!

In March, we hosted Marisol Bello from the Housing Narrative Lab to lead a storytelling workshop for our 2022 grantee cohort! At the Housing Narrative Lab, Marisol helps uplifts the stories of people facing homelessness and housing insecuirty and the systems that keep them from finding and keeping a home.

"The Stories We Tell Matter": LA2050 x Housing Narrative Lab

Have you been looking to make sustainable changes to your shopping? Want to find your new favorite BYO container store? The LA2050 team has compiled a list of nine Sustainable Refill Stores in Los Angeles to help you combat packaging waste!

Nine Sustainable Refill Stores in LA

"Join the Movement" named a Telly Awards Gold Winner!

We are a winner in this year's Shorty Awards!

LA2050's Newsletter is a winner in this year's Shorty Awards

Hey there graduates! As the school year comes to an end, we wanted to give a big shoutout to all of you amazing achievers out there! To congratulate you all on making it through and reaching this milestone in your lives, here are some words of wisdom from some special speakers who have graced commencement stages in both the LA area, and nearby, that highlight topics we consider essential to postgraduate challenges. We hope you enjoy these remarks from the comic Conan O’Brien, the actor and comedian Will Ferrell, and the former First Lady and lawyer Michelle Obama. So, keep being outstanding; remember to face hardship, grow from failure, and extend kindness to those around you. Here's to all the exciting things that await you in the future!

Three (More!) of Our Favorite LA Commencement Speeches

Want to learn more about this year’s LA2050 Grants Challenge applications?


Register Now: LA2050 Grants Challenge Information Sessions and Office Hours!

2023 LA2050 Grants Challenge – These are the issues LA voted to fund!

In collaboration with our funding partners, LA2050 is granting more than $2 million to the issues that LA cares about most.

Introducing the 13 issues we’re funding through this year’s LA2050 Grants Challenge! 

 from April 6th to May 8th, and is open to all ages and available in 10 languages


LA2050 is Coming to a Neighborhood Near You! 

Thousands of Angelenos have cast their votes so far in the LA2050 Grants Challenge, both online and in person at our first-ever pop-up voting experiences.

Recapping our first five Grants Challenge voting pop-ups around LA!

Please join us in thanking our 2023 Outreach Partners for spreading the word about voting across LA County!

Thank You 2023 LA2050 Outreach Partners! 

LA2050, an initiative of the Goldhirsh Foundation, has been named Nonprofit Organization of the Year (Growing).

LA2050 Named Nonprofit Organization of the Year

140 LA2050 Youth Ambassadors, young Angelenos between the ages of 14 and 24, have officially started spreading the word about voting in the 2023 LA2050 Grants Challenge to friends, family, and neighbors!

140 LA2050 Youth Ambassadors in Action!  

For Your Viewing Pleasure - LA2050's New Short Film

2023 LA2050 Grants Challenge Launch Celebration at Las Fotos Project Brings Together Friends, Partners, and Grantees 

For our 10th annual #LA2050GrantsChallenge, we are humbled to announce that we launched this year’s cycle with these six outstanding funding partners:

Introducing Our 2023 LA2050 Grants Challenge Funding Partners!

Votes can be cast online at LA2050.org and for the first time at 10 iconic Los Angeles locations

LA2050 Blog

Collections