2024 Grants and Partners
Alliance College-Ready Public Schools Foundation: Alliance is advancing a comprehensive strategy to prepare its over 12,000 students across 25 middle and high schools for success in college, career and beyond. With this grant, Alliance is embedding career readiness into the educational experience by developing curriculum, expanding professional learning for counselors, and planning network-wide opportunities like the Alliance Network Career Day. At the same time, Alliance is strengthening and scaling dual enrollment in partnership with local community colleges, ensuring more equitable access, consistent implementation and stronger pathways that connect academic progress with career exploration.
American Institute of Mathematics: The American Institute of Mathematics (AIM) is seeking to grow a network of Math Circles in Los Angeles to reach students from underserved communities. Math Circles are community-based groups that meet after school or on weekends dedicated to the discovery and exploration of mathematics through joyful activities. AIM’s first Math Circles in L.A. have been in partnership with The Knowledge Shop, Boys & Girls Clubs and the Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics (BEAM). AIM plans to bring MathCircles to LAUSD schools in South and East L.A.
Biocom Institute Technician Certification Collaborative: Led by Prolacta Bioscience and the Verdugo Workforce Development Board, the BioTC Collaborative is a public private partnership aimed at addressing the bioscience industry’s workforce needs in Los Angeles. The initiative enables recent community college graduates of science, biotechnology and science-related programs from four community colleges in central Los Angeles to qualify as entry-level technicians. In turn, life science companies receive a vetted pool of qualified technicians as each BioTC participant has the opportunity to take a no-cost comprehensive assessment exam, designed by bioscience companies, and earn the certification, the first of its kind, that confirms they have achieved the basic competencies to successfully enter the biotechnology technician position.
Burning Glass Institute: Burning Glass Institute (BGI) through research and data analysis provides actionable insights that highlight workforce issues and potential solutions. TBF funding is supporting a Mobility Atlas to map and identify high-potential jobs and sectors for Angelenos and the pathways that lead to them. In this case, high-potential jobs are defined as occupations offering high wages, strong upward mobility and equitable access. The project will also bring together community organizations, employers, policymakers and education providers to validate and collaborate on insights, ensuring the research can be scaled.
California AfterSchool Network: The California AfterSchool Network is convening diverse cross-sector partners from education, health and human services to create an ecosystem plan for Expanded Learning programs in California. This work leverages California’s $5.4 billion system of Expanded Learning (before school, afterschool, summer and inter session) programs. CAN will convene and gather data from hundreds of interest holders, including youth and families, to create field, youth and community-informed strategies on how to leverage California’s robust system of Expanded Learning programs to promote health and wellness, and increase access to needed supports at scale.
California Competes: California Competes is partnering with Compton College to strategically advance the work of the L.A. County Second District California Community Colleges Career Ready collaborative (LA2CCC). This initiative aims to strengthen the relationships between local community colleges and key external stakeholders (i.e., employers, community-based organizations and local governments). The collaborative began with a comprehensive analysis of regional needs and opportunities using workforce data. Findings from this analysis are informing the development of essential infrastructures and a regional strategy to enhance career pathways across institutions, with a focus on expanding work-based learning opportunities, particularly for historically marginalized students and residents in L.A. County.
California EDGE Coalition: Launched in 2005, the California EDGE Coalition brings together stakeholders from business, labor, community colleges, workforce boards and social justice organizations to improve California’s system of workforce education and training opportunities. With TBF support, CA EDGE Coalition is expanding their staff capacity to further their efforts to increase awareness of the effects of state policies and investments in L.A. and boost engagement in advocacy efforts aimed at creating and sustaining pathways towards social mobility.
California Governor’s Career Education Master Plan: TBF supported the development and implementation of the Governor’s Master Plan for Career Education, a strategic initiative aimed at enhancing career pathways, promoting hands-on learning and ensuring universal access to affordable education and training for all Californians.
California Science Center: TBF supported a 200,000 square-foot addition that includes the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center and a new special exhibits gallery and events center. Featuring space shuttle Endeavour in launch position, the expansion will double the Science Center’s space for hands-on exhibits and enhance its educational resources and programs. The Science Center ranks among the 10 most visited museums in North America and is the most visited museum on the West Coast, with free general admission.
California Volunteers Fund: The California Volunteers Fund (CV Fund) aims to enhance the quality, scale and sustainability of volunteer and service programs across the state. With the vision to build service to career pipelines in California, the Corps to Career program, seeded and supported by TBF in 2022, will expand upon initial investments to expand the program model to serve over 1,500 fellows and alumni in Los Angeles (expanding from 250 fellows). The Corps to Career model provides California Service Corps fellows with the networks (e.g., curated job boards, career fairs, events, etc.), durable skills employers value (e.g., communications, coaching, resources, etc.) and employer partnerships (e.g., employers that prioritize candidates for resume review, interviews, job placement, etc.) to secure sustaining careers with pathways for career advancement and economic security.
Children’s Funding Project: Children’s Funding Project is leading organizing and advocacy efforts to ensure potential large-dollar payouts from social media company lawsuits go to historically underfunded positive youth development programs. Specifically, Children’s Funding Project is closely tracking Multi-District Litigation No. 3047, a consolidation of more than 1,800 lawsuits against social media companies—including a joint lawsuit of 33 state attorneys general against Meta—for harming youth mental health by encouraging addictive behavior. Children’s Funding Project and its national coalition are uniting young people and the people who care about them to turn the harms of social media into real-world opportunities to support young people to build skills, make friends and thrive.
Colburn School: TBF supported Colburn’s campaign for a 100,000 square-foot expansion to their Grand Avenue campus, which broke ground in April 2024. Designed by Frank Gehry, the new center will include multiple performance venues, a 100-seat dance studio theater, ballet and tap studios and a study center, among other additions.
Community Coalition: TBF provided Community Coalition with general operating support to continue its 35-year track record as an unwavering advocate for budgetary investments that address the root causes of poverty, housing insecurity and ongoing economic challenges created by decades of divestment in South L.A. communities.
Coro Southern California: Coro Southern California is dedicated to strengthening civic leadership in Los Angeles by cultivating a robust pipeline of talented, values-driven leaders. TBF funding will support Coro’s flagship Fellows Program in Public Affairs, expanding opportunities for early career leaders to gain immersive, hands-on experience in local government. By connecting emerging leaders directly with municipal departments and agencies, the program helps inspire and prepare the next generation to pursue meaningful careers in public service. Funding will also support the launch of the Local Government Leadership Program, a pilot initiative designed for City of Los Angeles staff offering comprehensive training in adaptive leadership, cross-departmental collaboration and innovative problem-solving strategies, equipping city leaders with the skills and frameworks to drive impact and innovation across the public sector.
EnCorps: EnCorps has launched a two-year pilot for the first-ever professional development and mentoring program dedicated to new career technical education (CTE) teachers at LAUSD, with goals to improve CTE teacher effectiveness and retention. TBF funding is also supporting EnCorps’ evaluation work to assess the impact of its long-running teacher fellows program, which helps former STEM professionals transition into K-12 teaching careers. To date, EnCorps has recruited nearly 2,000 STEM professionals to explore teaching and placed them in over 250 school campuses, with a five-year teacher retention rate 23 percentage points above the national average (73%).
Foundation for the Los Angeles Community Colleges: TBF provided seed funding to the Foundation for the Los Angeles Community Colleges as they develop and launch a guaranteed basic income (GBI) program, called BOOST, to provide one year of $1,000 monthly payments to 251 community college students pursuing healthcare careers in Los Angeles. In collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Guaranteed Basic Income, the pilot includes a mixed-methods, random assignment evaluation to understand the impact of cash payments on academic performance, educational attainment and financial well-being. The study will help provide important insights on how to strengthen college and career pathways to family wage-earning jobs in Los Angeles.
Goldhirsh Foundation: TBF partnered with the Goldhirsh Foundation on the LA2050 Grants Challenge, resulting in the distribution of eight grants to community organizations leading nonpartisan voter engagement work in fall 2024. These grants bolstered voter education efforts across a wide range of under-represented communities in Los Angeles County.
Hidden Genius Project: The Hidden Genius Project is deepening their existing programming in Inglewood and expanding to a second site in Long Beach to provide entrepreneurship and technology education to youth in their signature Intensive Immersion Program. Over the next three years, The Hidden Genius Project will serve approximately 2,200 youth in Inglewood and 1,500 youth in Long Beach.
Inner Spark Learning Lab: Formally known as STEM to the Future, Inner Spark Learning Lab serves over 1,000 youth annually with its community action and STEM-based programming and over 1,500 educators with STEM professional development. With TBF support, they are completing an impact evaluation of their programs on student outcomes aligned to STEM success and persistence. For this study, Inner Spark is partnering with three South Los Angeles schools to serve 800 youth through its in-school justice + STEAM curriculum and 50 students through its youth participatory action research program for three consecutive years.
Jobs to Move America: With renewed grant support from TBF, Jobs to Move America will deepen their work in Los Angeles by creating a comprehensive communications program to shift the narrative on good jobs and equity in the clean energy sector for historically marginalized groups; providing training on the implementation of federal rule changes to local public agencies; and forming a strong Los Angeles-based sub-coalition advocating for pro-worker, pro-community policies across the county.
Junior Achievement Southern California: With TBF support, Junior Achievement Southern California is expanding their 3DE (3Dimensional Education) school model to six campuses by the 2028-29 school year, serving 2,100 students annually across Los Angeles Unified and Compton Unified School Districts. The 3DE model raises student engagement by linking high school instruction to the real world, having students explore solutions to business case challenges prepared by local business partners who act as case development mentors and host office site visits for students.
L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation: TBF’s grant to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Council will increase their staffing capacity as they launched a pilot program that targets an employer-led model to develop healthcare pipelines with high demand and relatively high starting wages in Los Angeles. This program aims to successfully connect 100,000 youth to family sustaining jobs in L.A.’s private sector by 2028.
LA4LA: TBF provided a one-time grant to the LA4LA effort on housing to establish an Innovation Fellowship in the Mayor’s Office. Working within the City of Los Angeles’ Office of the Mayor, the Fellow will focus on identifying strategies to use city-owned land to pilot and scale approaches for the rapid development of affordable housing in Los Angeles.
LA-Tech: Founded in 2019, LA-Tech serves as a pathway intermediary in the tech sector, building relationships with leading tech employers and helping underserved youth develop the skills and social capital needed to secure good jobs. TBF funding expanded LA-Tech’s staff capacity to pilot high-growth occupation technology apprenticeships in industries such as information technology in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE): For over 30 years, LAANE has been an organizing and advocacy institution for working families in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Between 2021-2024, TBF supported their campaigns with workers, labor unions and community allies to create green high-quality jobs and training opportunities for historically marginalized communities.
Los Angeles Local News Initiative: The L.A. Local News Initiative is a nonprofit news start-up providing neighborhood-level reporting through Boyle Heights Beat and two additional community newsrooms to be announced later this year. In collaboration with partners such as LAist, CalMatters and 20 others, the L.A. Local News Initiative is committed to providing free access to neighborhood, regional and state news that is actionable, nonpartisan and relevant, particularly to communities with low access to mainstream media. The initiative is now known as The LA Local.
Los Angeles Promise Fund: The L.A. Promise Fund’s STEM Career Pathway Connections (CPC) program supports over 4,000 South L.A. students from 13 high schools to prepare students for STEM careers, in partnership with L.A. Trade Tech and East L.A. College. Students participate in career exploration and readiness activities (e.g., career fairs, resume writing, mock interviews), dual enrollment opportunities to earn aligned college credit and paid summer internships. TBF funding helped to seed the CPC program in 2021, and the program aims to grow to 16 high schools and expand in Southeast L.A. over the next three years.
New Classrooms: New Classrooms promotes innovative learning models based on personalized, competency-based learning to achieve “tailored acceleration.” With TBF support, New Classrooms is piloting their Roadmaps learning tool in L.A.-area schools to support personalized math learning and strategize a pathway towards broader expansion in L.A.
News Literacy Project: TBF supported News Literacy Project’s staff capacity in Los Angeles to launch a three-year district fellowship program for LAUSD leadership to advance the teaching of media literacy to all district students. A successful partnership with LAUSD will provide media literacy education to every LAUSD student before graduation and serve as proof point and potential model for large-district and nationwide implementation.
Per Scholas: Per Scholas enhances economic mobility within cybersecurity and tech industries through their registered cybersecurity apprenticeship programs. TBF funding will support Per Scholas’ expansion of their apprenticeship model within L.A. to ensure more Angelenos access to good jobs in the IT industry. To help meet their long-term goal of scaling to 1,000 learners annually in L.A. by 2032, Per Scholas will expand employer partnerships and their in-person programming and learner engagement through their recently launched satellite program with Boyle Heights Technology Youth Source Center.
Propel America: Propel America provides high school graduates with access to tuition-free credential programs and a supported pathway to a thriving-wage healthcare career. With TBF support, Propel America will connect 150 fellows in Los Angeles to career pathways through both its traditional medical assistant (MA) and apprenticeship MA programs. To achieve their goal, Propel has partnered with Cengage’s Ed2go training program to lead the technical training of its traditional MA program and with the Community Clinic Association of L.A. County (CCALAC) as an employer partner and Loyola Marymount University as its training partner for its apprenticeship MA program. Both trainings will be complemented by Propel America’s wraparound coaching and durable skills development.
Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF): Since 1997, REDF has created and sustained pathways toward upward economic mobility through its investment in employment social enterprises (ESEs). ESEs are mission-driven businesses that provide paying jobs combined with training and services that help employees gain the stability, skills and confidence they need to stay employed and build a better life. With TBF funding, REDF will magnify the impact of L.A.-based ESEs and advance systems change through cross-sectoral partnerships with the state and local government, including the City of L.A. This grant provides capacity-building support for personnel, technical assistance, convenings and grantmaking to support a sustainable ecosystem of ESEs in L.A.
Southern California Public Radio: TBF supported LAist, a part of Southern California Public Radio, in their development of a comprehensive 2024 Voter Game Plan which distributed reader-friendly ballot guides and organized community outreach events focused on re-engaging Angelenos in the electoral process. TBF support has enabled record readership for the primary and general elections and the piloting of in-person events and social media campaigns to broaden the reach of quality voter information.
The Brookings Institution: Brookings Metro is one of five research programs within The Brookings Institution, focused on collaborating with local leaders to translate original insights into policy and practical solutions that scale nationally. TBF funding supported Brookings Metro’s 14-month study, which maps out federal infrastructure and clean energy investments throughout California, with a particular focus on Los Angeles. This research will benefit state and local stakeholders, aiding them in the integration of workforce development into those investments.
University of California Los Angeles Curtis Center: UCLA’s Curtis Center will develop Financial Literacy in Middle Schools (FiLMs), a middle school program in which students will apply mathematics to real-world financial decisions including earning, spending, saving, and investing money. Schools can use this 16-activity module flexibly as a math class integration, elective course, afterschool or summer school activity. FiLMs will build upon three other existing math investigations within the Applied Mathematics Program, an industry-school-university partnership designed to motivate math learning for South L.A. students.
Youth Thriving Through Learning Fund: In 2024, TBF joined the Youth Thriving through Learning Fund (YTL), a collaborative philanthropic effort led by the Stuart Foundation and housed at the California Community Fund. The fund’s goal is to buttress and amplify the impact of California’s historic state investments in adolescents through community schools, dual enrollment and college and career pathways (through the Golden State Pathways program), areas in which TBF has many existing Skills grants. TBF serves on the YTL Fund steering committee, ensuring that L.A.’s regional needs are accounted for in the statewide strategy.