LA2050 is a community-guided initiative, operated by the Goldhirsh Foundation, driving and tracking progress toward a shared vision for the future of Los Angeles County.
Our most well-known program is the LA2050 Grants Challenge – an annual call for ideas to make LA the best place to connect, learn, live, play, and create. The Grants Challenge is unique in that it turns the power of grantmaking over to the public through online voting. The way it works: The public selects the ten issues that matter most to them, and that then informs the $1 million in funding that we -- plus our funding partners, who contribute an additional more than $2 million -- provide to community organizations for the year ahead.
Our local campaign was titled, "Who Can? YOU CAN!" to help inspire Angelenos to make a difference.
Our objectives in 2024: A call to action to reach more members of the Los Angeles County public, from more zip codes all throughout the County, to cast their respective votes for the issues that matter the most to each of them. And, to catalyze 1,000+ volunteers to serve community groups; and, to increase the number of funding partners for the Grants Challenge.
We are proud to say that we were able to reach our objectives. In 2023 some 80,000 votes were cast. In 2024 that number jumped to more than 105,000 votes, from 98% of Los Angeles' zip codes. Some 3,500 volunteers did 9,500 hours of service.
Our local call to action "get out the vote" campaign for the 2024 LA2050 Grants Challenge needed to be open and transparent, educational, as well as for a purpose -- and, engaging and fun. We titled it, "Who Can? YOU CAN!"
Our strategy was to partner for the campaign in different ways with trusted community organizations; high school and college-age youth; and leading media outlets, as well as to call to action our longstanding LA2050 community, which includes approximately 60,000 subscribers to our newsletter, and an additional 50,000 or so social media friends and followers.
We also funded 24 "volunteer activations" around Los Angeles, each with a different nonprofit organization. At each, during a break from other acts of service, a leader from each group explained what the Grants Challenge is and invited volunteers to pull out their phones and votes. (Or, via paper “ballots.”)
In addition, for each of these 24 events, and for the overall campaign, we created a series of original artworks and illustrations that we and our partners posted across our respective social media platforms that highlighted all the activities that YOU CAN do to make a better Los Angeles. This included our debut on TikTok.
LA2050 is a small team -- four full-time employees and two part-time fellows at the time of the 2024 campaign. LA2050 is known as a social impact hub and connector organization, but we were still deeply humbled that so many groups and individuals collaborated to execute the campaign together.
More than 117 outreach partners -- foundations, nonprofits, social enterprises, government offices and agencies -- encouraged their communities to cast votes for the issues that matter to them.
And, 187 youth ambassadors (14-24 year olds) from 107 different Los Angeles communities did the same -- while also attending zoom meetings where they learned from our team about philanthropy, studied outreach techniques, and met peers.
Our three media partners were KCRW, LAist, and Upworthy. The latter, for example, shared the story of a grantee from the year prior, and provided information about how people could vote this year for the issues that matter to them. The former two each broadcast, streamed, and emailed messages that explained the same, as well as inviting Angelenos to volunteer at any of the 24 activations around town that were part of the LA2050 Grants Challenge campaign too.
Our newsletter – last year, a Shorty Award winner – and our social media campaign relied in great part on the comic-book call-to-action-style original illustrations created for the overall campaign by LA2050's Design Fellow, Lauren Song. Please see @LA2050 on Instagram for examples. We also utilized LinkedIn, Twitter/X, Facebook, Threads, and launched on TikTok.
In 2024, more than 105,000 votes were cast, a 31% increase from last year.
We had voters from 98% of Los Angeles zip codes.
Nine funding partners, joined us, leading to a record-number of 68 nonprofits receiving more than $3 million in grants.
The 24 volunteer activations drew 3,500 people volunteering for 9,500 hours. We had more youth ambassadors this year than ever, more community outreach partners, more funding partners, more social media engagement, and our first-ever trio of media partners.
After all those votes were cast, we invited nonprofit organizations, social enterprises, and government agencies to submit grant proposals in the ten issue areas that the public had chosen. Grants submissions rose 45% from 2023 (This number indicates how much need exists in our communities, as well as how many outstanding organizations are ready and willing to be of service. And, an endorsement that the LA2050 Grants Challenge is a trusted partner.)
Also, we are proud of the original illustrations and designs our Design Fellow Lauren Song created for this year's "Who Can? YOU Can!" campaign. The works were featured across our and our partners' social media accounts and newsletters, and by media.
Another sign of that trust this year was that our president, Tara Roth, was named one of the 20 most influential civic leaders – and one of the 500 most influential Angelenos by an LA newspaper. And the national publication, Inside Philanthropy, was among the news outlets to write about the LA2050 Grants Challenge.
