Celebrating 95 Years of Community Contributions

Homepage archive, published 6/2/10

Mary Bierce (c), CCF’s first full-time staff member and first female foundation executive on the West Coast, visited 114 grantees in her first year including Long Beach’s Exceptional Children’s Foundation, pictured here circa 1946.

As we reflect on the last 95 years and our goals for the future, CCF is honored to help strengthen L.A. communities through our donors, grantees, advisors and community leaders.

“CCF is built on community and the mutual connections we all experience here in Los Angeles,” said Antonia Hernández, president and CEO of the foundation. “We are fortunate to serve all Angelenos and to speak up for the needs we see in the community, honoring the legacies and intentions of our donors and following good grantmaking practices. We have done good work thus far, but we’re not satisfied, not when there’s so much more to be done.”

CCF’s work is three-fold: we are a family of funds, a steward of funds and a grantor of funds. Since 1915, when it was just the second community foundation in the nation, CCF has participated in remarkable historical moments in L.A.’s history. Now, CCF is the 48th largest foundation by asset size in the nation, with over $1 billion in assets, 1,600 charitable funds and a diverse staff and board that reflect L.A. County and the donors and nonprofits it serves. Since 2004, CCF has received gifts of and made grants of more than $1 billion each.

Our donors’ generosity fuels our grantmaking. For example, a $1 million legacy fund from CCF founder Joseph Sartori in the 1940s remains active today. In 2006, CCF received its largest gift to date, a $257 million bequest from Joan Palevsky, a philanthropist who supported causes as diverse as Islamic art and homelessness prevention.

In 2005, under Antonia Hernández’s leadership, CCF implemented a 10-year strategic plan that emphasized five priority areas for CCF’s discretionary grantmaking. At the halfway point of that plan, we continue to focus on strengthening L.A’s nonprofit sector and encouraging philanthropy that fuels our donors’ passions. In years ahead, CCF will continue to build on its work in civic engagement and respond to community needs as they arise, as well as provide public policy support to encourage long-term systemic change.

We hope that you will join us and contribute to CCF’s work to help underserved and low-income people in Los Angeles County and beyond. We can all make a contribution to building the future of L.A.

Read about important dates in CCF history.