We’re excited to announce the inaugural Los Angeles Funders’ Collaborative Leadership Awards, an initiative recognizing and supporting collaborative leadership advancing green infrastructure and climate equity across Los Angeles County. 

This work is nearly always taken up under challenging and uncertain conditions, and this was especially the case in 2025.

Fifteen community-based organizations will receive $5,000 each in unrestricted general operating support, for a total award pool of $75,000. These awards are fully unrestricted and carry no reporting requirements, allowing recipients to use the funds in the ways that best support their work — whether for staff support or wellness, organizational stability, or continued community-based efforts. 

Award recipients are recognized leaders within Los Angeles County who serve as trusted voices in decision-making spaces and advisory groups, actively participate in multiple collaboratives, and advance policy and systems change across interconnected issue areas. 

The Leadership Awards honor the many roles awardees play to make progress possible in Los Angeles, including convening partners, building trust across sectors, advancing multi-issue solutions, and sustaining collaboration while stretching organizational capacity and navigating recent federal funding cuts.

The Awards reflect core principles shared by the LA Funders’ Collaborative: that philanthropy facilitates equity and sustainable systems change by resourcing collaboration and trusting leaders closest to the work to determine the support most needed.

The inaugural Leadership Awards were made possible through the generous support of the California Community Foundation, The California Endowment, The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, Liberty Hill Foundation, Community Partners and the Resources Legacy Foundation (RLF), with RLF serving as the intermediary responsible for Award administration and distribution of funds on behalf of the LA Funders’ Collaborative. 

2025 LA Funders’ Collaborative Leadership Award Recipients 

• LA Neighborhood Land Trust (LANLT)
• Asian Pacific Islander Forward Movement
• Wow Flower
• Tongva Taraxat Paxaavxa Conservancy
• Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE)
• T.R.U.S.T. South LA
• East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice
• Antelope Valley Partners for Health
• Pacoima Beautiful
• Active SGV (San Gabriel Valley)
• Communities for a Better Environment (CBE)
• Inclusive Action for the City
• Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE)
• Southeast LA Collaborative (SELA)
• Centro CHA

We celebrated this inaugural cohort at LAFC’s in-person gathering on Feb. 6, where awardees and funders came together to celebrate accomplishments, reflect on lessons learned and engage in strategic conversation about strengthening collaboration across Los Angeles. Check out the California Community Foundation’s LinkedIn post recapping the day.

If you are a funder interested in supporting a future round of awardees with a minimum contribution of $5,000, please contact Ron Milam. 

Lisa Craypo, Program Officer at The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, and Thomas Yee, Senior Program Director at Community Partners, both serve as Co-Chairs for the Los Angeles Funders Collaborative.