Before They Were Anchor Organizations, Someone Had to Believe in Them

Long before some of Los Angeles’ most influential community organizations became institutions, they were small groups with big ideas.

CHIRLA. Community Coalition. Youth Justice Coalition. Anti-Recidivism Coalition.

Today, these organizations help shape public policy, lead major coalitions, attract significant philanthropic investment, and influence how public resources move across Los Angeles.

But they did not start that way.

There was a time when each was building its first base of supporters, testing strategies, and asking philanthropy to believe in its leadership before it had a development department, years of audited financial statements, or a long list of institutional funders.

Liberty Hill was often there.

For nearly 50 years, we have invested in community leadership before everyone else knew the names of the organizations or leaders involved. Today, through our Fund for Change, we are recommitting to that role.

Finding the organizations philanthropy too often misses

This year, Liberty Hill is investing approximately $2 million over three years in 17 small, emerging, base-building organizations working in communities that remain significantly under-resourced by institutional philanthropy.

We call them Rising Activist organizations.

They are organizing in neighborhoods across Los Angeles where residents are confronting displacement, economic insecurity, threats to immigrant communities and civil rights, and barriers to civic participation.

Many have something that cannot easily be measured on a grant application: deep trust within their communities.

Their leaders know the neighborhoods they organize because they live there. They understand the pressures families are experiencing because they experience them too. And they are often able to respond quickly because they are already embedded in the communities most affected.

What they frequently lack is access to capital.

That matters because philanthropy’s systems can unintentionally favor organizations that already have fundraising staff, institutional relationships, sophisticated administrative systems, and the ability to navigate complicated application processes.

The result is that some of the organizations closest to emerging community needs can be the furthest from philanthropic resources.

Liberty Hill is working to change that trajectory.

Fund organizations before everyone knows their names

History tells us what can happen when philanthropy invests early.

Flexible, multiyear funding can give an emerging organization the room to hire staff, strengthen financial systems, improve fundraising, communicate its story, and develop the infrastructure needed to sustain long-term organizing.

Through Fund for Change, Liberty Hill pairs general operating support with capacity-building, coaching, and connections to philanthropic networks.

The goal is not simply to fund an organization for three years.

It is to help strengthen the next generation of Los Angeles movement infrastructure.

The emerging organization of today may become the anchor institution of tomorrow.

Sharing money also means sharing power

Fund for Change is built around another important question: Who gets to decide where philanthropic resources go?

At Liberty Hill, those decisions are not made by foundation staff alone.

A Community Funding Board brings together movement leaders, grassroots organizers, donors, and foundation partners to learn about community needs, review organizations, and recommend grants.

This is more than community input. It is shared decision-making.

And something powerful happens in the process.

Donors learn directly from organizers. Organizers build relationships with people and institutions that traditionally control philanthropic resources. Foundation leaders hear perspectives they may not encounter inside their own institutions.

Those relationships continue long after grants are announced.

Community Funding Board members can make introductions, open doors to other funders, provide expertise, and connect Rising Activist organizations to networks that might otherwise take years to access.

That is why Fund for Change is about more than grantmaking. It is about building relationship power alongside financial power. '

An invitation to philanthropy

Funders do not need to build this infrastructure from scratch.

They can invest with Liberty Hill.

They can provide flexible, multiyear dollars that allow emerging organizations to build strong institutions while remaining accountable to their communities.

They can help fund the coaching, financial systems, fundraising support, communications assistance, and organizational development that allow grassroots organizations to grow.

And they can share something just as valuable as money: their relationships.

Introduce a grassroots leader to another program officer. Invite an emerging organization to a funder briefing. Recommend a group to a donor. Invest before there is a major campaign victory to celebrate.

Most importantly, be willing to go first.

Philanthropy is often eager to support organizations once they have become indispensable.

Our responsibility is also to help them become indispensable.

Because somewhere in Los Angeles today, the next CHIRLA, Community Coalition, or Youth Justice Coalition may already be organizing.

The question is whether philanthropy will find them early enough.