Donor Activism

Over the past year, the Liberty Hill community has helped create lasting change and progress that has impacted the lives of community members throughout Los Angeles. From fighting for a roof over every head, to working to end youth incarceration as we know it, and eliminating toxic neighborhood oil drilling, our work has reached communities in every corner of L.A.

Our annual Upton Sinclair Celebration brings together hundreds of frontline organizers and donor activists to celebrate the progressive victories that help us power social change in L.A. Mark your calendars today and don’t miss out on this year’s big celebration– happening on Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at the beautiful Skirball Cultural Center!

With great appreciation and endless gratitude, we’re excited to announce this month’s Donor Spotlight—longtime Liberty Hill Board Member and honorary Hiller, Paula Litt!

In case you missed it, check out this recent LA Times article about activist Upton Sinclair featuring Liberty Hill‘s co-founder, Sarah Pillsbury, reflecting on her inspiration for starting Liberty Hill Foundation more than 40 years ago!

It’s been just over a month since the Liberty Hill Community came together for our big 40th Annual Upton Sinclair Celebration: Uniting Power and Purpose! Relive some of the night’s magic and watch our new sizzle reel here.

Our 40th Annual Upton Sinclair Celebration was a night full of festivity, friendship, and fun as more than 700 guests gathered at the beautiful Skirball Cultural Center.

This month the Liberty Hill community hosted, “Reparations and the Future of Pro-Black Policy in California,” an engaging conversation on the work happening locally in support of reparations policies that aim to heal and enable thriving Black communities.

Don’t miss the social justice event of the year! Join the Liberty Hill community for the 40th Annual Upton Sinclair Celebration: Uniting Power & Purpose at the Skirball Cultural Center on Wednesday, April 19!

Every year, Liberty Hill’s Leadership Appreciation Brunch brings the Liberty Hill Community together to discuss ways to achieve transformative change in Los Angeles. This year we welcomed guest speaker Mayor Karen Bass on the eve of her inauguration to discuss her plans to address the most pressing issues facing the city.

Thanks to the tireless work of our dedicated frontline partners and the support of our growing community of donor activists, we can and will continue to drive progress toward a just and equal L.A. County for all. We can’t wait to continue building on this momentum together in the new year!

Liberty Hill Foundation’s Annual Leadership Appreciation Brunch has become LA’s favorite Fall gathering, where we recognize the outstanding impact of our Donor Activist community and discuss ways to achieve transformative change in Los Angeles.

When you recognize Liberty Hill Foundation in your estate plans, you are making an investment in the future of Los Angeles.

We’re still riding the wave of excitement from our 2022 Upton Sinclair Homecoming Celebration! Check out this short video with highlights from this unforgettable evening!

Our 2022 Upton Sinclair Homecoming Celebration was a sold out success! After 3 long years apart, the Liberty Hill community came together like never before to celebrate the progressive victories and visionaries powering progress in L.A.

We are delighted to share Liberty Hill Foundation’s 2021 Impact Report, highlighting a record-breaking year of giving made possible through partnership and community. We awarded 922 grants totaling approximately $19 million dollars to support organizations and social justice movements working to advance, transform, support, and demand Justice for All in Los Angeles.

Liberty Hill kicked off the new year with its “Transformative 2022: Ring in Your New Year of Giving'' Webinar Series. Our recent series provided opportunities for donors to explore: creating a giving plan, legacy/planned giving, trust-based philanthropy and black equity principles, and understanding nonprofit financial health.

Check out the Activist Video Archive for its new additions especially the "L.A. Rising" Collection of interviews. Twenty years after the civil unrest, Michele Prichard videotaped a series of interviews with movement builders as background research for what became “LA Rising: the 1992 Civil Unrest, the Arc of Social Justice Organizing, and the Lessons for Today’s Movement Building” co-authored with Manuel Pastor of USC in 2012.

This was truly a banner year for activism and progress! We have much work to do on the road ahead, but we couldn’t be prouder to take this journey with you—our Beloved Community.

We are excited to announce the launch of our “Justice for All” public awareness campaign designed to raise awareness and funds to support local grassroots activism and organizing led by those most impacted by systemic oppression.

Liberty Hill Champion and Donor Activist Elizabeth Levitt Hirsch (Liz) is best known for her ability to connect and inspire people to achieve a shared vision through community engagement.

Through a global pandemic that threatened both lives and livelihoods, and a national uprising for racial justice that challenged and ultimately changed hearts, minds, and laws—the fight for social justice has continued. Will you join the movement for change?

Though we could not gather in person at the annual Upton Sinclair Awards dinner this year, we found a way to come together for our very first virtual Upton Sinclair event.

Through a global pandemic that threatened both lives and livelihoods, and a national uprising for racial justice that challenged and ultimately changed hearts, minds, and laws—the fight for social justice has continued.

Donor Activist Dr. Sam Ho has been committed to social justice for more than six decades. Growing up in Hawaii, his activism started when he was just a youth protesting against atomic bomb testing in the South Pacific.

Liberty Hill Foundation is guided by and draws strength from a vibrant and dedicated group of volunteer Board members who represent all parts of the social justice ecosystem of Los Angeles, including individual donor activists, philanthropy sector professionals, academics and other experts, as well as community organizers and members of the business sector.

For more than 15 years, The Bertha Wolf & Lance Miller Families Fund for Community Service has been uplifting young adults by providing relief from the cost of living as they embark on their journey as professionals or in service to the community.

This year brought challenges the likes of which the world hasn’t faced in a century—with a pandemic raging around the globe and ineffective leadership from the White House here at home–COVID-19 took an immeasurable toll on all of us.

The Liberty Hill Family gathered for the first time since the election to decompress, review, and discuss the road ahead with guests Deepak Bhargava, Distinguished Lecturer, CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies, and Liz Watson, Executive Director, Progressive Caucus Action Fund.

Longtime Donor Activist Jody Uttal and her husband Jeff Gold have been supporting Liberty Hill and the fight for a more just and equitable Los Angeles for nearly 30 years.

The belief in the collective power of individuals to come together to create change is a cornerstone of our work at Liberty Hill and it extends to our dedicated Donor Activists who form the core of our philanthropic support.

Liberty Hill Donor Activist and SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director, David White is no stranger to activism. He leads the world’s largest entertainment union, representing more than 160,000 diverse members worldwide who work in fields of film, television, commercials, music, video games and emerging media.

The heartbreaking and horrifying shooting of Jacob Blake—seven times in the back, at point-blank range, in front of his children—leaves us stunned. We are saddened, and we are angry, but unfortunately we are not surprised.

Rabbi Heather Miller and Melissa de la Rama fulfill multiple roles in their social justice work, showing up sometimes as volunteers, sometimes as donors. They bring social media savvy to campaigns for change, but are just as likely to show up in person at a rally.

Glen Dake seems to work on a vision of Los Angeles the way he works on a vision of a particular community garden or landscape—with lots of practical, hands-on effort. He supports nonprofit organizations, not only through Liberty Hill’s grantmaking, but also, with his sister Renee Dake Wilson and her husband Brian Wilson, through a donor advised fund housed at Liberty Hill. He has also served on Liberty Hill’s Environmental Justice Community Funding Board.

Liberty Hill donor-activists from across Los Angeles turned their energy into action this spring by sending letters to elected officials to encourage support for the Youth Reinvestment Grant in the 2019–2020 state budgeting process.

For 37 years, Liberty Hill’s Upton Sinclair Awards Dinner has been the premier gathering for those at the epicenter of progress and justice in Los Angeles. Every year, political allies, donor-activists, grassroots leaders and community organizers from across the region come together to celebrate the progress made in fights for social change.

This year Liberty Hill is honored to recognize three amazing individuals with awards at our annual Upton Sinclair Award Dinner. Our honorees truly demonstrate the spirit of our gala theme–Our Movement, Our Moment.

Liberty Hill is pleased to announce that our 2018 Fund for Change grants will invest $975,800 in 39 grassroots organizations throughout Los Angeles County. Thanks to the generosity of our donor-activists and foundation partners, we have been able to increase our Fund for Change grantmaking by $256,800 since 2016.

Liberty Hill's 2018 Upton Sinclair Awards Dinner has always been the premier place where progressive L.A. comes to celebrate the movement-making social justice moments that are unfolding across Los Angeles.

Liberty Hill is pleased to honor Elizabeth Levitt Hirsch with the Founders Award at our 2018 Upton Sinclair Awards Dinner on April 19.

At Liberty Hill we know what day it is, Cyber Monday, that day when folks who wanted to avoid the shopping crowds jump online to do their holiday cyber shopping instead.

Breaking news! Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) announced today that its School Police would no longer issue citations or subject students to arrest for most on-campus fights, petty theft and other minor offenses, but instead refer students to counseling and other services.

You can’t help but think in garden metaphors when talking to Glen Dake, a landscape architect,  prominent advocate for “green agenda” issues in Los Angeles, and one of Liberty Hill’s most active donor- activists.

On April 23, at Liberty Hill's Upton Sinclair Dinner and Awards Celebration, the 2013 Founders Award will be presented to Alison Morgan and Parke Skelton. Alison and Parke, the fundraiser/strategist duo, are one of L.A.’s power couples.

Liberty Hill has been known for years as a funder through our work in supporting nonprofit groups organizing for change. Last night, we showed our other side: Liberty Hill as a resource for you to think strategically about your philanthropy.