Social Justice Partners Los Angeles

Systems change fellowship: the systems change fellowship at sjpla supports leaders with lived experience of systemic injustices in areas such as cultivating workplace culture, communications, and growing their community of supporters. In 2024, we supported seven emerging initiatives addressing interconnected issues from health equity to food security, with each receiving $10,000 in unrestricted funding. The fast pitch program delivered ten weeks of intensive training and coaching, culminating in an in-person showcase where participants shared their work with community members, funders, and supporters. Fellows reported significant fundraising success, with la forward institute securing $100,000 in commitments and the social impact center raising $125,000 directly attributed to the program and sjpla network. The fellowship creates intentional spaces for relationship-building, resulting in meaningful collaborations between fellows, including joint programming, resource sharing, and community partnerships. Since the program began in 2008, alumni have raised over $4.7 million that they attribute to their experience, and the program has been replicated by 19 other organizations in the u.s. And canada.

Community building and engagement: sjpla's community building & engagement initiatives create a robust network of informed changemakers through experiences including participatory grantmaking, anti-racism trainings, and our fast pitch program. In 2024, our 86 partners contributed 603 hours of skilled volunteer time and $85,020 in unrestricted funding, serving as coaches, evaluators, and community connectors. Our partnership with la2050 engaged 75 evaluators (including 26 sjp partners) who reviewed 577 applications and helped distribute over $3 million to 68 local organizations across los angeles county. Our liberatory learning courses engaged 52 participants across three programs: liberatory workplaces (27 participants), liberatory leadership (19 participants), and charity to justice (6 executive directors). Our philanthropic consulting services help craft equitable grantmaking practices, ensuring broad and sustained community impact. Through customized partnerships with organizations like sobrato philanthropies and goldhirsh foundation, we support organizational culture change that centers wellbeing, liberation, and belonging.