logo
book Subscribe to our Magazine
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
    • Grassroots Fundraising Journal
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Podcasts
    • Tiny Spark
    • Women of Color in Power
  • Webinars
    • Free Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership

Los Angeles Philanthropists Invest in City’s Public Schools for the Long Haul

Steve Dubb
January 22, 2018
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
From the Daily Breeze.

January 18, 2018; Los Angeles Times

Ten years ago, Melanie and Richard Lundquist pledged $50 million to ten schools in some of L.A.’s most impoverished neighborhoods through a nonprofit they cofounded called the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, writes Steve Lopez for the Los Angeles Times. The Lundquists, who own a company that develops and manages four million square feet of commercial real estate, are among southern California’s leading philanthropists. Their donation is the largest individual donation ever made to Los Angeles schools, writes C-Suite Quarterly (CSQ).

Often education donations have focused on supporting charter schools. But this was not the route of the Lundquists. Lopez notes that “the Lundquists, who both attended LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) schools in their youth,” were committed to investing directly in public schools. Every year for the past decade, they have written checks for $5 million to help finance campus improvements, teacher development training, and other resources. Now, Lopez adds, they’re signing up for 10 more years of giving, “making an additional $35-million commitment to keep the momentum going.”

Melanie Lundquist explains that a key motivation for the gift is her belief that young people today do not have the opportunities she did when she was growing up. Lundquist notes that, “a lot of people think I must have grown up rich, but no, I did not. Quite the opposite.”

For Lundquist, something is awry in philanthropy when her private college alma mater, the University of Southern California (USC), could easily meet a $6-billion fundraising target even as “public school funding per pupil lags in the bottom tier nationally” in California. According to Lundquist, the Partnership through its fundraising has been able to add “about $650 in spending for each of the roughly 14,500 students” that attend participating schools. Lundquist adds that, “Richard and I like to go where most people don’t. I could’ve given $50 million to USC, but they’ve got deep-pocketed donors all over the place.”

Lopez explains that the Partnership developed after former mayor Antonio Villaraigosa got the chance to work with the district’s ten lowest performing schools. This, Lopez adds, was kind of a “consolation prize” for the mayor, after Villaraigosa’s effort to establish direct mayoral control of the school system failed. A talk he gave about public schools during his mayoral run inspired Melanie to directly support public schools. Since the Partnership was launched 10 years ago, eight other schools have joined, increasing the number of participating campuses to 18.

Lopez adds, “These are not charter schools, which operate with public funding but are self-governing. The Partnership schools are sort of a hybrid. They have nonprofit administration but play by the same rules as traditional neighborhood schools and must abide by LAUSD’s union contracts.”

The results have been solid, but not miraculous. Lopez writes that, “Although almost all Partnership schools have shown improvement on statewide proficiency tests and some have seen gains that outpace other district schools, many…students remain in the lower ranks, and five Partnership schools were on a 2016 list of the 20 LAUSD schools with the lowest performance.”

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Still, there have been significant improvements. On its website, the Partnership reports that graduation rates at participating schools have increased from 36 percent to 81 percent, while suspension rates have fallen from 21 percent to three percent.

Lundquist also says she understands that change will be slow. Lundquist explains:

Everybody, I think, has a sense of urgency about our problems and what can and can’t be done about them. And if something after two or three years hasn’t been fixed, they want to move on to the next thing. Well, I’ve watched this break for 50 years, and I knew it wasn’t going to be fixed in five or 10 years.

Lopez adds that Lundquist “knew early on that she wanted to add another 10 years of commitment, and if there’s still work to be done a decade from now, maybe she’ll be in this for 30 years, still visiting campuses regularly and finding inspiration from principals, teachers and students.”

John Rogers, who runs UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education and Access, tells Lopez that beyond that student performance gains, a “notable [Partnership] success has been in turning some of its schools into healthy havens, safe from surrounding crime, poverty and blight.”

Rogers adds that, “The Partnership gets credit for taking on some of the most challenging schools in Los Angeles…as opposed to picking off easy wins, so to speak. When people around the country talk about models of restorative justice and peaceful environments, I point them to some of the Partnership schools.”

Joan Sullivan, who has been the Partnership’s CEO for the past five years, observes that, “There are no hidden solutions to improving the nation’s schools. Our gains have accelerated over the years, and continuity of effort makes the difference.”—Steve Dubb

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Dubb

Steve Dubb is a senior editor at NPQ, where he directs NPQ’s economic justice program, including NPQ’s Economy Remix column. Steve has worked with cooperatives and nonprofits for over two decades, including twelve years at The Democracy Collaborative and three years as executive director of NASCO (North American Students of Cooperation). In his work, Steve has authored, co-authored and edited numerous reports; participated in and facilitated learning cohorts; designed community building strategies; and helped build the field of community wealth building. Steve is the lead author of Building Wealth: The Asset-Based Approach to Solving Social and Economic Problems (Aspen 2005) and coauthor (with Rita Hodges) of The Road Half Traveled: University Engagement at a Crossroads, published by MSU Press in 2012. In 2016, Steve curated and authored Conversations on Community Wealth Building, a collection of interviews of community builders that Steve had conducted over the previous decade.

More about: colleges and universities wealthy donorshigh-wealth donorsNonprofit NewsPhilanthropy

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

NPQ_Spring_2022

You might also like
What Is the Nonprofit Sector of a Future, Equitable World?
Devon Kearney
New Data Tells Us Where Donor-Advised Fund Dollars Go—And Don’t Go
Chuck Collins and Helen Flannery
Report Maps the Philanthropy of Millionaire Donors of Color
Steve Dubb
One Nation Under a Groove: How to Build a Black Future Through Strong, Black-Led Community Organizations
Shawn A. Ginwright
This is What Solidarity Looks Like: Global Racial Justice in Antiwar Organizing
Kitana Ananda
Making Federal Infrastructure Funding Equitable—What Philanthropy Can Do
Lois DeBacker and Joe Evans

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
June 9th, 2 pm ET

Remaking the Economy

Wage Justice, Now!

Register
You might also like
What Is the Nonprofit Sector of a Future, Equitable World?
Devon Kearney
New Data Tells Us Where Donor-Advised Fund Dollars Go—And...
Chuck Collins and Helen Flannery
Report Maps the Philanthropy of Millionaire Donors of Color
Steve Dubb
WOMEN OF COLOR IN POWER
Women of Color in Power

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Subscribe
Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Authentic Leadership
Reclaiming Interrupted Lineages

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Submissions
  • Advertisers
  • Newsletters
  • Copyright

Subscribe to View Webinars

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.