L.A.’s Philanthropic Great Divide

photo by omar omar

In the April issue of Los Angeles Magazine, Mark Lacter shines a light on a dirty little secret that may shock out-of-towners but isn’t really news to the nonprofit community here: Despite the phenomenal individual and corporate wealth to be found in Southern California, very little of it finds its way through philanthropy into the coffers of nonprofit social service organizations.

Lacter details the “embarrassingly unfair” nature of charitable giving among L.A.’s wealthy, which goes mostly to hospitals, higher education, and arts and culture. Somewhere near the end of the line you’ll find human services. So while hospital donor walls boast a roll call of Southern California’s wealthy elite, homeless shelters and soup kitchens struggle to keep their doors open in a region that has more homeless residents than any other urban area in the country.

One reason you may not hear much about this disparity is that the nonprofit community doesn’t want to bite the hand they wish would feed them better. Pissing off potential donors is in no one’s best interests, but I wish we as a community could have a more open and candid conversation about the philanthropic gaps that I believe hold us back as a region. The state and local fiscal crises we hear about every day are absolutely decimating what little safety net still exists to serve the poor and others struggling to survive in a brutal economy.

I understand the sincere desire among some to put their charitable dollars in service to worthy educational institutions such as UCLA (where I’m an alumnus) and USC, or cultural institutions such as Walt Disney Concert Hall. But UCLA’s highly sophisticated “friend-raising” operation consistently rakes in around $400 million per year in contributions. I’m sure USC’s numbers are equally impressive.

Meanwhile, social service organizations are struggling to keep the lights on. If you have money to spare and a desire to make a profound impact, there are incredible opportunities to do so in Southern California. Many of my friends work for nonprofits striving to shelter L.A.’s homeless, protect its abused children from further harm and ensure a decent standard of living for low-income seniors. If I took a poll, I wager I’d find corporate support for those organizations numbering somewhere between one hand and 10 fingers.

If you want to make a name for yourself as a benefactor, consider the many human service organizations that desperately need your support. If you sincerely want to make a difference in the lives of those who need help most, same answer. Somehow I think UCLA and Disney Hall will survive without you for awhile. Others will not.

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Tagged as: nonprofits, philanthropy, social service organizations