Miguel Santana is president and chief executive of the California Community Foundation, one of the largest foundations in Los Angeles and, at 110 years old, the oldest community foundation in California.
Last year, the foundation gave out $357 million in grants, more than the $277 million it raised, as it responded to the January 2025 wildfires and cuts to the federal safety net. Santana spoke with the Business Journal about the state of foundation giving, the region’s greatest unmet needs and what a coordinated philanthropic community looks like in L.A. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Giving USA’s latest report found that giving by foundations rose nearly 6% in 2025 to about $117 billion. What do those numbers say about the responsibility’s foundations carry, particularly in a city like L.A.?
So, the national trend of increased grant giving is consistent with what we’re seeing here in Los Angeles. There are a few factors that contribute to it. I think it really started with the wildfires. There was an unprecedented generosity from Angelenos supporting their neighbors who were impacted in 2025, and we were able to raise nearly $100 million from Angelenos and from Californians and Americans. We also were intentional to get the money out faster, so we gave out $30 million in the first 30 days of the wildfire to support very basic needs and then have continued to provide additional grant making to start dealing with the long-term issues in the wildfire, supporting families who have gaps in rebuilding. On average, the gap is about $600,000 per family.
And then the other piece that has really prompted folks to be more generous in supporting their fellow Angelenos was the immigration raids that we saw last year. I think most Angelenos understand how integral immigrants are to our economy, and when they saw their neighbors, their friends, their coworkers be taken on the streets, breadwinners being detained, Angelenos have responded to that. I chair a working group of foundation CEOs statewide. Together, we’ve been able to invest nearly $150 million since January of 2025 to support immigrants.
And the third issue is frankly the fact that government is retreating from their commitment to supporting the infrastructure for the most vulnerable and those with the least amount of resources. The cuts of H.R. 1 are starting to take effect.
Now, I think that one thing to clarify is that while there may be this significant increase in grant making in the country, and I would say probably here in Los Angeles as well, the needs haven’t been greater. The gap that philanthropy is filling is not filling 100% of the reductions that have been created. So, the nonprofit sector is struggling. Last year, you know, we raised $277 million, but we actually gave out $357 million. So, our grant making significantly increased, outpacing even our fundraising.
Where do you see the greatest unmet needs in our region?
Well, really, the reductions to the safety net. The safety net exists to support the most vulnerable, those who have been historically marginalized, and that safety net is literally being deteriorated in a very short period of time.
People may think that the requirement to have people work or to demonstrate that they’re working to receive food assistance or healthcare should not be a big deal. In fact, most people who receive services are engaged in the workforce, but their job doesn’t cover the costs to survive for themselves and their families. So, you’re asking folks who already may have one or two kids, who are working two or three jobs, to also take on the burden of proving it, and to prove it on a regular basis. And if you fail to demonstrate it, then you are suddenly ineligible. And we could certainly help support and create somewhat of a transition, but the role of philanthropy is not to replace the role of government.
And I think that’s what worries me … we’re not designed to do that. All of us could spend down our endowments. Literally, every foundation in Los Angeles could spend down our endowments to cover that gap, and it wouldn’t be enough.
Clearly, Americans have been more generous than ever before. There’s a significant transfer of wealth that’s occurring with boomers transferring their wealth to their next-generation family members. The stock market has done well, which also kind of impacts donor behavior, and the need has been made bigger by the government stepping away from its primary responsibility.
How have federal funding reductions changed what organizations are asking of funders like you?
Well, they are reacting in ways that are really focused on survival at this point. I recently talked to the head of a nonprofit that provides housing and services for formerly unhoused people, and they’re dipping into their reserves. They’re making staff reductions. They’re trying to collaborate with colleagues to find ways to reduce shared costs, and they’re coming to us more and more desperate, frankly, and saying, you know, “We cannot survive with the reductions that we’re experiencing at every level of government, and so, can you help us?” And, you know, we do where we can, but it’s not a sustainable program to be able to do that on an ongoing basis. So, it is a very challenging time for the nonprofit sector because these reductions are happening at the same time that the need is increasing.
What are the key initiatives the foundation is focused on right now?
In 2025, we engaged on a listening tour. We basically listened to every day Angelenos, and we asked them what is the most important thing for them, what worries them, in what ways can we as philanthropy be helpful? We talked to 2,000 Angelenos, and what they said was that they can’t survive, that they’re struggling, that they’re having, you know, challenges paying for their rent. A majority of Angelenos pay more than 30% of their income for their rent. And so, we’ve been very focused in supporting the fundamentals, basic needs that people have. It’s where a significant part of our grant making went last year.
The other thing we’ve been focusing on is trying to ensure that every day Angelenos have a voice in their government and in what happens in their community. So, we’ve been actively supporting organizations that try to fight back cuts against the safety net, ensure more access for wildfire survivors, and just really try to help the voice of community be involved in the day-to-day lives of Angelenos. We focus on, you know, helping communities better connect with one another. Investments in helping people connect with one another – you know, this is where culture and art really help draw people in – and creating opportunities for healing from that shared trauma.
And so, our strategic framework really guides our work, and that’s really been informing our grant making and the way we talk to donors. But in addition to just giving more, we’ve really been focusing on impact because we want to be able to show the difference: What investments, what are the results that we’ve been able to create? How have we been able to protect the safety net?
You know, we heard a lot about needing economic opportunity, and that means investing in not only education – we run one of the largest scholarship programs in L.A. County for people seeking higher education – but also job training and support for entrepreneurship.
What does success look like, and how do you measure that impact?
We measure it in two ways. One is that we tell stories. We have a team of writers, actually former reporters. We really talk about the person, like how did our grant making support a person? Tell the story of that and then work backwards about how the organization supported that person or family, and then how our grant making resulted in that support. People don’t always remember statistics, but they remember a story that moved them.
But the other way is that we’re starting to set some real goals, you know, ambitious goals around responding to the affordable housing crisis, ending homelessness, protecting the infrastructure for healthcare, you know, establishing real goals around economic mobility, and we’re in the process of setting up those goals now. That will be evaluated over a 10-year time frame, and then from there, really aligning our investments to those goals.
What would a more coordinated philanthropic community look like in L.A.?
Well, we’re very fortunate actually that in Los Angeles, compared to the rest of the country, we are actually very coordinated. It could always be better, but we have been very intentional to inform each other about our investments, our guiding principles, and to find ways to work together. We certainly saw that in the wildfire. I meet every week with my colleagues around: how do we coordinate our wildfire response? When we issued our grant making in the first 30 days of the wildfire, I know it helped inform how other colleagues, including fire aid, responded as well. We are pooling funds together to be able to provide gap financing for families who have a gap between how much insurance is willing to pay and what it actually costs to rebuild, but we’ve also been doing it in ways to support immigration. Like I mentioned, we coordinate investments throughout the state to support the immigrant community, and it has resulted in $150 million of investments.
A day doesn’t go by that I don’t talk to one of my colleagues, and certainly our teams talk with each other. And that is one of the very special things about L.A. philanthropy, is that we work very hard to do things in a way that’s coordinated. And a big part of our role as the community foundation for Los Angeles is to help facilitate that. So, it’s a priority that we have. It’s a role that we commonly have to fulfill.
