Idealist.org

URL: http://www.idealist.org

Mission:
The James Irvine Foundation is a private, nonprofit grantmaking foundation dedicated to enhancing the social, economic, and physical quality of life throughout California, and to enriching the state's intellectual and cultural environment.

Purpose of Site:
The Web site's purpose is to disseminate information from and about James Irvine Foundation. Grantseekers can access grant application guidelines and information about the foundation's programming, financial information, and history.

Organization's Background:
After witnessing the unrest that the Depression caused in California, and after glimpsing his own mortality in the death of a close friend in 1936, James Irvine decided in 1937 to establish a foundation that would promote the "general well-being of the citizens and residents of the state of California." Trusting the value of land, he established The James Irvine Foundation as the primary stock holder of The Irvine Company. "No other security," Irvine predicted, could afford the foundation and its causes "a more stable and safe investment than the capital of the Irvine Company."

The new foundation made its first grant in 1937, for a sum of $1,000. By 1947, its largest grant had increased to $5,000. With the death of James Irvine the same year, the foundation began receiving the full interest from its company stockholdings, thereby increasing its grantmaking capacity. From 1948 to 1957, over $2 million was expended in grants to higher education, community service organizations, cultural services, health care, and youth programs.

During the 1940s and 1950s, new residents continued to pour into the state, particularly to Southern California, where they moved into sprawling cities built upon prime agricultural land. The Irvine Company, located in one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation, increasingly felt external pressures during the 1950s to open its lands to real estate development. Its response — community planning allowing for a wide range of uses, including higher education (providing the initial land for the University of California, Irvine campus) and agriculture — provided a contrast to the unplanned sprawl nearby. Just as the ranch had become known for adopting new agricultural techniques, the company soon enjoyed a reputation for inaugurating community planning on a large scale

Eventually, the Irvine Foundation was forced to sell its share in the company to comply with new federal legislation. When James Irvine died in 1947, his gift to the foundation was valued at $5.6 million; when the foundation's share of the Company was sold thirty years later, his bequest had grown in value to $184 million.

Home Page:
The James Irvine Foundation Web Site is an excellent resource for grantseekers to learn of about the foundation's charitable mission and its programs. The information available on the site is well organized and easily navigated. Files thoroughly detailing foundation initiatives, annual reports, and grantmaking history are available for downloading.

Outstanding Feature:
The site's outstanding feature is its exceptional organization and depth of the information it provides. The "Applying for a Grant" section is particularly helpful and easy to follow.

Executive Director: Ami Dar

Main Office:
Action Without Borders
350 Fifth Avenue, Suite 6614
New York, NY 10118
Tel: (212) 843-3973
Fax: (212) 564-3377