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The fund has four principal goals that align with the mayor’s vision for the city. These are: building government efficiency by identifying innovative solutions; improving the quality of life for Angelenos; promoting the economic prosperity of the region; and community resiliency and disaster relief.

Since its inception, the fund has raised money for more than 50 programs, including Summer Night Lights and HIRE LA’s Youth, and various programs focused on sustainability, veteran homelessness, and citizenship and immigration.

The pandemic has showcased the benefit of public-private collaborations, which can step up in times of crisis, with pooled funds in cities around the country supplementing relief efforts. One of the major benefits of this kind of collaboration, according to Lind, is that the Mayor’s Fund can launch new programs quickly, often before the city government can, to assist Angelenos.

This has always been one component of what the fund offers. One of the earliest of the organization’s efforts involved stepping in to repurchase holiday gifts for homebound seniors. In 2014, an apartment building fire impacted the building that housed the Department of Aging. The department had been collecting holiday gift bags for homebound seniors, which for many would be the only gift they would receive during the season. The Mayor’s Fund was able to activate a program whereby 1,500 Angelenos donated and provided resources to repurchase the gift bags.

“I believe in the power of cross-sector collaboration,” said Lind. “No one sector… can address the issues that Los Angeles faces by itself. And it really means that the nonprofit sector, the philanthropic sector, the business sector and government all have to work together.”

The fund played a similar role during the COVID-19 pandemic. The city’s Department of Aging provides hot meals to homebound seniors through community centers. With the pandemic, seniors could not leave their homes. In response, the L.A. Mayor’s Fund activated a program delivering hot meals directly to seniors in their homes. Once federal
resources became available, the city government was able to take over the program.

“We did exactly what nonprofit private resources are intended to do, which is to step in where government falls short, and we’re really proud of that fact because that’s exactly the right use of flexible private resources,” Lind said.

The fund was also able to provide assistance to domestic violence survivors through its Project Safe Haven. The project worked with hotels across the region, covering costs and getting survivors removed from their unsafe living conditions. The program also connected them with nonprofit resources in their communities to further assist them.

For proponents, organizations like the L.A. Mayor’s Fund are models of how private-public partnerships can work to overcome many of the obstacles that cities face.

“I believe in the power of cross-sector collaboration,” said Lind. “No one sector… can address the issues that Los Angeles faces by itself. And it really means that the nonprofit sector, the philanthropic sector, the business sector and government all have to work together.”