The LA2050 Grants Challenge is an open call for ideas to make Los Angeles the best place to learn, create, play, connect, and live.
More than $2 million will be awarded to winning organizations by LA2050 and its funding partners to implement their proposals. The program, project, or initiative proposed in the application should aim to make a specific, tangible impact on one of this year's 13 LA2050 issue areas:
- Access to creative industry employment
- Affordable housing and homelessness
- Community safety
- Green space, park access, and trees
- Health care access
- Immigrant and refugee support
- Income inequality
- K-12 STEAM education
- Opportunities for people who have been incarcerated
- Play equity to advance mental health
- Public transit
- Support for foster and systems-impacted youth
- Youth economic advancement
For the $1 million in LA2050 Grants Challenge funding, 15 winning organizations will be selected by an external evaluation committee made up of community leaders. Our evaluation partner, Social Justice Partners Los Angeles (SJPLA), will review and score all applications to the grants challenge and determine. LA2050 will commit to a one-year partnership with the 15 winning organizations, leveraging our resources, assets, and networks to help their work succeed. Together, the winning organizations, LA2050, and Angelenos will affect visible and lasting change.
The $1 million+ in additional awards available via this year's LA2050 Grants Challenge Funding Partners will be allocated through parallel decision-making processes, at the discretion of each partner.
How to participate in the LA2050 Grants Challenge:
- Preview the full application, evaluation scorecard, and official rules.
- Head to the application portal via LA2050.org or directly via SM Apply.
- Register a new account or log in to your account if you have one already.
- Name your application and invite collaborators on the left pane of your application page.
- Complete your application. As you complete the application, you can save your progress and log in and out as needed. Be sure to highlight the impact on the issue area you’ve selected, explain how and when each activity will be carried out, and keep in mind the Grants Challenge rules.
- The application is presented in the form of a checklist. Make sure to mark as complete all of the steps as you finish them.
- Your application is not submitted until you click on "Submit application" and see a pop-up message that says your application has been submitted. You’ll also receive an automated email confirming your submission. You cannot edit your application after submission. If you’ve made an error, please get in touch with us at connect@la2050.org.
- Once you’re done, be sure to download your submission so you can keep it on file.
- We’ll contact you with updates about your application and you can always log back into the system to see where your submission is in the process.
- If you are having difficulty with the SM Apply platform, please go to help.smapply.io.
- If you have any other questions, please contact us at connect@la2050.org.
LA2050 Grants Challenge Timeline:
Apply between Monday, May 15th, 2023 (9 am Pacific Time) and Friday, June 23rd, 2023 (5 pm Pacific Time) on this website.
Your application will go through a moderation process to ensure that your project adheres to all challenge rules. Applications that make it through the initial vetting will be published on the LA2050 Grants Challenge webpage by Friday, June 30th, 2023. The evaluation stage (in partnership with SJPLA) will take place beginning June 30th, 2023.
The final 15 LA2050 Grants Challenge winners (10 $75,000 winners and five $50,000 winners) will be announced on September 28th, 2023. Other Funding Partner awards will be announced around the same time.
This year, applicants do not have to participate in a public voting round to receive a grant. The public voting process that selected this year's issue areas took the place of the organization voting.
2023 LA2050 Grants Challenge
The LA2050 Grants Challenge is an open call for ideas to make Los Angeles the best place to learn, create, play, connect, and live.
More than $2 million will be awarded to winning organizations by LA2050 and its funding partners to implement their proposals. The program, project, or initiative proposed in the application should aim to make a specific, tangible impact on one of this year's 13 LA2050 issue areas:
- Access to creative industry employment
- Affordable housing and homelessness
- Community safety
- Green space, park access, and trees
- Health care access
- Immigrant and refugee support
- Income inequality
- K-12 STEAM education
- Opportunities for people who have been incarcerated
- Play equity to advance mental health
- Public transit
- Support for foster and systems-impacted youth
- Youth economic advancement
For the $1 million in LA2050 Grants Challenge funding, 15 winning organizations will be selected by an external evaluation committee made up of community leaders. Our evaluation partner, Social Justice Partners Los Angeles (SJPLA), will review and score all applications to the grants challenge and determine. LA2050 will commit to a one-year partnership with the 15 winning organizations, leveraging our resources, assets, and networks to help their work succeed. Together, the winning organizations, LA2050, and Angelenos will affect visible and lasting change.
The $1 million+ in additional awards available via this year's LA2050 Grants Challenge Funding Partners will be allocated through parallel decision-making processes, at the discretion of each partner.
How to participate in the LA2050 Grants Challenge:
- Preview the full application, evaluation scorecard, and official rules.
- Head to the application portal via LA2050.org or directly via SM Apply.
- Register a new account or log in to your account if you have one already.
- Name your application and invite collaborators on the left pane of your application page.
- Complete your application. As you complete the application, you can save your progress and log in and out as needed. Be sure to highlight the impact on the issue area you’ve selected, explain how and when each activity will be carried out, and keep in mind the Grants Challenge rules.
- The application is presented in the form of a checklist. Make sure to mark as complete all of the steps as you finish them.
- Your application is not submitted until you click on "Submit application" and see a pop-up message that says your application has been submitted. You’ll also receive an automated email confirming your submission. You cannot edit your application after submission. If you’ve made an error, please get in touch with us at connect@la2050.org.
- Once you’re done, be sure to download your submission so you can keep it on file.
- We’ll contact you with updates about your application and you can always log back into the system to see where your submission is in the process.
- If you are having difficulty with the SM Apply platform, please go to help.smapply.io.
- If you have any other questions, please contact us at connect@la2050.org.
LA2050 Grants Challenge Timeline:
Apply between Monday, May 15th, 2023 (9 am Pacific Time) and Friday, June 23rd, 2023 (5 pm Pacific Time) on this website.
Your application will go through a moderation process to ensure that your project adheres to all challenge rules. Applications that make it through the initial vetting will be published on the LA2050 Grants Challenge webpage by Friday, June 30th, 2023. The evaluation stage (in partnership with SJPLA) will take place beginning June 30th, 2023.
The final 15 LA2050 Grants Challenge winners (10 $75,000 winners and five $50,000 winners) will be announced on September 28th, 2023. Other Funding Partner awards will be announced around the same time.
This year, applicants do not have to participate in a public voting round to receive a grant. The public voting process that selected this year's issue areas took the place of the organization voting.