OVERVIEW: The Eileen Harris Norton Foundation’s mission is to achieve social and environmental justice through supporting organizations dedicated to education, families, and the environment.
IP TAKE: This place-based funder is a good one to know in Los Angeles for the arts, among other focus areas. That said, it is low-profile with only a bare bones website that restricts clarity about grantmaking strategies and deep priorities. It is not accessible or transparent. It prefers a proactice approach to grantmaking, which means getting on this funder’s multi-year funding list will be tough to crack. If you can get on this funder’s radar via snail mail or deep networking, know that grants are modest and not meant to be the primary source of funding for nonprofits.
PROFILE: Established in 2009, the Eileen Harris Norton Foundation was founded by arts collector Eileen Harris Norton.
Raised in the Watts section of Los Angeles, Eileen Harris Norton graduated with her bachelor’s degree from UCLA and earned a master’s in bilingual education from USC. She worked a series of teaching jobs in the Los Angeles Unified School District and married Peter Norton, a computer programmer who went on to launch Peter Norton Computing, Inc., behind such staples as Norton Utilities. The couple are no longer married. She is an active art collector based in Los Angeles.
The Eileen Harris Norton Foundation primarily focuses on the Los Angeles area and aims to achieve “social and environmental justice through supporting organizations dedicated to education, families, and the environment.”
Grants for Education and Human Services
This funder’s funding for education and families often intersects in order to better support youth.
- Its Education Program area focuses on progressive programs including arts education that target low-income youth.
- Its Families Program area focuses on parental engagement and youth development.Grantees have included California Community Foundation, Challenger’s Boys and Girls Club, and Venice Family Clinic.
Grants for Environmental Conservation
The Eileen Harris Norton Foundation’s Environmental Program area broadly funds programs at the “intersection of environmental justice and health and wellness targeting children from low-income communities.”
Grants for Arts and Culture
An art collector herself, Eileen Harris Norton is particularly dedicated to funding the arts across Greater Los Angeles. Norton, and her ex-husband Peter Norton, once moved philanthropy through the Peter Norton Family Foundation, which was launched in 1988 and shuttered. The then-couple amassed one of the largest modern contemporary art collections in the country, with strengths in African-American, southern California, and women artists. Through the foundation, Norton and Peter also gave strong support to places like Crossroads School in Santa Monica, where Norton lives, Reed College, and Smith College. Through her current philanthropy vehicle, Norton went on to found Art + Practice (A+P) with artist Mark Bradford, and social activist Allan DiCastro. The organization occupies a nearly 20,000-square-foot campus in the Leimert Park neighborhood of South Los Angeles. A+P is an “exhibition space for museum-curated contemporary art and a public program space for moderated art lectures and discussions organized to coincide with exhibitions on view.” It also provides foster youth with access to housing, individualized education, and employment support.
- Norton has also supported CalArts, and underwrites the CAPSA Summer Film Academy, which “offers intensive hands-on film instruction to high-need students.”
- The foundation steadily supports Art + Practice (A+P), an “exhibition space for museum-curated contemporary art and a public program space for moderated art lectures and discussions organized to coincide with exhibitions on view.” Eileen helped found the organization.
- Grantees have included Museum of Contemporary Art, UCLA Foundation (Eileen is a UCLA alum), and Venice Arts., and Venice Family Clinic.
Important Grant Details
Grants range from $50,000 to $150,000. In a recent fiscal year, the foundation gave away approximately $390,000. The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.
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CONTACT:
Eileen Harris Norton Foundation
10866 Wilshire Blvd, Ste 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90024
