OVERVIEW: The Herb Alpert Foundation supports music, arts education, artists, social equity, and community organizations in Los Angeles with programs that promote compassion and well-being.
IP TAKE: The Herb Alpert Foundation is a prestigious and transparent arts funder that has supported arts education, music education, performing artists and musicians for decades, with a strong focus on the Los Angeles area. Inside Philanthropy arts reporter Mike Scutari has lauded Alpert for being “a consistent and articulate proponent of the arts at a time in which the field is under siege. His free-wheeling and improvisational approach belies a coherent underlying strategy that is both forward-looking and impactful.” While Alpert had funded a range of arts organizations, he’s probably best known for the long-running Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, which goes to mid-career artists who are engaged in risk-taking work in the fields of dance, film/video, music, theatre and the visual arts. Alpert has also been a big supporter of the Harlem School of the Arts and musician majors at Los Angeles City College. In a 2019 Inside Philanthropy interview with Alpert, the legendary jazz musician pointed to his simple desire to support artists as the driving force behind his philanthropy. “The real artists are the truth seekers,” he said. “They tell us what’s really going on. It’s crucially important to support freedom of expression and freedom of imagination.”
This foundation takes a proactive grantmaking approach, selecting grantee organizations according to an internal review process. Given the volume of interest, it will not respond to unsolicited grant inquiries. It will be difficult for grantseekers to gain Alpert’s attention, but innovative and equitable music education programs in the Los Angeles area may consider networking or collaborating with the foundation’s established grantees.
PROFILE: The Herb Alpert Foundation was established in 1988 by the legendary trumpet player and band leader Herb Alpert and his spouse, the singer Lani Hall. Their foundation “envisions a world where all young people are blessed with opportunities that allow them to reach their potential and lead productive and fulfilling lives.” It names three core giving areas in the arts: Arts Education, Focus on Jazz and Support to Professionals. The foundation also runs a Compassion and Well-being grantmaking program that funds human services for individuals and families in need.
Most of the Foundation’s grantmaking takes the form of “seed monies to move innovative founders forward in their work, or as incremental support to a more established organization that is ready to take on activities at a new level of complexity or commitment.” Grantmaking heavily prioritizes the Los Angeles area, though occasional grants are made in New York or to national organizations.
Grants for Music and Arts Education
The Herb Alpert Foundation invests in music and arts education projects with a strong emphasis on jazz.
The Herb Alpert Foundation’s Focus on Jazz program “aims to help educate children about the beauty of this uniquely American art form.” Areas of interest include jazz history, jazz education and appreciation, and “venues that keep the jazz audience growing.” Grantees have included Los Angeles’s 18th Street Arts Center, the Jazz Education Network, the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz, the International Trumpet Guild and the radio station KJAZZ 88.1 of Long Beach, California.
The Support to Professionals program “provides unrestricted support to mid-career artists pushing the boundaries of their craft.”
Grantees for this program have included the American Composers Orchestra and CalArt’s REDCAT, a multidisciplinary arts center located in the downtown area of Los Angeles.
A portion of funding from this program also goes to MusiCares and the Jazz Foundation, which “provide for human service needs of artists in the music industry.”
The foundation also funds the annual Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, “an unrestricted prize of $75,000 given annually to risk-taking mid-career artists working in the fields of dance, film/video, music, theatre and the visual arts.”
Grants for Arts Education aim to “ensure children of all backgrounds have early opportunities to encounter the arts in many forms and ways.” Support goes to programs at all levels of education and to community programs for vulnerable and at-risk children and youth, including criminal justice reform programs.
Southern California is a clear geographic priority for this work.
Past arts education grantees include the Broad Stage of Santa Monica, the California Dance Institute, the Ghetto Film School and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Composer Fellowship Program, among others.
- Herb Alpert has also given back to the music community with a range of Legacy Gifts, which mainly consist of endowments for music schools around Southern California and beyond. These include Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA, the Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, the Herb Alpert Music Center at Los Angeles City College and the Herb Alpert Center at the Harlem School of the Arts in New York City.
Grants for Housing, Economic Development and Humanitarian Relief
The Herb Alpert Foundation’s Compassion and Well-Being grantmaking works broadly to support “organizations that understand the importance of empathy and cooperation in our daily interactions with others and the positive effects inherent in restoring individuals’ and families’ abilities to stand independently.”
- The foundation names emergency relief and community development as priorities, as well as “the increasing need for compassion and respect for each others’ differences” and support for “individuals finding their sense of agency.”
- Past grantees include the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Coalition for Engaged Education, and California’s Chrysalis, a nonprofit “dedicated to creating a pathway to self-sufficiency for homeless and low-income individuals.”
Important Grant Details:
Grants are generally awarded in amounts ranging from $20,000 to $100,000, with named endowments receiving larger amounts on an ongoing basis.
According to its website, the foundation’s grantees “run the gamut from small organizations working at the local level, perhaps in the earliest stages of their development, to larger and more mature organizations that may have a regional or even a national scope and perspective.”
The foundation shows a stronf preference for organizations and institutions located in Los Angeles and Southern California.
All grants are invitation only and the foundation does not respond to unsolicited proposals.
For additional information about the types of organizations this funder supports, see its grantees page.
- The Herb Alpert Foundation does not provide a direct avenue for getting in touch, but its phone number is (818) 528-3545.
PEOPLE:
Search for staff contact info and bios in PeopleFinder (paid subscribers only).
LINKS: