Dolores Huerta Foundation

The Dolores Huerta Foundation has sued school districts in California over alleged mistreatment of minority students or representation. DHF also trains community organizers and engages in campaigns to increase taxes on California businesses. ^{2 3 4}

In 2010, DHF received $100,000 from the Clinton Foundation. ⁵ In 2019, DHF received money from the State of California to perform “civic engagement.” ⁶

Activities

In April 2018, the Dolores Huerta Foundation threatened to sue the Tulare County Board of Supervisors over accusations of suppressing voters in the county. The DHF claimed the county was violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and demanded that Tulare County redraw its district boundaries.  ⁷

In May of 2018, the DHF joined a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the Census questionnaire. ⁸

In 2014, the group sued the Kern County School District its expulsion rates of Latino students. In May of 2019, the school district settled with DHF with the promise that the school district would provide alternative options for students at risk of expulsion. ⁹ The school district settled the suit due to “largely financial” reasons and agreed to pay plaintiff’s (DHF) legal fees. ¹⁰ The DHF’s legal fees amounted to almost $600,000 and the school district agreed to pay $70,000 to the plaintiffs represented by DHF attorneys. ¹¹

DHF trains community organizers in low-income communities to put pressure on local city councils, school boards, and utility boards to affect policy changes in health, education, and housing. ¹² In one case, DHF’s community organizing efforts were used to increase property taxes by one cent in a local community. The style and pattern of organizing is similar to Huerta’s community organizing with the National Farm Workers Association. ¹³

The DHF is actively involved in the “Make It Fair” campaign that would increase property taxes by billions of dollars in California. ¹⁴

People

Much of the Dolores Huerta Foundation’s work has revolved around Dolores Huerta herself. Huerta has traveled the country influencing campaigns and elections in a personal capacity. ¹⁵

Camila Chavez, the daughter of Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez’s brother Richard Chavez, was a co-founder of DHF, and as of 2026, was the organization’s executive director. Chavez oversees the organization’s “strategic direction” in training local communities in left-of-center activism, is said to have been the primary leader of the day-to-day operations of the organization since its start in 2003. In 2024, she earned $157,656 in compensation. ^{16 17}

The Schedule O portion of DHF’s 2024 tax return disclosed that at least five of the organization’s thirteen voting board members belonged to two immediate family groups: that of Dolores Huerta and her sister Alicia Arong, and that of siblings Angela Cabrera, Fidel Cabrera, and Camila Chavez. Emilio Huerta, compensated $183,517 as the organization’s legal services and project manager, was also identified on the filing as a family member of Dolores Huerta. ^{17 18 19 20}

Capital Campaign

In 2019, the Dolores Huerta Foundation announced a capital campaign to construct the Dolores Huerta Peace and Justice Cultural Center in downtown Bakersfield. The center was planned as a roughly 32,000-square-foot complex to serve as the DHF’s permanent headquarters, and to house a museum, gallery, amphitheater, classrooms, and office space. By the time construction began, the project budget had reached $34.8 million, of which $15 million came from the California state legislature and an additional $7 million arrived in a 2023 state grant. The DHF broke ground on the center in June 2025. ^{21 22 23 24 25}

In August 2025, the Bakersfield City Council approved a $300,000 reimbursement grant to the DHF from the city’s Downtown Revitalization Incentive Program to cover right-of-way and infrastructure improvements around the site. The vote passed following a public hearing that drew approximately two dozen speakers for and against the proposal. Opponents argued that taxpayer funds should not support a politically active nonprofit and urged the council to prioritize road repairs and public-safety needs. They also cited Dolores Huerta’s past arrests as a reason the center should not be supported by the state. Supporters cited the Center’s projected 40 full-time jobs and economic benefits for downtown businesses. ^{26 27}

Controversies

In September 2025, former Dolores Huerta Foundation employee Ruth Sanchez filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit against the Foundation in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. The complaint listed 11 causes of action, including disability-based discrimination, retaliation that had harmed her career, unpaid overtime, and whistleblower retaliation that allegedly violated the California Labor Code. ^{28 29}

Sanchez, who had worked for the DHF from August 2019 until her termination in July 2024, alleged that after she discovered a $95,000 City of Los Angeles grant she had secured for the DHF was not being used in accordance with its stated purpose, she reported the misuse internally and was fired. The complaint further alleged that a separate employee falsified information and diverted grant funds intended to subsidize wages for paid canvassers, and that a family member of a DHF director was promoted over Sanchez without justification, whom Sanchez had to train. When Sanchez complained of the employee’s incompetence, stating that she had to do their work and was being mistreated by the employee on top of it, Sanchez was demoted and her pay was cut. ^{28 29}

The DHF’s demurrer was heard in March 2026, and the case proceeded with a jury trial scheduled for January 2028. In a statement provided to 17 News, the DHF said, “It is unfortunate that the employee chose to file this action without first affording the Foundation the opportunity to respond to and possibly resolve the matter.” Additionally, DHF spokesman Erik Olvera claimed it was the first employment-related lawsuit the DHF had faced in its history.  ^{28 29}

Funding

In 2019, DHF received $2 million from the State of California to partner with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Center in Oakland California to promote “civic engagement.” ⁶

In December 2025, it was announced that the Dolores Huerta Foundation was among the 208 nonprofits that would be receiving unrestricted grants from OpenAI as part of the first round of its People-First AI Fund. OpenAI, the developer of the Large Language Model (LLM) known as ChatGPT, described the fund as a way to invest in so-called community-based nonprofits it identifies as key players in efforts “to strengthen local communities and expand the opportunity of AI.” The first funding round issued an “open call” for applicants in the fall of 2025 and ultimately awarded a total of $40.5 million, with funds disbursed at the end of the 2025 calendar year. ³⁰