Foundation for Louisiana (FFL)

The Foundation for Louisiana is a member and fiscal sponsor of Louisiana Against False Solutions, which aims to support a “just transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.” According to a report from the right-of-center Pelican Institute for Public Policy entitled “Barriers to Louisiana Energy Dominance,” public debate and “outside influence” are large factors in blocking energy development projects across the state. Foundation for Louisiana received $29,336,117 in out-of-state donations since 2020, equating to 97.2 percent of its total donations. ^{3 4 5}

Background

The Foundation for Louisiana is a left-of-center grantmaking organization that works in areas of “racial healing,” gender issues, environmentalism, and left-of-center economic policy. ¹ FFL states on its website that it is a “social justice philanthropic intermediary,” founded in 2005 as the Louisiana Disaster Recovery Foundation to assist the recovery effort after Hurricane Katrina. ⁶

According to its website, since its inception, the FFL has donated a total of $60 million to more than 260 nonprofit organizations that FFL claims across the state to create a “more just” Louisiana. The organization states that it focuses on program areas such as climate change, race-based issues, and issues relating to gender. ⁷

The organization states that it provides funding each year to organizations throughout the state that are focused on those program areas. It also engages in organizing, advocacy, and policy advocacy relating to environmental issues, housing, and the accountability for law enforcement. ⁷

Fiscal Sponsorship

The Foundation for Louisiana acts as a fiscal sponsor for more than a dozen organizations working across a broad spectrum of issues. These include the abortion and transgender advocacy group Louisiana Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, Voces Unidas: Louisiana Immigrant’s Rights Coalition, and the New Orleans Mayor’s Office of Human Rights and Equity. The FFL also fiscally sponsors and is a member of the environmentalist group Louisiana Against False Solutions (LAFS), which opposes conventional energy production and carbon-capture-and-storage technology. ³

Programs

Louisiana Against False Solutions

The Foundation for Louisiana is a member and fiscal sponsor of Louisiana Against False Solutions, which aims to support a “just transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.” ⁴

The Pelican Institute for Public Policy is a right-of-center public policy think tank that promotes free enterprise, limited government, and individual liberty at the state level in Louisiana. ⁸ According to the institute, out-of-state donors “directed at least $115.5 million” to the 12 Louisiana-based members of Louisiana Against False Solutions. The institute notes that the amount of money from out-of-state donors received by these member organizations equates to 98.4 percent of the total funding these member organizations received between 2020 and 2025. ^{4 5}

According to the Pelican Institute, donors to those members of LAFS include the Bloomberg Family Foundation, the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, the Tides Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the United States Energy Foundation. ⁵

The Pelican Institute identified 29,336,117 in out-of-state donations to the Foundation for Louisiana since 2020, equating to 97.2 percent of its total donations. ⁵

According to the Pelican Institute, the 12 LAFS members received $6.4 million in donations from the Energy Foundation and Energy Foundation China, with the FFL receiving a total of $250,000 from the Energy Foundation alone. ⁵

Black Philanthropy Awards/Armature Scholarships

The Fund for Louisiana supports two award programs related to philanthropists who give to African-American related causes. The “Love in Action” award gives $500 mini-grants to individuals, and the Excellence in Black Philanthropy award provides $500 for individual winners, and $2,500 for organizations. Both awards are meant to bring awareness to August’s status as Black Philanthropy Month. ^{9 10}

The FFL also provides a series of $42,000 Armature Award scholarships for racial minority and LGBT students. In September 2023, it announced that five scholarships would be awarded to students who fell into these categories, citing a need for such awards in the wake of the United States Supreme Court’s decision that strictly restricted consideration of race in college admissions in the cases Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (SFFA) v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and SFFA v. University of North Carolina. Scholarship winners were post-secondary students majoring in the arts, including culinary arts and theater design. ²

Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation Initiative

The FFL works in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (known simply as the Kellogg Foundation) on its Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) initiative. ⁶

The TRHT initiative was launched in 2016 by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation as “an approach to racial equity.” The FFL partnered with, and is supported by, the foundation to run the TRHT initiative in the cities of Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana. ¹¹

As part of the TRHT initiative, the FFL will focus on the issues of housing and police accountability and will launch the TOGETHER Initiative: Leadership, Education, Advocacy, and Development (LEAD), which, according to the Kellogg Foundation, focuses on “racial healing and healing justice.” ¹¹

Climate Justice Portfolio/Lead the Coast Fellowships

The FFL spearheaded its Coastal Resilience Leverage Fund (later Climate Justice Portfolio) with an aim to address the “disproportionate impacts that climate change has on Black, Indigenous, communities of color, and low-income communities.” Initiatives included a series of flood risk mitigation strategies formed in conjunction with former Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D), and a 2016 “equitable planning process” for disaster relief, funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. ^{12 13}

The Climate Justice Portfolio project also includes a series of in-person training conferences under the title “LEAD the Coast” for activists seeking to network and strategize in left-progressive issue areas. Topics include “Race, Power, and Privilege,” “Climate Impact 101,” and “Community Organizing.” ¹⁴

LEAD the Coast also offers a series of fellowships for select graduates of the LEAD the Coast program, which includes a six-month training and mentorship program, $5,000 towards funding of a group or individual project, and a $4,000 stipend. ¹⁵

Gender

The FFL’s gender justice program was in its development and funding stage as of 2023 but was begun in 2015 with a grant from Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ Out in the South Fund. The FFL’s website states that the program will also support “reproductive justice.” ¹⁶

Grantees

In 2022, the research and arts organization Assisi House received $35,000 under the title of racial healing justice. This organization was founded by Leslie Grover, who is “certified in Community Storytelling, Story Exchange Facilitation, and Narrative Medicine.” ^{17 18}

Another recipient under the category of racial healing justice included $22,500 for Women with a Vision. The organization also provided a $10,000 grant to the left-wing organizing group Alliance for Global Justice. ¹⁷

The racial and economic justice grantmaking group Asset Funders Network was the recipient of a $10,000 grant, as was the Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition. Builders of the Highway Foundation, a social justice reform group, received $20,000; grantees in the area of “climate justice” included Sankofa Community Development Corporation, the faith-based coalition Together Baton Rouge, and environmental research group The Water Institute of the Gulf. ¹⁷

People

Charmel Gaulden is president and CEO of the Foundation for Louisiana and co-chair of the Greater New Orleans Funders Network. She is also the former vice president of the Baptist Community Ministries and executive director of the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center. Gaulden was also a co-host of WBOK’s “The Good Morning Show.” ¹⁹

Financials

The Foundation for Louisiana receives most of its revenue from contributions and grants. The organization reported total revenue of just over $6.68 million in 2024, around $5.68 million of which came from contributions and grants. The FFL’s total expenses amounted to just over $6.8 million that year, while it reported a net asset amount of $12.55 million. ²⁰