Foundation for Louisiana (FFL) is a left-of-center grantmaking and fiscal sponsorship organization that works in areas of “racial healing,” gender issues, environmentalism, and left-of-center economic policy in that state. Although its gender program was started in 2015, it is still in its formation and funding stage. ¹ In 2023, it announced a series of $42,000 scholarships for “students of color and LGBTQIA students pursuing post-secondary education in the arts.” ²

Fiscal Sponsorship

Foundation for Louisiana (FFL) 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, Louisiana Mayor’s Office of Human Rights and Equity. FFL also fiscally sponsors the environmentalist group Louisiana Against False Solutions, which opposes carbon capture and storage technology. ³

Programs

Black Philanthropy Awards/Armature Scholarships

Fund for Louisiana (FFL) 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. ^{4 5}

FFL also provides a series of $42,000 Armature Award scholarships for 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. Winners were post-secondary students majoring in the arts, including culinary arts and theater design. ⁶

Climate Justice Portfolio/Lead the Coast Fellowships

Fund for Louisiana 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 Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (D), and a 2016 “equitable planning process” for disaster relief, funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. ^{7 8}

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.” ⁹ 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. ¹⁰

Gender

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. FFL’s website states that the program will also support “reproductive justice.” ¹¹

2022 Grantees

In 2022, the research and arts organization Assisi House, which bills itself as a “sacred space for racial healing”  ¹² received $35,000 under the title of racial healing justice; its website states that racism is a “public health issue.” This organization was founded by Leslie Howard, who is “certified in Community Storytelling, Story Exchange Facilitation, and Narrative Medicine.” ^{13 14 15}

Other recipients under the category of racial healing justice included $22,500 for Women With a Vision, a New Orleans-based group that works toward “the bodily autonomy and ultimate liberation of Black women and birthing people, poor folks, and the LGBTQ+ community.” ¹⁶ FFL also awarded 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. ¹⁸

Leadership

Charmel Gaulden is president and CEO of Foundation for Louisiana, and co-chair of the Greater New Orleans Funders Network. She is also 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

1. “Gender Justice.” FFL. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/what-we-do/gender-justice/
2. “Armature Scholarship Program Awards $42,000 in Scholarships to LA Students.” FFL. September 26, 2023. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/armature-announcement/
3. “Fiscal Sponsorship Program.” FFL. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/what-we-do/fiscal-sponsorship/
4. “Excellence in Philanthropy Award 2023.” FFL. August 28, 2023. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/excellence-in-blackphilanthropy/
5. “Love in Action Black Philanthropy Month Mini-Grants.” FFL. June 29, 2023. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/ffl-love-in-action/
6. “Armature Scholarship Program Awards $42,000 in Scholarships to LA Students.” FFL. September 26, 2023. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/armature-announcement/
7. “Climate Justice.” FFL. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/what-we-do/climate-justice-program-page/
8. “Governor John Bel Edwards to Announce Safe Flood Resilience Projects.” FFL. April 20, 2018. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/gov-john-bel-edwards-to-announce-la-safe-flood-resilience-projects-%e2%80%8b/
9. “LEAD the Coast.” FFL. March 16, 2019. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/lead-the-coast/
10. “Announcing the LEAD the Coast Fellowships.” FFL. August 16, 2019. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/announcing-the-lead-the-coast-fellowships/
11.  “Gender Justice.” FFL. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.foundationforlouisiana.org/what-we-do/gender-justice/
12. “Sacred Space Racial Healing.” Assisi House. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.assisihouseinc.org/sacred-space-for-racial-healing
13. “Race and Public Health.” Assisi House. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.assisihouseinc.org/new-page-4
14. “About.” Assisi House. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.assisihouseinc.org/about
15. “Foundation for Louisiana.” Return of a 501(c)3 (Form 990). Accessed October 30, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203399944/202341359349317284/full
16. “Join Us in the Fight.” WWAV. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://wwav-no.org/
17. “Foundation for Louisiana.” Return of a 501(c)3 (Form 990). Accessed October 30, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203399944/202341359349317284/full
18. “Foundation for Louisiana.” Return of a 501(c)3 (Form 990). Accessed October 30, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/203399944/202341359349317284/full
19.  “Charmel Gaulden.” Linkedin. Accessed October 30, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/charmelgaulden/