Movement Innovation Collaborative

Movement Innovation Collaborative was founded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to enable California Endowment to fund advocacy initiatives it claims would address racial issues. The Movement Innovation Collaborative supports organizations that engage in voter mobilization efforts targeting younger voters and ethnic minority voters “with progressive issues.” It also supports organizations that advocate for left-of-center LGBT-interest, environmentalist, socio-economic, and health policies. ^{2 1}

Background

Movement Innovation Collaborative co-executive director Miya Yoshitani told left-of-center media outlet Inside Philanthropy that the collaborative was founded to fund left-of-center advocacy that address housing, health, food cost, wage, and environmental issues. Yoshitani argued that these issues were “exacerbated” by the COVID-19 pandemic and that the issues were interconnected. ¹

At its founding, Movement Innovation Collaborative sought to create an advocacy network that consists of its grantees and like-minded advocacy groups by creating “regional innovation centers.” Through the centers, it planned on hosting advocacy organizers to meet and collaborate on statewide advocacy campaigns in California. ^{1 2}

Funding

In May 2024, the California Endowment announced that it had made an $85 million grant to fund the creation of the Movement Innovation Collaborative. California Endowment CEO Robert K. Ross stated the grant would be distributed amongst the Movement Innovation Collaborative’s member organizations to fund left-of-center advocacy under the guise of promoting “racial equity,” “health equity,” and “racial justice.” The $85 million endowment was the largest in the California Endowment’s history and originated from its 2021 Social Bond program. ³

Proposed as a health initiative, the social bond was a $300 million grantmaking program funded through private loans. It used the guise of promoting racial equity, under the assumption that the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected ethnic minorities, to support left-of-center and environmental advocacy groups. ⁴

In September 2024, the James Irvine Foundation announced that it made a $12 million grant to the Movement Innovation Collaborative to support its members’ advocacy for low-income individuals. ⁵

In 2025, the Ford Foundation made a $250,000 grant to Movement Innovation Collaborative reported as “Core support for the Los Angeles Unity & Solidarity Fund.” ⁶ Movement Innovation Collaborative launched its “LA Unity & Solidarity Fund for Mutual Aid and Equitable Recovery” in response to the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles, California that it reported would “redistribute” donations to organizations in Los Angeles County. ⁷

Leadership

As of 2025, Miya Yoshitani was a co-executive director of Movement Innovation Collaborative. From 2023 to 2024, Yoshitani worked as a lead team member of the California i-Center. Prior to working for the California i-Center, she worked as executive director for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) and was a board member for Center for Story-Based Strategy. ⁸