Here are the Winners of the Million Dollar My LA2050 Grants Challenge
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.
The big winners of the My LA2050 Grants Challenge include organizations that provide therapies to children with special needs, connect foster youth with career access and elevate the voices of teenage girls from communities of color through photography and mentoring.
LA2050 was launched in 2011 with funding from the Goldhirsh Foundation to improve the Los Angeles community.
This year's winners were selected from more than 105,000 votes and collectively will receive a million dollars in grants. Here is the complete list:
The winners in the LEARN category are:
- 1st place / $100,000: Pediatric Therapy Network
- 2nd place / $50,000: SoCal College Access Network
- 3rd place / $25,000: Reading Partners
- 4th place / $15,000: Los Angeles Audubon
- 5th place / $10,000: CARECEN-LA
The winners in the CONNECT category are:
- 1st place / $100,000: Ready to Succeed
- 2nd place / $50,000: Union Station Homeless Services
- 3rd place / $25,000: LA Forward
- 4th place / $15,000: Boyle Heights Beat
- 5th place / $10,000: Creative Acts
The winners in the PLAY category are:
- 1st place / $100,000: City of LA Dept. of Recreation and Parks
- 2nd place / $50,000: Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation
- 3rd place / $25,000: Los Angeles Maritime Institute
- 4th place / $15,000: Public Matters
- 5th place / $10,000: Urban Warehouse
The winners in the LIVE category are:
- 1st place / $100,000: Clínica Msr. Oscar A. Romero
- 2nd place / $50,000: Crop Swap LA
- 3rd place / $25,000: Jenesse Center, Inc.
- 4th place / $15,000: Strategic Actions for a Just Economy
- 5th place / $10,000: Safe Parking LA
The winners in the CREATE category are:
- 1st place / $100,000: Las Fotos Project
- 2nd place / $50,000: Lost Angels Children's Project
- 3rd place / $25,000: LA Sanitation and Environment
- 4th place / $15,000: Grid110
- 5th place / $10,000: Flintridge Center
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.
