Dear Supporters,
I hope this letter finds you well. On behalf of everyone at LACLJ, I want to express our deepest gratitude for your unwavering support. Your generosity has been instrumental in empowering survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking to reclaim their lives and find hope amidst adversity.
I am thrilled to share with you some exciting developments and, at the same time, also share some serious and devastating challenges we are facing today.
Firstly, I am absolutely overjoyed to announce that LACLJ has been awarded a $2 million gift from MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving Open Call! In March 2023, Yield Giving launched an Open Call for community-led, community-focused organizations empowering individuals and families to improve their well-being. The Open Call received 6,353 applications and initially planned for 250 awards of $1 million each, but the donor team decided to expand the awardee pool and amounts.
I am so proud that our team’s exceptional work earned us a spot among the top organizations and a $2 million award! This is the largest one-time gift LACLJ has received in its 50-year history. We are grateful to be recognized for the valuable impact of our services and honored by this opportunity to secure justice for many more survivors in need of our help.
As we celebrate this milestone, we also face significant challenges. For the past seven years, LACLJ has relied on funding from the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) through federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds. Regrettably, we recently learned that this vital funding stream is no longer available to us. This is due to cuts in funding as decreased litigation at the federal level has resulted in fewer fines and penalties, which typically bolster this fund to support victims of crime. This loss represents a significant revenue deficit of approximately $400,000 per year and is impacting our ability to provide essential case management and immigration legal services to survivors.
Additionally, our Immigration Services Funding (ISF) program, a lifeline for immigrant survivors seeking legal services, faces uncertainty. 70% of the survivors we serve are immigrants and they rely on our team to navigate the arduous process of obtaining humanitarian-based immigration relief. Despite eight years of support from the California Department of Social Services (CDSS), we have learned that our organization will no longer receive grant funds due to state budget cuts. This loss amounts to approximately $200,000 per year and is critical to helping immigrant survivors of human trafficking and violence achieve stability and a path to citizenship.
Furthermore, the state deficit and subsequent budget cuts have impacted our homelessness prevention efforts. Domestic violence is one of the leading causes of homelessness among women, with survivors having to choose between living on the street or living with an abusive partner. Our funding for this crucial program is ending this year, resulting in an annual loss of about $300,000. Through this program, we’ve been able to help survivors negotiate with landlords, address wrongful evictions, reduce the amount of rent payback owed, and connect survivors with resources. This setback jeopardizes our ability to provide essential support to vulnerable survivors fleeing abuse.
On top of that, key pandemic-related relief is also ending under the American Rescue Plan Act, amounting to a loss of about $400,000 annually. This funding was vital to meeting the increased needs of our community over the past four years. Since 2020, we increased the number of survivors served by 18% – now serving over 1,000 low-income, immigrant survivors annually.
As someone who has been in the trenches of this work my entire career, it is soul-crushing to think that we would ever have to turn away a survivor who is seeking safety and justice from our team of experts. Experts who are equally committed to always being there for survivors. I worry about our team and the survivors who desperately need our support. These funding losses have been devastating. I am so deeply grateful to MacKenzie Scott and the breathing room her gift allows us.
We have a lot of work ahead and each one of us, from staff to board to volunteers, are up for the challenge. We recently completed our strategic planning process, charting a roadmap for the next five years. The biggest problem to solve is how do we ensure sustainability of our organization and meet the increasing needs of the community? As part of a nine-month process involving former clients, donors, community partners, our staff and board, we have identified the following five priorities: Staff Retention & Recruitment, Organizational Administration & Infrastructure, Growing Individual & Corporate Giving, Board Development & Engagement, and Branding & Messaging. These areas underscore our commitment to fostering long-term stability and growth.
These past few weeks have been a whirlwind as each funding loss threatens our impact in the community, while the progress our team continues to make to mitigate these losses gives me hope. I am so proud of the dedication of our team, and I feel confident in the plan we’ve set forth to strengthen our agency and continue the fight for survivors’ rights.
As we embark on this next chapter, I hope you will join us in celebrating LACLJ’s 50 years of service in the community at our upcoming Celebrating Survivors Gala on May 16th. It will be an evening to honor our past accomplishments and look forward to the future with hope and determination. Your support is a beacon of hope for survivors and a celebration of our collective impact wouldn’t be the same without your presence.
Thank you once again for your dedicated partnership, and for your continued support. Together, we are making life-changing and life-saving differences for survivors.
In solidarity,
Carmen McDonald, Esq.
Executive Director
