Welcome

Dear Grantees and Community Partners,

We are proud to share this year’s annual report, not as a traditional account of dollars and data, but as a marker of where we are in our ongoing journey toward health equity and justice in California.

This report lifts the voices and victories of our partners, people and organizations whose bold courage, community-driven creativity, and commitment are shifting the conditions that hold inequities in place – something that is more important today, than ever.

This moment marks an important evolution for our organization. We extend gratitude to our former President and CEO for his years of dedicated leadership, a legacy defined by bold vision, unwavering commitment, and trust in community. Much of what is reflected in these pages took place under his leadership. Now, in the midst of chaos and uncertainty, we find opportunity and an inflection point for change. The California Endowment has been under new leadership for almost a year. This leadership transition represents not an end or a beginning, but an evolution of purpose and approach in the face of today’s realities.

Across the state, our partners are navigating immense challenges and the threats to progress are intensifying. Communities are confronting deepening inequities in health, climate justice, housing, economic fairness, education, criminal justice, and immigrant inclusion while democracy itself faces grave threats.

Despite these headwinds, California remains a stronghold for defending hard-won gains and building toward a more just future. Our grantees and partners remind us that we must act on two fronts: confronting urgent, immediate threats while strengthening the infrastructure that enables long-term power building. We must be protective and visionary, and invest in what communities need now and what they will need to thrive for generations to come.

The stories in these pages reflect more than outcomes. They reflect people who are at the heart of our shared mission to close health equity gaps, build collective power, and invest in systems that are rooted in health justice. Whether it’s community-led climate resilience on the North Coast, coalitions fighting for transit justice and housing equity, or youth-led movements demanding accountability on the Central Coast; this is what change looks like. They are evidence of a collective power that continues to grow and shift the community conditions that drive health.

As we move forward, The Endowment remains all in. We know we can be more than just a grantmaking institution, that is why we are deepening our commitment by aligning every part of our institution, including our $350 million in mission- and program-related investments, with the values we share: rooted in community, shaped by lived experience, and designed for equity.

We are also entering a new phase of strategic planning, grounded in our unwavering belief in the power of everyday people to lead. This process will ensure that The Endowment optimizes all of its resources — financial, relational, and institutional — to meet the moment and move boldly toward a future where all Californians have the health and opportunity they deserve.

California’s future depends on what we do together now. Now more than ever, we choose to speak of hope. Of healing. Of the future Californians are building together. A California entrenched in continued courage, dignity, equity, and power shared by all.

In solidarity,