Ahmanson Foundation

MISSION The Ahmanson Foundation, incorporated as a private foundation in the State of California in 1952, was established by financier Howard F. Ahmanson, and his wife Dorothy. Its corpus was augmented in later years by his two nephews Robert H. Ahmanson and William H. Ahmanson. The Foundation’s broad purpose, as stated in the articles of incorporation, is to administer funds for charitable, scientific, educational, literary, and religious purposes, all for the public welfare. Currently the Foundation concentrates its funding on cultural projects supporting the arts, education at the collegiate and pre-collegiate levels, medicine and delivery of health care services, specialized library collections, programs related to homelessness and low-income populations, preservation of the environment, and a wide range of human service projects. The vast majority of the Foundation’s philanthropy is directed toward organizations and institutions based in and serving the greater Los Angeles community. Simultaneously, the Foundation is particularly committed to the support of non-profit organizations and institutions which continually demonstrate sound fiscal management, responsibility to efficient operation, and program integrity. Through such focused interests and shared vision with the non-profit sector the Foundation endeavors to increase the quality of life in Southern California and to enhance its cultural legacy. HISTORY The Ahmanson Foundation was incorporated in 1952 as a private foundation with initial funding from financier Howard F. Ahmanson and his wife, Dorothy Grannis Ahmanson. For many years, administration of the Foundation was entrusted to other members of the family and close associates, while Mr. Ahmanson himself, still actively engaged in business, worked to increase the Foundation’s assets. While still in college, young Ahmanson founded H. F. Ahmanson & Co., an insurance company that soon became the foremost fire underwriter in California. With characteristic energy and skill, he expanded and built upon his initial financial success culminating in the creation of Home Savings of America – for many years the nation’s largest savings and loan association. In 1961, Howard Ahmanson was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Foundation, becoming more personally involved in the distribution of funding. He was passionately committed to community building – not just building facilities, but building the fiber of the community itself, its culture, its education, its social fabric. He believed that the business community had a responsibility to contribute to the community at large and that money he had earned in Southern California should be spent in Southern California. Ahmanson was an early major contributor to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Music Center; the Center for Biological Research at the University of Southern California and the California Museum of Science and Industry. In the years following Howard Ahmanson’s untimely death in 1968, the Foundation’s corpus was augmented by nephews Robert H. Ahmanson and William H. Ahmanson; by Dorothy Grannis Sullivan; and by the disposition of Howard Ahmanson’s estate. the family enlarged the Board of Trustees to include distinguished and visionary community members. In 1986, the Foundation settled into its present permanent headquarters. While the Foundation’s grantmaking has evolved to meet the challenges of a Los Angeles far more complex than it was in 1952, the simple principle of building community for the common good remains a constant anchor.