Donor Events

41st Annual Upton Sinclair Celebration

At this past year’s 41st Annual Upton Sinclair Celebration we honored the amazing frontline organizers, community leaders, and donor activists who play a vital role in the progressive change in LA.

The event featured immersive exhibits highlighting LA’s social justice movements, along with original artwork from our wonderful partners at Spirit Awakening Foundation, and a powerful performance by the Los Angeles Community Action Network’s The Freedom Singers.

Our honorees were an exceptional group, including donor activist and community leader Celia Bernstein, who received our Founders Award; Derek Steele, the executive director of Social Justice Learning Institute, who received our Wally Marks Changemaker Award; the talented Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and social justice activist Aloe Blacc, who received our Creative Vision Award; and dedicated community activist and Los Angeles City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, this year’s Upton Sinclair Award Honoree and keynote speaker.

Luskin Fellows Program Celebrates 10th Anniversary

This past year marks the 10-year anniversary of the Luskin Fellowship Summer Program at Liberty Hill—an innovative partnership between the foundation and UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs aimed at supporting social justice leaders of tomorrow.

The long-running program gives UCLA graduate students the opportunity to work with the foundation on research and policy initiatives designed to drive systemic change across Los Angeles. Since 2014, Liberty Hill has welcomed public policy, social welfare, and urban planning graduate students to its community of frontline organizations, community partners, and donor activists, introducing future planners and policymakers to core power building concepts.

Thanks to the generous support from Liberty Hill donor activists and UCLA alumni Stephanie Bronson ’81 and Harold Bronson ’72, this long-standing program for future leaders continues to thrive.

Inland Empire Bus Tour

The Liberty Hill Environment + Justice Donor Circle and Next-Gen Giving Circle came together for a bus tour to explore the effects of warehouse expansion and diesel trucking on communities in the Inland Empire. Participants had the opportunity to hear from activists and organizers from the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, People’s Collective for Environmental Justice, and the Warehouse Workers Resource Center, who are leading the fight for clean air in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The group also learned about the extensive networks of rail lines, highways, and warehouses that make the Inland Empire the country’s largest logistics hub and home to the worst air pollution in the United States.