Mayoral Agenda for Strengthening LA’s Nonprofits
Mayor’s Fund for the City of Los Angeles
HR&A delivered a transition playbook to incoming Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass through the Committee for Greater LA, providing eight actionable strategies to strengthen the City’s relationship with nonprofit partners critical to addressing the homelessness crisis. Our stakeholder engagement and economic impact analysis demonstrated how delayed payments and bureaucratic barriers harm organizations serving LA’s most vulnerable populations, leading to likely inclusion in the administration’s policy agenda.
Mayor Bass was elected with a clear mandate to address the City’s worsening homelessness crisis, declaring a state of emergency upon taking office to marshal resources and cut red tape. Much of the Mayor’s agenda relies on nonprofit organizations who deliver essential services at the neighborhood level, many of which lamented payment delays and perceived lack of goodwill. Through extensive interviews with stakeholders who had first-hand experience within City government or previous mayoral administrations and nonprofit leaders, HR&A identified eight actions fully within the Mayor’s control that could be enacted immediately without council approval, presenting opportunities for quick wins and longer policy successes.
The playbook was strengthened by economic impact analysis demonstrating how bureaucracy and payment delays affect the financial wellbeing of individuals and organizations serving LA’s most vulnerable populations—to the detriment of the wider regional economy. The Committee for Greater LA’s presentation of the transition playbook and a draft Executive Directive are likely to be included in the administration’s policy agenda, positioning Mayor Bass to strengthen critical partnerships while demonstrating the economic imperative of supporting nonprofit organizations that serve as vital infrastructure for addressing urban challenges.
