About the California Funders for Boys and Men of Color

California’s prosperity depends on our young men of color. Cultivating access to opportunity for our young people benefits all of us. Yet, our boys and men of color face barriers to opportunity at every point in their development, from childhood to adulthood. Every day, our boys and men are left behind by our school systems, held back from success by our criminal justice system, and shut out of employment opportunity.

Launched in 2014, the California Funders for Boys and Men of Color (CFBMoC) brings together CEOs from the state’s leading philanthropic institutions to shape a better future for boys and men of color—and for California. CFBMoC aligns the resources, networks and voices of California’s foundations—from family and private foundations to corporate and community funders—with the goal of improving opportunities for African American, Latino, Asian Pacific Islander and Native American boys and young men.

Since its inception, CFBMoC has engaged in collaborative efforts to remove systemic barriers and create pathways that enable our boys and men of color to achieve their greatest hopes and dreams — continuing a decades-long commitment by many of our member foundations. Learn more about our collective impact.

Life Course Framework & Approach

We are guided by the life course framework, which means we seek to improve the health, educational and economic opportunities for boys and men of color over the course of their lives.

We focus on impacting either the barriers or off-ramps that boys and men of color face, and improving the on-ramps.

Early Childhood (0-6)

  • Prepare children for school

Middle Childhood (7-11)

  • Provide resources to increase proficiency in math and reading by third grade
  • Develop socio-emotional skills and behavior in fifth grade

Adolescence (12-18)

  • Improve middle school grades to reduce course failures and ultimately increase high school graduation
  • Reduce juvenile arrests and convictions

Emerging Adulthood (19-25)

  • Increase college graduation
  • Reduce felony arrests, convictions, incarceration and recidivism
  • Stable, full-time employment greater than 300% FPL

Geography

CFBMoC has adopted a place-based strategy to catalyze deeper, collective investments in three regions across California–Los Angeles County, Oakland/San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento/ San Joaquin. Our focus in each region is guided by our three Regional Action Committees (RACs) and driven by community need and input:

  • Southern California’s RAC is reshaping Los Angeles County’s approach to youth development and ensuring that all young people have a fair chance to thrive.
  • The Northern California RAC has invested in making sure that boys and men of color are part of a thriving regional economy.
  • Sacramento/San Joaquin focuses on educational equity, specifically access to higher education and completion of college degree programs for boys and men of color.

Focus on Policy

CFBMoC is working as a thought partner with the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color, a committee of California assemblymembers, to facilitate shared learnings around what’s needed and what’s working, and champion policy and budget priorities and wins. Through this collaboration with the Committee and the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, we focus on systems and policy change, not just programs, in order to truly dismantle barriers and expand opportunity for boys and men of color.

OUR MEMBERS

We are driven by a vision that all boys and men of color should enjoy full inclusion in all of the opportunities this state has to offer, and that California’s prosperity will grow as they flourish.

CFBMoC offers a powerful network of foundation CEOs committed to radically transforming the lives of boys and men of color in California through focused investment and collective action. Our members lead private, regional and community foundations and are supported by the expertise of professional grant-making and communications staff, many of whom have direct experience in policy and systems change and movement building.

In partnership with the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color and the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color (ABMoC), we work to dismantle systemic barriers that impact boys and men of color in our state. And, through our communications efforts, we are working to create and advance an inclusive narrative that values boys and men of color as equal members of the human family, and recognize the link between their well-being and the health and economic success of California.

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