How Nonprofit Collaborations Strengthen Los Angeles Unified
Bridging the Gap examines how nonprofit partnerships strengthen LAUSD. Nonprofit service providers — organizations with formal agreements to serve students and families, offering everything from academic enrichment to health and wellness — have proven critical partners. Over 260 nonprofit providers serve LAUSD's ~400,000 students, and approximately 40 cents of every dollar a provider spends comes from philanthropy, highlighting both reliance on charitable giving and the ability to leverage district investments.
Based on a review of academic research, a survey of Los Angeles-based nonprofit service providers, and interviews with providers, students, families, and philanthropic leaders. Sixty-eight LA-based providers completed surveys in late August 2024, with varying sample sizes across items.
The sections below pull out the major points from the full report — the data, the examples, and the context behind the findings.
Nonprofit service providers — organizations that have formal agreements with a school district to serve students and families and offer a wide range of services, from academic enrichment to health and wellness — have proven to be critical partners to Los Angeles Unified. Spanning enrichment, academic and college readiness, dropout prevention and reengagement, health and wellness, social services, gang prevention, and family support, they extend the district’s capacity to meet student needs and help bridge opportunity gaps, particularly for underserved communities.
Los Angeles Unified serves more than 400,000 students who collectively speak over 150 languages across 710 square miles and parts of 25 cities. More than 75% live at or below the poverty level, and roughly 80% of students are Black or Latino. Even amid above-average pandemic recovery, the district remains a year behind the national average in reading and more than a year behind in math, with Black and Latino students, English learners, and the youngest learners struggling most to catch up.
Those needs collide with a tightening budget. Federal ESSER relief ends during the 2024–25 school year, and because California funds districts by average daily attendance, declining enrollment means fewer dollars to do more work. The approved 2024–25 budget is $600 million smaller than the year before, though it avoids layoffs. In a system this large and complex, no single actor can close these gaps alone — and nonprofit partners can add the capacity the district needs.
Nearly 90% of the providers surveyed want to expand their partnership with Los Angeles Unified, but the path is not easy. As the district has centralized contract approval, nearly 40% of surveyed providers reported challenges navigating that process, and a quarter said they lacked information about how contracting works — some even hired grant writers to complete the paperwork. More than 30% named simply accessing students and families as a barrier, with approved providers often left waiting on a “bench” for a school-site green light.
Money is the other pressure point. A quarter of providers said the district’s reimbursement rate does not cover their costs, and 27% pointed to the speed of reimbursements, which can take several months and squeeze smaller nonprofits. Some providers describe their relationship with the district as transactional rather than collaborative — and in the most extreme cases, a few are choosing to take their services elsewhere.
Education is truly justice work, ensuring that every human being has the chance to advance and do whatever they want to do in life… If provided with access to information and opportunity, we can break the cycle of poverty, as well as other systemic inequities. Education positions people to be able to make their own choices; without it, choices are limited.
Nonprofit leader with 35 years of service