In what is believed to be among the first of this scale by any Jewish community foundation in the United States, Los Angeles’s Jewish Community Foundation (The Foundation) is launching a pilot program to provide high-potential nonprofits with “mezzanine-level” funding and supporting coaching services needed to scale and reach sustainability.

Under its new Next Stage Grants, The Foundation has awarded inaugural monies totaling more than $1 million to four initiatives with outstanding track records and growth promise.

Recipients include Creative Community for Peace, ETTA, Friendship Circle of Los Angeles, and Silverlake Independent Jewish Community Center. The diverse range of organizations provide: arts and entertainment industry advocacy to counter a cultural boycott of Israel; support to Jewish children and adults with developmental disabilities and special needs; and a hub for creative Jewish life on the east side of Los Angeles.

The new pilot is an extension of The Foundation’s work funding local Jewish social innovation; over the past decade it has granted awards of more than $17 million that have seeded 90-plus nonprofit startups, reanimating and creating a more interconnected Jewish Los Angeles. The Next Stage Grants are viewed as a long-term investment in strengthening the recipient organizations.