The James Irvine Foundation is a California non-profit donor organization with a history of donations to left-of-center labor union activist organizations such as the National Employment Law Project, left-of-center immigration advocates such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and anti-energy organizations such as the Liberty Hill Foundation. 1 4
Background
The James Irvine Foundation was created by James Irvine, an agricultural landholder in Orange County, California, in 1937. Irvine’s company, the Irvine Company, saw its landholdings grow in value as southern California experienced suburban growth in the 1940s and 1950s; when James Irvine died in 1947, the Foundation began receiving the full proceeds from his holdings. 6
Grantmaking
In January 2016, the James Irvine Foundation leadership announced the organization would focus its giving on poverty alleviation and increasing the political influence of low-income Americans. 1 and the Center on Race, Poverty, and Environment. 1 9
According to a July 2025 article by the Washington Free Beacon, the state of California’s “behested payments” database reportedly shows that in July 2023 California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) had requested the James Irvine Foundation to donate roughly $500,000 to the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. 10
Left-of-Center Recipients
At least 20 left-of-center advocacy organizations have received total grants in excess of $1 million from the Irvine Foundation since 1998.
- PICO National Network – $8.3 million since 2005. 1
- Partnership for Working Families – $5.8 million since 2007. 1
- Common Cause and Common Cause Education Fund – combined $5.8 million since 2005. 1 (This is an anti-energy organization that seeks to end hydraulic fracturing 0){
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