Can Philanthropy Help Create a Golden State for the Golden Years?

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California has long been synonymous with youth culture. Back in the 1960s, the TV show “Gidget” broadcast the sunny exuberance of the 15-year-old surfer from Santa Monica into homes across the nation. A few decades later, Baywatch brought bodacious babes — I mean hardworking, very young, lifeguards — into living rooms around the world. Today in Santa Monica, med-spas, juice bars and at least one IV drip station line the prime shopping street of Montana Avenue, all dedicated to helping residents maintain their youthful vigor.

Meanwhile, California philanthropies are also working to make the nation’s most populous state one of the best places to grow old.

This might sound like a Sisyphean task right now; due to the high cost of living and spiraling homelessness, San Francisco and Los Angeles hold the dubious distinctions of ranking No. 1 and No. 2 for outbound moves, respectively. But California is designing the future of aging, according to funders and field leaders I spoke to, for five specific reasons. These include a spirit of innovation, inclusiveness, good public policy, strong executive leadership and climate writ large. 

Philanthropy plays a hand in much of this movement, with the state’s foundations boosting new ideas, nudging along state officials, contributing to good policy, and more. As with other forms of place-based funding, the local emphasis of these aging-focused funders has generated a sustained group of stakeholders involved for the long term. Here are some moves the state’s philanthropies are making to create a golden state of growing old.

Philanthropy funds California’s innovative master plan

California is a state of many firsts: the first motion picture theater, the first no-fault divorce law (signed into effect by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1969), and the first state to release a comprehensive, statewide master plan for aging of its size and scale. As we’ve written before, philanthropy collaborated on and funded the state’s master plan for aging, an approach that is inspiring other states to follow suit.

Action around California’s master plan for aging started in 2018, when West Health partnered with the Scan Foundation and advocacy groups to elevate the issue of aging and encourage gubernatorial candidates to make a commitment to a master plan. In 2019, then-Governor-elect Gavin Newsom announced his intention to do just that, motivated at least in part by the efforts of these funders. Eight funders then gave a combined $200,000 to kickstart the planning process. These funders included West Health, the SCAN Foundation, Metta Fund, Archstone Foundation, the May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, San Diego Foundation, and the now-sunsetted Irvine Health Foundation.

“Initially, there was no money to do this work,” said Susan DeMarois, director of the California Department of Aging, crediting the state’s leadership in this area largely to the dollars and good sense of local philanthropies. As she told me before, state funders generously shared not only money but also contacts, networks and ideas drawn from their varying interests and expertise, all of which were instrumental in developing the plan.

California announced its master plan in 2021, with five goals and 23 strategies to build a “California for All Ages” by 2030. The state began awarding $55 million in grant money for “innovation funding” around aging issues this fall. Another $100 million will be up for grabs starting January 2023. As DeMarois told me, none of this money would exist if philanthropy had not put in “seed money” to get it going. She also sees philanthropy’s involvement as key to generating momentum for the movement outside of government. “We want engagement with the business community and the private sector. Funders are a wonderful bridge,” she said.

Shelley Lyford, CEO and chair of San Diego-based funder and research and advocacy organization West Health, and a commissioner on the California Commission on Aging, views the master plan as a fundamental shift in the state’s ability to address aging. As she said in an email to Inside Philanthropy, “When we talk about why the Golden State is a great place to grow old, we have so much going for us, but the Master Plan for Aging really ties it all together.”

DeMarois and Lyford both cite strong executive leadership as another factor in California’s master plan leadership. “I give a lot of credit to our governor, Gavin Newsom, for making the bold investment in our future by laying the groundwork for the Master Plan and setting an example for the nation,” Lyford said. 

Philanthropy fights generational silos

California has also often been a bellwether state — a place where ideas spring to life before taking hold in the rest of the nation. This is true right now with the intergenerational movement, the effort to find creative ways to bring older and younger people together for the benefit of both, and of society as a whole.  

One of the big problems facing older adults, and frankly, the rest of us, is the lack of connection between generations. This feature of contemporary American society contributes to the isolation and loneliness faced by many older adults. It also curtails wisdom-sharing and elder support that many young families desperately need. The L.A.-based Eisner Foundation, started by entertainment mogul Michael Eisner and his wife, Jane, has been investing in intergenerational funding for more than a decade, as we’ve written. In 2015, the Eisner Foundation became the first funder in the U.S. to invest exclusively in intergenerational solutions.

The Eisner Foundation, with more than $170 million in assets, primarily funds in L.A. County, and as of 2021, in New York City. Recipients include CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org), Generations United, the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Bet Tzedek, L.A. Works, and one of the most inspiring intergenerational programs I’ve seen — and heard — the Heart of L.A. Intergenerational Orchestra.   

New funding for an old program to help people age in place

Another example of philanthropy-backed, aging-related innovation in California is the effort to expand a program that already works: the Medicare-covered Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). PACE provides wraparound services to help older people who need nursing-level care stay in their homes. The first PACE center started in San Francisco in 1971 and is still going strong. PACE employs a still-somewhat-novel “whole person” approach to care, considering an individual’s psychological, social and economic wellbeing as intertwined, rather than seeing a person as a collection of unrelated ailments to be clobbered individually. PACE is a great program with a proven track record, but one that has remained seriously under-used and under-developed.

In California, funders are working to change that.

As we’ve written, West Health was one of three funders that gave a combined $3.5 million over the past handful of years to build more PACE centers and enroll more people. This money is in addition to individual gifts. The joint funding includes $1.5 million this year for PACE 200K, a plan to enroll 200,000 more people by 2028. While this is not a California-only initiative — the Maryland-based Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and the New York City-based John A. Hartford Foundation were the other two funders — West Health’s contribution included building a new PACE center in San Diego to see the process first hand.

The funding for PACE points to the value that state philanthropies such as West Health place on supporting diversity and inclusion. About 90% of PACE enrollees are low-income, eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. Aging compounds other disadvantages — not only financial, but also social. Experiencing racism, homophobia, sexism and/or other prejudice can compromise health, meaning that for some people, the vulnerability of old age is one more stressor in a long string. 

“One of our biggest strengths and challenges as a state is that we are home to such great diversity,” said Sarah Steenhausen, deputy director for policy, research, and equity in the California Department of Aging and lead on the master plan. “No matter who you are, where you’re from, or what your background is, we want to embrace that. People who may feel afraid to grow old in other states will find a welcoming state here.”

OK, but can philanthropy really take credit for the climate?

Maybe not when it comes to the weather (though if climate-focused funders can help curb global warming, maybe that, too). But California-based, aging-focused funders — which also include The California Endowment, the California Health Care Foundation and Blue Shield of California Foundation — have long helped create a good “climate for aging,” as in, a general atmosphere that supports good health at all ages.  

Philanthropy supports policies and programs that promote healthy living and healthy aging — everything from farmers markets and public parks to anti-smoking laws, helmet laws, COVID vaccination and masking rules, and CalFresh, the state version of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which can be used at farmers’ markets around the state. Good policies plus good weather mean residents accrue benefits as we age, said DeMarois.

California’s innovation around aging is inspiring other states, too, said Lindsay Goldman, CEO of Grantmakers in Aging. One state following our lead? New York. “California has a particularly robust network of funders investing in aging, as does New York,” said Goldman. “California was the first state to have a Health in All Policies mandate, which inspired New York’s Health Across All Policies Executive Order 190, which set the stage for a New York State Master Plan.”

The work of these funders in California should help older adults stay put, rather than decamping for some less-pricey locale that has them shoveling snow instead of strolling along the beach. But the work they’re funding also has the potential to spread California’s dream of a better old age from coast to coast.