We are excited to announce the launch of our new Foundation!
The JA Community Foundation is an independent private foundation. Our mission is to support the Japanese American community in California by funding projects and programs through nonprofit organizations serving this population.
The JA Community Foundation was born out of the Japanese American Citizen’s League (JACL) Health Insurance plan, which was founded in 1965 to help those who couldn’t buy insurance due to discrimination. Through the following decades, the plan was carefully managed as its own separate group, building an internal Premium Stabilization Reserve Fund to help mitigate the effects of large claims and increases in health insurance costs.
Due to the Affordable Care Act, the plan was reformed to comply with the rules of the new Healthcare system, and became the JACL Health Benefits Trust (dba JA Health Insurance Services). The JA Community Foundation was created in September 2015 by the Trust to use the remaining reserve funds to benefit the community that was served by the health plan, and who paid premiums into the plan for more than fifty years.
We’ve been proud to support the JA Community for over 50 years, and with the formation of the JA Community Foundation, we look forward to expanding our support in new ways.
We are now accepting applications through midnight on August 26, 2016. You can read the grant guidelines and apply on our website: https://jagives.org/apply/