Bruin-Led Businesses: Nonprofits

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s a spinoff from the Bruin-owned Business series, we’re highlighting organizations founded or led by UCLA alumni with a mission towards improving the quality of life in our communities. Whether it’s advancing medical science or promoting the arts, protecting the environment or fighting for justice, we owe a debt of gratitude for their work in making this world a better place. On Giving Tuesday (Dec. 2), please consider supporting a business that appeals to your interests.

Westside Music Foundation

Co-Founder and President: Deborah How, M.A. ’92
Westside Music Foundation
Address: 12424 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone: 424-581-6400
Email: info@westsidemusicfoundation.org
Website: westsidemusicfoundation.org
Social: @westsidemusicconservatory

About:
The mission of Westside Music Foundation is to provide high-quality, inclusive music education and performance opportunities to students of all ages and backgrounds. They aim to foster a lifelong love of music by offering instruction in theory, ear training and instrumental performance, while also promoting cultural understanding and artistic growth. Through community outreach, concerts, masterclasses and youth programs, the organization works to make music accessible, enriching and integral to the broader community.

With My Own Two Hands Foundation

Founder and CEO: Lindsey Pluimer ’08
With My Own Two Hands Foundation
Address: 1278 Glenneyre St., #433, Laguna Beach, CA 92651
Phone: 949-416-5005
Email: info@withmyown2hands.org
Website: withmyown2hands.org
Social: @withmyown2hands

About:
The founder, Lindsey Pluimer, was an All-American basketball player at UCLA. Inspired by a class discussion, Pluimer pledged to visit Africa and work to address inequality there. When she had the opportunity to travel to South Africa, she recognized the immense lack of basic human rights, but she also saw, first hand, the resilience and hope in the communities she visited.

Motivated to take action, she returned to the States, retired from professional basketball and founded With My Own Two Hands Foundation in 2011 with the commitment to provide children with the basic human rights of water, food and access to education.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice

Founder and Former President/Executive Director: Stewart Kwoh ʼ70, J.D. ʼ74
Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Address: 1620 L Street NW, Suite 1050, Washington, D.C. 20036
Phone: 202-296-2300
Email: comrequests@advancingjustice-aajc.org
Website: advancingjustice-aajc.org
Social: @avancingjusticeaajc

About:
Rooted in the dreams of immigrants and inspired by the promise of opportunity, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC advocates for an America in which all Americans can benefit equally from, and contribute to, the American dream. Our mission is to advance the civil and human rights of Asian Americans and to build and promote a fair and equitable society for all. We serve as a voice for the Asian American community – the fastest-growing population in the U.S. – fighting for our civil rights through education, litigation and public policy advocacy. We serve to empower our communities by bringing local and national constituencies together and ensuring Asian Americans are able to participate fully in our democracy.

Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital

CEO: Elaine Batchlor, M.P.H. ’90
Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital
Address: 1680 E 120th St., Los Angeles, CA 90059
Phone: 424-338-8000
Email: info@mlkch.org
Website: mlkch.org
Social: @yourmlkch

About:
When we opened in 2015, we recognized we had a unique opportunity: to reinvent the way care is delivered in safety-net communities. Our goal is to provide care equal to that found in more affluent areas and that commitment is reflected in everything we do. From our beautiful, state-of-the-art facilities to our best-in-class technology, systems and operations, to our mission-driven providers from the nation’s leading academic centers, we have established an intentional, quality-driven healthcare culture to address South L.A.’s most pressing health problems.

Alliance for a Better Community

CEO and President: Vanessa Aramayo ʼ01
Alliance for a Better Community
Address: 201 South Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: 213-267-2144
Email: info@afabc.org
Website: afabc.org
Social: @afabc_la

About:
In the mid-1990s, a group of Latina/o civic and business leaders came together regularly and informally to address the many challenges confronting Los Angeles’s Latina/o community.  For several years, the group, self-identified as the “Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club,” addressed a variety of regional matters through their personal and organizational networks and resources. While they were successful in redressing many of the various policy challenges they tackled, they ultimately decided that L.A.’s Latina/o policy and advocacy vacuum necessitated the formation of an organization to serve as a voice of Latina/o interests. They created ABC to promote a proactive Latina/o agenda within City Hall, the County, L.A. Unified, the media and other public or influential entities to respond to the needs of the region’s largest and fastest growing population.

SciArtsRUs

Founder and President: Ranjini Ramachander Kaushik, Ph.D. ’04
SciArtsRUs
Location: Los Angeles, California
Phone: 310-892-0794
Email: Info@sciartsrus.com
Website: sciartsrus.com
Social: @sciartsrus

About:
SciArtsRUs is a nonprofit aimed at promoting awareness and sustained interest for science, arts and music via educational opportunities, community outreach programs and events, including accessible and affordable learning modules for children by children.

Los Angeles Inception Orchestra

Founder, President and Artistic Director: Akira Nakano ’94
Los Angeles Inception Orchestra
Address: 2542 Panorama Terrace, Los Angeles, CA 90039
Phone: 213-359-1608
Email: akira@inceptionorchestra.org
Website: inceptionorchestra.org
Social: @inceptionorchestra

About:
TheLos Angeles Inception Orchestra's goal is to bring music composition, drama, dance and arts education to students of all abilities through guided collaboration and creativity. They also aim to shift perceptions of both creators and audiences in the process.

Trickle Up

CEO and President: Lauren Hendricks ’92
Trickle Up
Address: 31 W 34th Street, Suite 7001, New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-255 9980
Email: info@trickleup.org
Website: trickleup.org
Social: @trickleuporg

About:
Trickle Up is a nonprofit organization that focuses on helping women living in extreme poverty build a better future for themselves and their families. They work by providing seed capital, business training and ongoing coaching to help women start and grow small businesses. The organization partners with local groups and governments in places like Latin America, South Asia and Africa to reach people who are often left out of traditional aid, especially women, people with disabilities and Indigenous populations. Their goal is to help one million women lift themselves out of poverty by 2030, ultimately impacting the lives of about five million people.

Plastic Pollution Coalition

Co-Founder and CEO: Dianna Cohen ’89
Plastic Pollution Coalition
Address: 4401A Connecticut Avenue NW, #143, Washington, D.C. 20008
Phone: 323-936-3010
Email: info@plasticpollutioncoalition.org
Website: plasticpollutioncoalition.org
Social: @plasticpollutes

About:
Plastic Pollution Coalition is a nonprofit communications and advocacy organization that collaborates with an expansive global alliance of organizations, businesses and individuals to create a more just, equitable and regenerative world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impacts.

CureDuchenne

CEO and President: Debra Miller ’77
CureDuchenne
Address: 100 Bayview Circle, Suite 5600, Newport Beach, CA 92660
Phone: 949-872-2552
Email: info@cureduchenne.org
Website: cureduchenne.org
Social: @cureduchenne

About:
CureDuchenne breaks the traditional charitable mold and balances passion with business acumen. We will fulfill our mission to cure Duchenne muscular dystrophy with our innovative venture philanthropy model that funds groundbreaking research, early diagnosis and treatment access. With pioneering education and support programs, our organization drives real change for those living with the disease and their loved ones.

One Mind

Founder and Chairman: Garen Staglin ’66
One Mind
Location: Rutherford, California
Phone: 707-963-4038
Email: info@onemind.org
Website: onemind.org
Social: @onemindorg

About:
At One Mind, our mission is to advance mental health by harnessing the power of science and the wisdom of lived experience to drive bold research, accelerate innovation and transform societal attitudes and workplace practices.  

Hacker Fund

Founder and Executive Director: Justin Brezhnev ’14
Hacker Fund
Address: 3435 Ocean Park Blvd., #107 PMB 124, Santa Monica, CA 90405
Email: team@hacker.fund
Website: hacker.fund
Social: @hackerfund

About:
Hacker Fund empowers technologists to support disadvantaged communities, educate youth and protect the environment. It does this through fiscal sponsorship and by providing resources like event support, educational programming, donated hardware/software, makerspaces and corporate volunteers.

Burnham Center for Community Advancement

CEO and President: Tad Seth Parzen ’82
Burnham Center for Community Advancement
Address: 1100 Market St., Suite 424, San Diego, CA 92101
Phone: 619-329-8389
‍Email: together@burnhamcenter.org
Website: burnhamcenter.org
Social: @burnhamcentersd

About:
Established in 2020 by Malin Burnham and Tad Seth Parzen, the Burnham Center for Community Advancement (BCCA) is dedicated to moving our cross-border region forward, recognizing that meaningful impact requires more than just a good idea. We are steadfast in our commitment to taking decisive action to help make the San Diego region a better place to live, work and play for all. We do this by engaging and informing the public through quality civic dialogue and a dedicated Community Advisory function; identifying opportunities to solve challenges and creating a vibrant future; and collaborating, organizing and mobilizing to bring opportunities to life.

United Against Fentanyl

Founder and CEO: Paul Martin ’03
United Against Fentanyl
Location: Newport Beach, California
Website: unitedagainstfentanyl.org
Social: @unitedagainstfentanyl

About:
United Against Fentanyl is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that preserves and protects humanity with a focus on combating the fentanyl/synthetic drug crisis. We focus on three primary areas:

  1. Organizing survivors, organizations and elected officials to bring change
  2. Fighting for comprehensive solutions, from enforcement to education
  3. Creating awareness of common sense bi-partisan legislation

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