AAAF awards $1M to organizations
Marking five years of impact, the African American Alliance Fund (AAAF) at Orange County Community Foundation (OCCF) is transforming generosity into action. In recognition of Juneteenth 2025, OCCF announced that the fund has awarded more than $1 million in grants to 81 organizations since its inception. This year, AAAF awarded $150,000 to 21 organizations exemplifying the fund’s mission.
Founded on June 19, 2020, by OCCF President Tammy Tumbling, the African American Alliance Fund raised awareness of systemic racism and supported programs that uplift Black communities across California, nationally, and internationally. The fund emerged during a period of high-profile incidents that led to a national reckoning on the issues of race, equity, and social justice. Tammy’s vision was to create a bridge to the community through philanthropy and engagement. The African American Alliance Fund is one of many tools to advance OCCF’s work for racial justice and equity. It reflects its commitment to investing in the promise and potential of diverse communities in Orange County and beyond.
“When we launched the African American Alliance Fund, we saw a clear gap in support for Black-led and Black-serving organizations,” said Tumbling. “We’re proud to help close that gap by uniting people from different backgrounds around a shared commitment to equity and opportunity.”
The fund has extended its philanthropic reach well beyond Orange County, supporting initiatives across neighboring counties, including Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernardino, as well as nationally in cities like New Orleans and Atlanta, and even internationally in Cape Town, South Africa. This broad impact has been made possible through the generosity of major funding partners, including The California Endowment, Southern California Edison, The Weingart Foundation, and the Samueli Foundation.
Grants have supported initiatives such as the New Hope Orange County Orchestra, National College Resources Foundation, Bridge Builders Foundation, 100 Black Men (Orange County, Los Angeles, and Long Beach), Institute for Black Intellectual Innovation Research Pathways Internship Program, Thurgood Marshall Bar Association Foundation, Xavier University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), Morehouse College (Atlanta, Georgia), and Lawhill Maritime School (South Africa).
“The grant we received has played a vital role in the success of the New Hope Orange County Orchestra, which is now thriving and reaching youth throughout Orange County—especially those who might otherwise go without access to quality music education,” said Rev. Chineta Goodjoin, pastor of New Hope Presbyterian Church. “It is making a difference in all of our lives to see talented Black youth aspire, dream, and achieve in spaces where they have been historically excluded.”
Each year, OCCF assembles a committee to review select proposals for funding based on AAAF’s priority areas of education, health, human services, economic opportunity, and civic engagement. 2025 grantees include:
A Most Beautiful Thing Inclusion Fund
Anointed Feet Mentorship Program
Black Girls Mental Health Foundation
Cal State Fullerton, Institute of Black
Intellectual Innovation
Cayenne Wellness Center and Children’s
Foundation
Center for Family Health Initiative
Circle of Change Foundation, Inc.
Compton Art & History Museum
Crop Swap LA
Dance Arts Academy
Dreams Training Facility
Forgotten Children, Inc.
Ladies of Virtue
Mervyn M. Dymally African American
Political and Economic Institute
NAACP Orange County (National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People)
National College Resources Foundation
(NCRF)
Nehemiah ProjectLA
New Hope Presbyterian Church
New Ways to Work, Inc. (Educate California)
The Enlightened Mentor Project
Thurgood Marshall Bar Association
Foundation
