Area foundations give large donations to local colleges.

BEST CHARITABLE GIVING PROGRAMS TO PROMOTE EDUCATION

Ralph M. Parsons Foundation

The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation is one of a handful of mega philanthropic organizations in the United States.

Lucky for Valley groups, many of its donations go to Southern California organizations, contributing millions of dollars every year.

Pierce College, one of the nine Los Angeles community colleges, has received most of the local donations over the past few years. Since 1999, Parsons has donated $250,000 directly to the school and $200,000 for the Los Angeles Pierce Symphonic Winds. That was followed up last year with a $250,000 donation to build two agriculture-based learning centers in a future farm market--the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Teaching Kitchen and Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Theater. Groundbreaking is scheduled for early 2008.

Elsewhere in the region, Parsons in 2004 gave $250,000 to the College of the Canyons for its University Center capital campaign to bring comprehensive higher education programs to the Santa Clarita Valley. It has also donated to the California Community Colleges Foundation of Sherman Oaks, California State University Northridge Foundation and more than $100,000 to California Lutheran University.

The foundation was created in 1961 as the charitable arm of the Ralph M. Parsons Co., a Pasadena engineering firm.

Ahmanson Foundation

Spend a few hours in Los Angeles and it's likely you'll stumble on the name Ahmanson pretty quickly. The name apPears on a downtown theater, a ranch in the western Valley and countless plaques on countless buildings.

It's for good reasons; over the years, the L.A.-based Ahmanson Foundation has donated tens of millions of dollars to museums, cultural institutes, schools and nonprofits.

Launched in 1952 by the financier and founder of Home Savings of America Howard F. Ahmanson and wife Dorothy, the foundation over the years has become one of the powerhouse philanthropic entities in Southern California, contributing funds to the Music Center and USC.

In the Valley, the Foundation has also been selective but nonetheless generous.

Last year, Ahmanson gave $800,000 to the California institute of Arts in Valencia for student scholarships. It also provided scholarship funds to California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks and more than $100,000 for a new elevator installed last month at Cabrini Hall at Woodbury University's 22-acre campus in Burbank.

The nonprofit is also an extensive contributor to private parochial Valley schools.

Verizon

The Thousand Oaks-based charitable arm of the telecommunications giant Verizon Communications Inc. has been an active philanthropist in the Valley, mostly to Los Angeles Valley College.

Since 2001, the group has given the community college $80,000 and has worked with actor Sean Astin and his wife, Christine, to create the Sean & Christine Astin Family Literacy Scholarship at Valley College in 2003.

The scholarship has helped 30 Valley College students with a total of $60,000 in tuition.

It also donated $40,000 to Antelope Valley College in 2004 and $25,000 in 2003 to the Los Angeles Educational Partnership to purchase computers for the parent center at Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima.

The Foundation has also been a major financial contributor to the Valley Economic Development Center Pacoima workforce development initiative; Conejo Valley Adult School and Lancaster-based Grace Resources Inc. to develop a computer literacy and job development program.

The Foundation also supports online resource centers for nonprofit managers to access national training and business partners and educational resources to help K-12 teachers.