$21,000. $0 to go. Every gift doubled.
THE YEAR 21 MATCH
$21k. Year 21. 21 days.
$20,143 of $21,000 · It's started · 1 day left
$21,000 reveals all of it
21 days ago, this started. It ends the way it started–with someone deciding to give.
Something from our twenty years is under here. It shows a little more with every gift.
A group of anonymous donors has challenged Public Matters to launch our twenty-first year with $21,000 in matching funds–unrestricted. No deliverable to pre-approve. No report to file. Just people who’ve watched us work for two decades and decided our judgment is the thing worth funding. Unrestricted support is what buys the freedom to invent: the room to develop an approach before anyone knows to ask for it.
Every dollar you give is matched, dollar for dollar—until the goal is met. $21,000. Year 21. 21 days. We couldn't have planned it better—and planning is what we do.
"Support the work eventually" just became “support the work now.”
Match closes day 21—or when the $21,000 is achieved, whichever comes first. The 21st year runs through August 2027. This is how it starts.
Why this matters more than the number:
Most funds come with strings attached. A long list of deliverables, a pre-determined methodology, definitions of success that might not match community values or needs. It stifles creativity and the ability to have lasting relationships and lasting impact.
We were built to avoid that. Public Matters is a social enterprise—a studio, not an institution—and charitable gifts reach us through our fiscal sponsor, Fulcrum Arts. The structure is deliberate: it keeps us small enough to decide quickly and independent enough to decide for ourselves.
$20,143 of $21,000 unlocked
$21,000 unrestricted funds on the table *1 day left to claim it.
Your gift doesn’t fund a line item. It funds a decision–which idea, which neighborhood, which young person to hand the keys to. Every dollar is matched until the goal is met. Early gifts claim it first.
The best way to support us: write a check. Card fees take a real cut; a check puts every dollar to work—and checks count toward the match. Payable to Fulcrum Arts, "For Public Matters" in the memo line. Mail to 145 N Raymond Ave, Pasadena, CA 91103.
Twenty Years of Public Matters
Not a finish line—a milestone.
For twenty years, Public Matters has filled Los Angeles with good mischief, civic imagination, and art that moves both people and policy. Neighborhoods have been mapped, reclaimed, and celebrated. Young people have become civic leaders. Intersections, sidewalks, and storefronts look different than they otherwise would.
Twenty years ago, we set out to prove that art isn't just "something created with imagination and skill that is beautiful or expresses important ideas or feelings."*
It's a lever. A lever for civic engagement. For community power. For social change. Two decades later, we're a leader in creative civic engagement—and leading means going first.
The approach behind every project below was developed here. Here's what we've moved:
Giant bandages on unsafe streets—until the city paid attention.
The Boo-Boo Bandage Brigade
The next generation of community-rooted leaders, grown from the ground up.
Urban Futures Lab
The first of its kind. Democracy has never been furrier.
The Pet Parade for PAW-liticians
Speed reduction you could actually groove to.
Slow Jams
HiFi's stories, flavors, and streets—celebrated and defended.
The Jeepney in Historic Filipinotown
South and East LA corner stores turned fresh food destinations, powered by youth.
Market Makeovers
Several became models others now work from. Some have been studied, borrowed, and adapted by others—which is exactly what a field needs, and exactly what a leader is for. Every one of these still lives somewhere: in a street that's safer, a young leader who's now running things, a neighborhood that knows how to tell its story—and to defend it.
That's the thing about a lever. What it lifts, stays lifted. The work keeps going, because it was never a project with an end date. It's a practice. That's not a burden. That's the point. So we're not just throwing a party. We're investing in what endures—and in what hasn't been invented yet.
This year we're marking two decades of creative civic action—and starting the next chapter. A new cohort to train. Neighborhoods waiting. Methods the field doesn't have language for yet. Over the coming months, expect stories, surprises, and plenty of ways to get in on the good mischief.
Here's what you can do right now:
>< Double My Gift For 21 days, every dollar is worth two—up to $21,000. Unrestricted, which is the whole point.
Writing a check instead? Payable to Fulcrum Arts, "For Public Matters" in the memo line, mailed to 145 N Raymond Ave, Pasadena, CA 91103.
>< Explore twenty years of projects and press—see what a lever looks like in action. And how often we got there first.
>< Follow along on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook for announcements as they drop.
>< Share this page with someone who'd want a Los Angeles with more good mischief in it or with someone who funds this field and should know where the ideas come from.
Somewhere out there is a Los Angeles that never met Public Matters. Let's keep that one hypothetical. You stayed tuned. Now double it. Twenty years of figuring out the how. Help us keep the freedom that made it possible. The best mischief is yet to come—and this part has a deadline.
—The Public Matters Team
*Merriam-Webster's definition, not ours. We've always had bigger plans for art.