The Lowell Milken Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits: Addressing a Booming Need

The Lowell Milken Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits - event featuring Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Ret. State Sen. Kevin Murray, Executive Director Rose Chan Loui, Dean Michael Waterstone, Prof. Jill Horwitz, Mayor Karen Bass

new $8.05 million gift from Lowell Milken, J.D. ’73, has elevated UCLA Law’s Program on Philanthropy and Nonprofits – established in 2021 with a $3.7 million gift from Milken – to the status of research center. It recently launched as the Lowell Milken Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits.

The center will provide much-needed education for UCLA Law students as well as nonprofit professionals who would like to acquire better grounding in the legal aspects of running a nonprofit. The center also aims to provide thought leadership and scholarship for the sector.

Much of the motivation for Milken’s gifts comes from understanding a societal shift happening with aging boomers.

“We are at a unique moment in history, where members of the baby boomer generation have accumulated unprecedented wealth. That wealth is spurring revolutionary change in philanthropy and giving,” Milken said. “Ultimately, this generational wealth shift and the infusion of financial capital into the philanthropic community have the potential to create a profoundly positive impact on society.”

Rose Chan Loui, the center’s executive director, added, “In the United States, so many of the social services that we need are provided by nonprofits. The huge transfer of wealth that has started to happen amounts to trillions of dollars. Lowell wants this next generation of philanthropists to have experts working with them so that they can have the most positive social impact possible with their funds.”

Chan Loui is hoping that a large number of these experts will eventually come from the UCLA alumni community. She also invites UCLA alumni in the philanthropic and nonprofit space to reach out to the center. Whether it’s to mentor students, participate in panels, or engage with the center’s educational offerings, Chan Loui says they would like to hear from interested Bruins. “We encourage alumni to join our mailing list and talk to us about how they can be involved.”

In addition to courses for those in the J.D. and LL.M. programs, the center will provide executive education programming, as well as special events and talks.

Lowell wants this next generation of philanthropists to have experts working with them so that they can have the most positive social impact possible with their funds.

“We’ve had a very busy year,” Chan Loui said. “We’ve been focusing on different constituencies within the nonprofit and philanthropic world. For example, we had a large convening of arts nonprofits and funders, featuring the chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Maria Rosario Jackson, Ph.D. ’96. We held a big conference jointly with Loyola Law School that is targeted at practitioners – mostly lawyers, nonprofit accountants and in-house counsel at nonprofits. Due to the generosity of event sponsors, we were able to provide scholarships to 20 law students from UCLA and Loyola to attend the conference. At the law school, we have been conducting career panels to introduce students to what they can do in the philanthropy and nonprofit world. Finally, we just hosted at the law school a conversation with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on the challenging issue of homelessness. There are many UCLA alumni out there working in the nonprofit world; we would love to bring them together for an event.”

One possibility for such a gathering might be a discussion of the drama that occurred at OpenAI with the ouster and subsequent return of CEO Sam Altman. Chan Loui co-wrote an article with the center’s faculty director Jill Horwitz and senior scholar in residence Ellen Aprill on the intrigue at the ChatGPT company and how it’s nonprofit status played a large role in the drama. Chan Loui also appeared on CNBC’s “Squawkbox” discussing the situation.

“Open AI is actually a nonprofit with a nonprofit mission, something that a lot of people did not recognize; they were saying, ‘Who are these people and what do they know about artificial intelligence? They don’t even have a financial interest in AI’ – but that is exactly why they were placed there to guard the nonprofit mission.”

Many lawyers who have decided the corporate world is not as satisfying as they had hoped have turned to the nonprofit sector as a rewarding way of using their legal education and experience – despite it being potentially less lucrative.

“Students are often concerned that a career in nonprofit law is not financially viable – but that is not true,” Chan Loui said. “There is a world there that they might be able to fit into someday.

“There’s been some good interest at the law graduate studies level – people who are here getting LL.M.s – and I think it’s because they’re farther along in a career or they’re making pivots. What you hear the most is that they’re looking for careers that are fulfilling, and that’s what a nonprofit law career can give you. If you find a cause that you’re interested in, it’s a great space to be in. You’re not going to make the same money as being a partner in big law firm or by being a venture capitalist, but you can have a solid lifestyle and at the same time feel really good about your work.

“Nonprofits always need really good volunteers. So if you want to get your feet wet and have specific expertise to offer, e.g., legal or financial, joining the board of a nonprofit is a really good way to get involved in that nonprofit world, to give back. That’s how I started – it was when I started volunteering on boards that I realized how much I liked being in that sector. So I pivoted from doing corporate tax into nonprofit – and I feel that I’ve found my place.

“The tricky challenge with nonprofit law is there's not this defined path as there is for law firms or even for government work. Most nonprofit lawyers have worked at law firms first, or in government or as public interest lawyers, then gotten themselves trained and then moved into nonprofit law practice or nonprofit management. It's a more circuitous path and you can get there in all kinds of ways. But it helps to know that you can go in that direction. We really appreciate people who want to mentor others who are interested in practicing nonprofit law or being in the nonprofit world.”

Chan Loui says Lowell Milken’s inspiration for funding this center is the transfer of wealth from the baby boomer generation to their children. “We need the next generation of lawyers and experts to be advisers to all the philanthropists we are expecting. Many of us are getting to retirement age and there aren’t a lot of people to continue the work, because we haven’t been training them.”

With the advent of the Lowell Milken Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits, UCLA Law is taking a large step toward addressing that situation.

To join the center’s mailing list, please email nonprofits@law.ucla.edu.