Livingston Memorial Foundation

Livingston Memorial Foundation is a small, legacy family foundation administered by the law firm Musick, Peeler & Garrett LLP out of a single office in Westlake Village, CA, with an all-volunteer board (officer compensation ranges from $0 to $2,250/year across the roster). Established in 1974 from Ruth Daily Livingston's estate to honor her late husband, Dr. William R. Livingston, it has distributed over $15 million in Ventura County since 1976. Its board leans heavily medical: three MDs (John Walters, Richard S. Loft, Benjamin Pecht) sit alongside attorney Laura K. McAvoy, Esq. as Chairman/President — a strong signal that warm introductions through Ventura County's hospital and clinic networks carry real weight.

The Foundation's giving pattern is relationship-first, not proposal-first. Of the 73 grants captured in its historical record, the top two recipients — Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association ($1,000,000 across 5 grants) and Westminster Free Clinic ($835,000 across 5 grants) — account for 79% of the $2,319,980 in tracked giving. Five organizations (Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse, Westminster Free Clinic, Free Clinic of Simi Valley, Health Care Foundation for Ventura, St. John's Healthcare Foundation) each received funding in 4-5 of the 5 tracked cycles, meaning this Foundation behaves like an annuity for its established partners rather than a rotating pool of one-off grants.

First-time applicants should expect a slow, letter-based cultivation process: an introductory inquiry letter, review by Foundation staff, and — only if the program is a clear fit for the Foundation's narrow health/medical mandate in Ventura County — placement on a mailing list to receive the formal application for a future cycle. There is no indication of site visits, dashboards, or portals; this is an old-school, paper-based, single-cycle-per-year operation. Organizations without a direct Ventura County health or medical-welfare nexus, or without some existing visibility among the Foundation's medically-connected board, should not expect a quick yes.

Across the Foundation's tracked grant history (73 grants, $2,319,980 total, $31,781 average), giving is extremely concentrated by dollar volume but broad by grantee count. The top 2 recipients alone — Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association ($1,000,000/5 grants, $200,000/grant average) and Westminster Free Clinic ($835,000/5 grants, $167,000/grant average) — take 79% of tracked dollars. The next tier (Free Clinic of Simi Valley $155,000; Health Care Foundation for Ventura $59,200; St. John's Healthcare Foundation $49,000; Planned Parenthood-Calif Central Coast $40,000) each received $40,000-$155,000 cumulatively. The remaining roughly 17 organizations split the balance in awards from $2,000 to $26,500, with several recurring small clinics and social-service nonprofits receiving $500-$5,000 per cycle.

A separately-reported "typical grant size" figure (drawn from IRS filing attachments) shows a $1,500-$200,000 range, $4,000 median, and $27,219 average across 16 sampled grants — consistent with a barbell distribution: a handful of six-figure anchor grants to legacy partners, and a long tail of four-figure grants to smaller Ventura County health nonprofits.

On the balance sheet, total assets have held steady in the $8.6M-$10.7M band for over a decade (FY2011: $7.7M; FY2019: $8.9M; FY2023: $10.0M; 2025 per web data: $9.9M), while total giving has trended upward: FY2011 $618,623 to FY2023 $756,502 in reported total giving, and grants_paid rising from $354,000 (FY2014) to $489,280 (FY2023) to an estimated $510,000-$520,000 for the 2024/25 cycle (17 grantees) — the highest one-year total in the available record, up from $475,000 (13-15 grantees) in 2022-23. Geographic concentration is total: 100% of the 73 tracked grants (73/73) went to CA organizations, all serving Ventura County specifically — there is no evidence of any out-of-county or multi-state giving.

Livingston Memorial Foundation is the smallest of these four Ventura County health funders by both asset base and annual giving — roughly 1/24th the size of Ventura County Community Foundation by assets — but it punches above its weight through decades-deep, highly concentrated relationships rather than breadth. Unlike VCCF's open, competitive RFP process, Livingston Memorial and the two hospital-affiliated foundations in this table (Health Care Foundation for Ventura County, St. John's Healthcare Foundation) are effectively closed or invitation-driven, making warm introductions and multi-year cultivation far more valuable here than a cold application.

The most recent full grant cycle on record (2024/25, ending April 30, 2025) saw the Foundation distribute approximately $510,000-$520,000 to 17 Ventura County nonprofits for medical and health-related purposes — the largest single-year total in the available multi-year record, up from $475,000 to roughly 13-15 organizations in the 2022-23 cycle (announced May 2023) and further up from $433,000-$489,280 in the FY2019-FY2023 window captured in the Foundation's own financial filings. No 2026 cycle results (the cycle ending April 30, 2026) were located in available sources as of this research.

No leadership changes at the Foundation itself were found; Laura K. McAvoy, Esq. continues to serve as Chairman/President and the Foundation's administrative point of contact through Musick, Peeler & Garrett LLP. The most notable adjacent news involves the Foundation's largest and most consistent grantee, Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association (LMVNA) — a separate 501(c)(3) that has received $1,000,000 across 5 grants from the Foundation historically. LMVNA's longtime Medical Director, Dr. Lanyard K. Dial, retired at the end of 2025, and LMVNA's Camarillo Farmers Market fundraiser generated more than $100,000 in 2025 to support the organization's grief and bereavement services. These are developments at a grantee organization, not confirmed signals of a change in the Foundation's own funding priorities, but they are useful context for anyone applying alongside LMVNA for the same cycle.

There is no online application portal and no dedicated program staff — this is a law-firm-administered family foundation, and the process reflects that. First-time applicants must submit a brief introductory/inquiry letter (not a full proposal) stating the specific need, the dollar amount requested, and enough factual detail for the Foundation to gauge fit. Address correspondence to Laura K. McAvoy, Esq., c/o Musick, Peeler & Garrett LLP, 2801 Townsgate Road, Suite 200, Westlake Village, CA 91361, or call (805) 418-3115 with questions.

Timing matters: the Foundation runs one grant cycle per year, disbursing funds before May 1. IRS filing data shows a historical application deadline around December 1, though the Foundation notes deadlines "vary each year" — plan to send an inquiry letter in September or October to be considered for the following spring's cycle.

Eligibility is narrow and non-negotiable: the applicant must be a 501(c)(3) delivering medical or health-related programs that directly benefit Ventura County, California residents. General human-services, education, arts, or any out-of-county request will not be a fit, regardless of how the Foundation is sometimes miscategorized ("Community Development") in third-party databases.

The single biggest mistake applicants make is treating this as a one-shot, large-grant prospect. The data shows the opposite: the Foundation's top five grantees (Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association, Westminster Free Clinic, Free Clinic of Simi Valley, Health Care Foundation for Ventura, St. John's Healthcare Foundation) have each been funded in 4 or 5 of the last 5 tracked cycles. This is a foundation that builds long annual relationships, not one that writes large one-time checks to new organizations. First-time grantees should expect an entry-level award — the historical median is $4,000 — and treat it as the opening of a multi-year relationship rather than a ceiling. Given the board's medical composition (three MDs), relationship-building through Ventura County's clinical and hospital community is likely to matter more here than a polished cold proposal.