Public Matters

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Public Matters Public Matters is a group of artists, educators, and media experts. We design and implement place-based new media, education and civic engagement projects.

10/08/2026

🎉 WE DID IT. $42,000.

$21K in 21 days. Matched. Every gift doubled. Every dollar put to work.

Thank you to everyone who gave, shared, and spread the word, and to our anonymous match donors who started it all. 💛

And look who's back from their break... 👀 Check the comments. 🌽

Art is a lever for civic change. What a lever lifts, stays lifted. 💛

The match is over. Our 20th anniversary year is just getting started. More from the vault, more Impact Stories, and a few surprises we're not ready to spill yet. 👀

Want to hear about the next surprise before anyone else? Our newsletter subscribers always get first word. And don't worry, we're not usually in your inbox this much. This month was a special occasion. 😉 Sign up 👉 https://publicmattersgroup.com/contact-2/

The cover is off our landing page. Go take a look 👉https://publicmattersgroup.com/

⏰ LAST DAY to double your gift! Our $21K in 21 Days match ends tonight at 11:59 PM PT, and every gift is doubled until t...
10/07/2026

⏰ LAST DAY to double your gift! Our $21K in 21 Days match ends tonight at 11:59 PM PT, and every gift is doubled until then.

👉 https://charity.pledgeit.org/PublicMatters20

And while you're here, check the comments. We posted an image: someone's missing from the picture. 👀 They're taking a well-earned break against that tree. Hint: you met their friends in David's video. Drop your guess in the comments. We'll restore them tomorrow. 🌳

For 20 years, art has been our lever for civic change. What a lever lifts, stays lifted.

10/06/2026

$2,638 to go. ⏰ 2 days. Every gift doubled until Wednesday, 11:59 PM PT.

We promised a USC professor and high schoolers dressed as vegetables. 🥕 Here's both.

David Sloane, Emeritus Professor, USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, has partnered with Public Matters for years. He's our final Impact Story before the match closes, and he covers Market Makeovers, Greetings from East L.A., and this:

"You should give to Public Matters… to show the rest of the United States and the world that this is the way to make change for better communities."

Thank you, Sloane, for over 10 years of thinking alongside us. 💛

He said it. We'll just double it. $25 becomes $50
👉 https://charity.pledgeit.org/PublicMatters20

$17,779 raised of our $21,000 match. $3,201 to go. ⏰ Every gift doubled until Wednesday, 11:59 PM PT.Before there was a ...
10/06/2026

$17,779 raised of our $21,000 match. $3,201 to go. ⏰ Every gift doubled until Wednesday, 11:59 PM PT.

Before there was a match, there was a committee. 🎩

Meet the Vicennial Vanguard: 15 volunteers behind the biggest campaign in Public Matters' history. Each has a title, courtesy of our co-chair, the Overseer of Unreasonable Goals, including Sparkling Force of Nature, Sage of Unspecified Wisdom, and Superintendent of Splendid (Non)Sense. (Yes, Overseer titled herself. No one argued.)

One week after we formed, anonymous donors offered a $21K match. Our other co-chair, the Keeper of the Velvet Glove, put it best: not a challenge, an opportunity.

The Vanguard has accomplices: donors, alumni sharing their stories, and everyone looking back and forward with us. That's what makes Public Matters Y(our) Public Matters. 💛 (We've been dying to use that line. 🥁)

3 days left. $25 becomes $50, no strings attached.
👉 https://charity.pledgeit.org/PublicMatters20

"Statistics do not portray an accurate picture of East L.A." That's what Renaissance students wrote when they made their...
10/04/2026

"Statistics do not portray an accurate picture of East L.A."

That's what Renaissance students wrote when they made their very own East LA "map of the stars." ⭐ Instead of celebrities, it highlighted the local heroes, entrepreneurs, and hardworking families who make the neighborhood what it is. In their words: "Each person from East L.A. has a story worth telling."

That map kicked off Greetings from East L.A. (2016–2020). At the time, East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy at Esteban E. Torres High School was one of only three high schools in the U.S. focused on urban planning and design. Public Matters brought hands-on urban planning into the classroom, and each year, students took on a real issue shaping their neighborhood:

🛍️ What makes an East LA Main Street?
🚲 Walking, biking, and transit tours
🚦 Traffic safety zines and maps
🗳️ Local ballot measures and the 2020 Census

The students were the community experts. They shared their ideas directly with LA County planners, engineers, and civic leaders. They even took their work to the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, presenting to professors David Sloane and Marlon Boarnet. 🎓 Along the way, the project built a pathway to USC Price, opening doors to fields where people of color have long been underrepresented.

So we'll ask you what we asked them: Build a ________ East LA Main Street. COOLER. PEOPLE-FIRST. JOYFUL. WELCOMING. ACCESSIBLE. How would YOU fill in the blank? Tell us in the comments! 👇

For 20 years, your donations have made work like this possible. 💛

⏳ Just 4 days left in our 21 Days, $21K Match, and we're $5,700 away!

Every gift is matched dollar for dollar.

👉 Donate today: https://charity.pledgeit.org/PublicMatters20

10/03/2026

From the Vault: "Have You Noticed How Much Junk Food We Eat?"

As part of social marketing efforts to encourage healthy eating in East LA and Boyle Heights, Proyecto MercadoFRESCO students created a series of videos.

"Have You Noticed How Much Junk Food We Eat?" was developed, scripted, and filmed with students at East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy at Esteban E. Torres High School. It was part of Market Makeovers, a multi-year project with the UCLA Center for Population Health and Health Disparities (CPHHD).

The videos screened throughout the area, most notably during Summer Movie Nights at the East LA Civic Center. Over the summer, Proyecto MercadoFRESCO hired a cadre of students as community liaisons to promote healthy eating and public awareness of the newly transformed stores.

They participated in healthy cooking demos and performed spectacles with props and costumes in public spaces. At one Summer Movie Night screening of the video, a swarm of students in hazmat suits collected junk food wrappers from people picnicking in the park, memorably bringing the video's message to life.

🎬 Watch the full video: https://vimeo.com/24697394

💛 Our 21-day match campaign ends in just 5 days. Every gift is doubled to support youth-driven work like this. https://charity.pledgeit.org/PublicMatters20

Greening the Food Desert: One corner store at a time 🥑Building on what we learned from our earlier work in South LA, we ...
10/02/2026

Greening the Food Desert: One corner store at a time 🥑

Building on what we learned from our earlier work in South LA, we brought Market Makeovers to East LA and Boyle Heights, where fresh food was hard to find.

Market Makeovers: Proyecto MercadoFRESCO (2010–2014) With funding from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Public Matters teamed up with the UCLA Center for Population Health and Health Disparities and business consultant Nathan Cheng. Together, we transformed neighborhood corner stores into sources of fresh fruits and veggies.

Local high school students from East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy at Esteban E. Torres High Schooland the School of Communications New Media + Technology at Roosevelt High School did the hands-on work. They wore giant fruit and veggie costumes in the East LA Mexican Independence Day Parade to promote healthy eating and helped develop a social marketing campaign featuring their neighbors that was installed in 45 bus shelters across East LA.

Before the project, none of these students had heard the term "food desert." All of them knew its consequences. As they learned about nutrition, they became the health experts in their own families. They also led healthy cooking demos right inside the stores. One student took what he learned home and helped his mom lose 25 pounds! 💪

Market Makeovers changed the game for healthy food access and education because we made it fun, participatory, and community-centered. Check out the before and afters!

For 20 years, your support has made work like this possible. 💛

⏳ Just 6 days left in our 21 Days, $21K Match, and we're less than $6K away!

Every gift is matched dollar for dollar.

👉 Donate today: https://charity.pledgeit.org/PublicMatters20

We have news. 🎉We passed our $10K goal before the weekend even started, and we're now at $13,395 of our $21,000 match!An...
10/01/2026

We have news. 🎉

We passed our $10K goal before the weekend even started, and we're now at $13,395 of our $21,000 match!

And something new is happening. In just two weeks, we’ve welcomed more first-time donors than any campaign in our 20-year history.

To our loyal supporters who have kept Public Matters moving for two decades: thank you. To our newest friends: welcome.

The challenge: anonymous donors put up $21,000 in unrestricted matching funds to launch our 21st year. No deliverables. No reports. Just trust in our judgment and the freedom to invent.

$7,605 is left to double, so every gift counts twice while it lasts:
$10 → $20 · $25 → $50 · $50 → $100

Our goal by Sunday: welcome even more new donors. Can the next one be you?

👉 https://charity.pledgeit.org/PublicMatters20

“Public Matters listens first. They build trust before they build anything else. And they've kept that up for two decade...
09/30/2026

“Public Matters listens first. They build trust before they build anything else. And they've kept that up for two decades. I gave to the match because that kind of integrity deserves to be funded.”—Eliza B, Technology Leader/Artist

This weekend we’re aiming for $10K by Sunday (10/4) in the match—$2,425 away.

Every donation is doubled dollar-for-dollar under the match.

Donate via the link. https://charity.pledgeit.org/PublicMatters20

Can we hit $10K by Sunday, 10/4? 🔥We crossed $7,000 on Monday (on our way to the $21,000 match), and we’re at $7,575 (ma...
09/30/2026

Can we hit $10K by Sunday, 10/4? 🔥

We crossed $7,000 on Monday (on our way to the $21,000 match), and we’re at $7,575 (matched).

$2,425 more gets us to $10,000 by Sunday—and every donation is doubled dollar-for-dollar.

Join the weekend push? Thank you. 🙏🏽

Donate: https://charity.pledgeit.org/PublicMatters20

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East Los Angeles, CA
90022, 90063

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