CDU successfully obtained more than $10 million in revenue from the state of California in 2019 after executing an ambitious legislative strategy architected by Lucien Partners.

 

Lucien Partners assisted CDU in liaising with its existing allies more intentionally and convey a persuasive message to a broader group of legislators about the importance of funding CDU to achieve their policy aspirations.

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CDU is the only Historically Black Graduate Institution in the West, and the promise of it as a premier educational institution in South Los Angeles has never been realized since its creation in the aftermath of the Watts riots.

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Lucien Partners developed an advocacy and engagement strategy that presented compelling data and analyses to illustrate the overlap of CDU’s mission and the Legislature’s stated public policy goals. Lucien Partners cultivated a coalition of political partners that included the California Medical Association, local elected officials in the area, State Legislators, Congressional Representatives, California Hospital Association, notable primary care clinics that CDU has a relationship with, and nonprofit allies that have political reach throughout Southern California.

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We leveraged these coalitions of support to win grants from the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, Proposition 63 dollars, Proposition 56 dollars, and General Fund dollars through the State Budget Act. The California Legislative Black Caucus endorsed and incorporated our funding request into their budget request to the Governor.

 

We also leveraged CDU's diversity to demonstrate to the California Legislative Latino Caucus that CDU graduates more Latino pre-med student, and physicians, per capita, than any other postsecondary educational institution in the state.

 

Execution of this comprehensive strategy yielded more than $10 million in funding for CDU in 2019.