About us
Who we are
Live 4 Love Charities is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that was founded in 1996 by Prince Rogers Nelson and Mayte Garcia. The foundation honors Prince’s philanthropic legacy by building upon his mission of helping people up and helping people out, as these were the two key components of his charitable giving. Live 4 Love Charities continues to strive and drive better outcomes for humanity, by supporting a variety of philanthropic programs and initiatives that are aligned to the core values of the foundation, through delivering resources that enrich and strengthen communities worldwide.
Our Story
Live 4 Love Charities was established by Prince Rogers Nelson and his wife, Mayte Garcia. Their only child, Amiir, was born on October 16, 1996, but passed seven days after his birth. Prince and Mayte founded L4L in memory of their son, building upon the artist’s philanthropic legacy of driving better outcomes for humanity through retaining and reviving music and arts programs in our schools.
We invest in capacity-building and local sustainability
Our Philosophy
Live 4 Love Charities operates through a participatory, culturally and socially respectful approach that engages expert individuals and organizations in needs assessment, management and program implementation. We invest in capacity-building and local sustainability of program objectives while collaborating with local nonprofit organizations, government agencies, businesses and community groups. Our focus remains on creating durable solutions for our beneficiaries that extend far beyond the scope of our immediate programs.
Why this matters
While it appears that today’s decision-makers believe that music and arts programs are unnecessary and dispensable when funds become tight, L4L passionately believes this could not be further from the truth. Music and arts are essential to the long-term success of our children and future generations. The issue is not simply about losing a band, orchestra, chorus or general music education – when a school system determines that it needs to fund standardized-tested subjects over non-tested subjects, this disrupts the balance of what is taught in schools. Essentially, only the logical (left-brained) disciplines are then taught for test purposes, while the aesthetic (right-brained) disciplines are forsaken.
Every child should have a deeply embedded music and arts education
Our Commitment
L4L is determined to provide children the very thing they need to flourish – a deeply embedded music and arts education, which fosters whole-brain learning, self-confidence, critical thinking and ingenuity. All these skills improve students’ achievement and success in overall academics, especially in the so-called “STEM” subjects: science, technology, engineering and math. Accordingly, music and the arts should be taught within project learning alongside the critical thinking of core courses, which together directly engages students and therefore effectively balances brain development. This results in the development of the whole being, which in turn enhances society with better citizens.
The team
Mayte Garcia
President Nelson
Kirk Johnson
