Philanthropists for Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian tend to be former patients of the Newport Beach-based hospital system.
“Historically, donors have been grateful patients or families who were inspired to give because of an experience they had at Hoag,” President of Hoag Hospital Foundation and VP of Hoag Flynn Andrizzi told the Business Journal. “They feel they want to give back for the care they received, or they want to help grow programs that impacted them.”
Hoag surpassed $100 million in philanthropic fundraising in 2022, the fourth consecutive year for the healthcare system. The Business Journal estimates that Hoag raked in $166 million in donations last year, counting gifts totaling $1 million or more.
The funding marks the largest amount of such donations received by all Orange County organizations last year, according to this week’s listing of Largest Charitable Gifts of 2022, the centerpiece of this week’s print edition (see list, page 20).
OC hospitals were the largest recipients of philanthropic funding last year. Andrizzi suspects the recent emphasis on healthcare, fueled by the pandemic, is the culprit.
“The pandemic may have made more people realize how important it is to have excellent healthcare resources in their communities,” Andrizzi said. “Sometimes it’s a personal health crisis or the illness of a loved one that opens a person’s eyes to the need for well-equipped hospitals and skilled caregivers.”
Hoag serves over 30,000 inpatients and 568,000 outpatients annually. The healthcare system counts a 439-bed hospital in its hometown and a 166-bed hospital in Irvine, along with 10 additional health centers and 15 urgent care centers.
A Record Gift
A substantial portion of Hoag’s donations last year came from a $106 million gift from the estate of Audrey Steele Burnand. The donation was the largest gift in Hoag’s over 70-year history and one of the largest donations in the history of OC.
Burnand, the daughter of transportation and manufacturing mogul Harry Steele, died in 2020 at age 98.
Harry Steele founded U.S. Electric Motors, which later merged to Emerson Electric Co. His wife, Grace, started the Newport Beach-based Steele Foundation in the 1950s following Harry’s death.
Steele and his wife had five children, including Richard and Audrey, who carried on the family’s philanthropic legacy.
The Steele family began donating to Hoag in the 1960s, with early contributions directed to cancer and cardiology research and treatment.
The $106 million gift brings the family’s total donations to Hoag to more than $134 million, officials said.
Kingston Co-Founder
Another large gift Hoag received last year was a $50 million donation from the Sun Family Foundation.
David Sun is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Fountain Valley’s Kingston Technology, one of OC’s largest tech firms. He and his wife, Diana, are Irvine residents.
Their $50 million gift goes toward Hoag’s expansion of its Irvine facility, which is now named the Sun Family Campus.
The remaining $10 million Hoag received hails from the late Judy and Jan Kolar, who donated $4 million; the Al and Mary Ann Schoellerman Foundation, which gifted $2 million; and Pacific Life Foundation, Peter & Ginny Ueberroth Family Foundation, Peter and Gail Ochs and The Crean Foundation, who each contributed $1 million.
The donations “say so much about the generosity of donors and how much they value healthcare that they continue to prioritize support for Hoag during changing economic times,” Andrizzi said.
Irvine Expansion
Of the $166 million Hoag has received in philanthropic funding, $52 million, donated by the Sun family, Pacific Life and Ueberroth family, is dedicated to the healthcare system’s Sun Family Campus expansion in Irvine.
Hoag is looking to pour $1 billion into the Sun Family Campus, which will add two specialty hospitals focused on women’s health, digestive illnesses and cancer. The healthcare system last year earned recognition from U.S. News & World Report as a high-performing hospital in maternity care for uncomplicated pregnancies.
The six additional buildings planned for the Sun Family Campus will add 155 more hospital beds in Hoag’s network, along with eight operating rooms and 120,000 square feet of offices, officials said.
As of last November, the second of two parking structures at the campus was under construction. Hoag expects the remaining facilities to be complete by 2025.
Digestive Health Institute
Hoag last month opened its Digestive Health Institute, a clinic dedicated to whole-person care—which considers the various biological, behavioral and environmental factors that affect an individual’s well-being.
The center, located at the Hoag Health Center Mike & Lori Gray Campus in Newport Beach, houses a team of experts who work to provide personalized treatment plans for patients with digestive health conditions.
The institute offers lab tests and imaging as well as yoga, Pilates, Reiki—a Japanese healing technique that promotes mental health—and pelvic-floor therapy.
“Managing chronic and benign conditions first involves lifestyle and wellness approaches that leverage technology, best practices and non-invasive treatments,” Dr. Caroline Hwang, a gastroenterologist and director of Hoag’s Margolis Family Inflammatory Bowel Disease program, said in a statement. “By housing all of a patient’s resources under one roof, we are best able to serve patients thoroughly and comprehensively.”
