Olive Crest Treatment Centers Inc.’s nearly 40 years of helping abused children has earned it a stable of loyal corporate backers.
Among them: bond fund manager Pacific Investment Management Co., Kraft Foods Inc., shoe seller DSW Inc. and Ralphs Grocery Co.
The Santa Ana-based nonprofit works to prevent and counter child abuse through various programs, including high schools it runs in Santa Ana and Coachella.
Olive Crest, with offices elsewhere in California and in Washington and Nevada, also places children in foster care or adoptive homes. It employs 500 people, including 200 at its headquarters.
The nonprofit’s corporate sponsors support Olive Crest in many ways.
Pimco cofounder Bill Gross recently gave financial pointers and a tour of his company’s Newport Center headquarters to Olive Crest kids.
Newport Beach’s Debbie Ferree, vice chair and chief merchandising officer at Columbus, Ohio-based DSW, organizes Olive Crest’s annual fundraiser, which brings in nearly $300,000.
Darrel Anderson, a former Knott’s Berry Farm partner, is on his second stint chairing Olive Crest’s board. He helped shore up financial reserves to purchase Olive Crest’s headquarters in 1995.
Frozen burrito inventor Duane Roberts—chief executive of Newport Beach-based Entrepreneurial Corporate Group and owner of the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in Riverside—started Olive Crest’s Inland Empire chapter.
Many of Olive Crest’s backers come from the food industry, an indication of how long the nonprofit has been around.
Founders Donald and Lois Verleur started Olive Crest 37 years ago as a group home for kids, when food makers and distributors had a larger presence in Orange County.
“It’s an industry that does give back a lot,” said Kendra Doyel, vice president of public relations and government affairs for Ralphs, part of Cincinnati-based Kroger Co. “And when it comes to families, that’s an area of focus for the industry.”
Grocers and food companies are sponsoring Olive Crest’s July 22 fundraiser at the Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach.
Backers include Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods, Corona-based Hansen Beverage Co., Oakland-based HV Food Products Co. and Nestle SA’s Dryer’s Grand Ice Cream Inc.
The event’s speaker is Pat Williams, founder and senior vice president of basketball’s Orlando Magic. Williams has 19 kids, 14 of whom are adopted.
Jerry Hunter, customer business manager for Kraft, organized the event.
For the past two years, DSW’s Ferree has put together Olive Crest’s other big fundraiser, Harvesting Hope.
“Olive Crest was a perfect marriage for how I wanted to engage our company—and how I wanted to engage myself—in Orange County,” she said.
Ferree serves on Olive Crest’s board of trustees, which focuses on fundraising.
The nonprofit has an annual budget of $35 million. Eighty percent comes from government funding. The rest is private.
The funding mix is changing, according to Chief Executive Donald Verleur II, son of the founders.
In the next 10 years, Olive Crest expects private funding to make up 30% to 40% of its budget as public funding decreases with federal, state and local government cuts.
The quandary facing many nonprofits these days is that as public funding declines, the need for services continues to rise.
“The need for supporting families and children is getting greater and greater,” said retired Knott’s Berry Farm executive Anderson.
Anderson, who was adopted, has an affinity for Olive Crest kids.
“I have a soft spot in my heart for kids who don’t necessarily have all the advantages I did,” he said. “I happened to get a really good family.”
Olive Crest is in the midst of planning for 10 years out. It recently kicked off a strategic planning meeting at the Mission Inn in Riverside.
Roberts, owner of the historic hotel, offered a deep discount for the meeting.
“He’s a long time, great supporter for Olive Crest,” Verleur said.
Olive Crest expects to have its plan ready by September.
History
The nonprofit started placing kids in adoptive families 11 years ago. Since then, 1,200 Olive Crest kids have been adopted. It’s also one of the few agencies to still run group homes. It has 10 neighborhood homes.
The goal is to get kids back to their families or have them adopted, Verleur said.
Olive Crest’s Nova Academy Early College High School, a charter school in Santa Ana, seeks to help abused kids stay in school and work toward independence.
“Most schools want the best students. We take the toughest students,” Verleur said.
Nova opened four years ago with 12 kids. There now are 200 students.
The school is funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Foundation for California Community Colleges.
Nova began when Verleur, Anderson and his mother—Marion Knott—were picking the brain of Chapman University President Jim Doti. They were discussing the best way to prepare the kids for a four-year college. Doti’s response: community college.
Many of the kids graduate Nova with a high school diploma and a two-year college degree when they’re 18.
During the school day, kids go to high school and community college, either at Santa Ana College or Orange Coast College.
“The rigor is what drives the success of the program,” said Olive Crest Academy board member Javier Mier, owner of Irvine’s Mier Benefit Group and chairman of the Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Pimco executives developed and teach a finance class for Nova students. It includes a tour of Pimco’s trading floor.
When Verleur’s parents founded Olive Crest decades ago, they had no great vision, he said.
His father was a teacher and his mother was a homemaker—both wanted to help kids.
He succeeded his father 12 years ago.
“I just fell in love with these kids and made a conscious decision I wanted to be involved,” he said.
