Among this year’s large donors are familiar names: Argyros, Gross and Disney.
But generally, there were fewer gifts of $1 million or more than in some previous years amid continued economic uncertainty.
“There is a lingering reticence of donors to make those large, multiyear capital-campaign type of major gifts,” said Shelley Hoss, president of Newport Beach-based Orange County Community Foundation. “There has not been a return to pre-recession levels of that type of giving.”
Still, giving was on the upswing at more modest levels.
“We are seeing continued and growing generosity from Orange County donors,” Hoss said.
Grants
Several Orange County-based foundations made multimillion-dollar grants this year, including Orange Catholic Foundation, which donated $11 million to food banks, parishes and others, and Pacific Life Foundation, which donated $2.4 million to nonprofits in OC.
Aaron Kushner, owner and publisher of the Orange County Register, pledged $12.4 million in free advertising for local nonprofits.
The Toshiba Classic golf tournament, sponsored by Irvine-based Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc., raised $1 million this year for Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.
A few local philanthropists have made large donations outside of Orange County, including perennial givers Sue and Bill Gross, who donated $20 million to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and Patrick F. Cadigan, a retired tech executive and Corona del Mar resident who donated $27 million to Boston College and Boston College High School.
The Gross family also pledged a $4 million grant this year to University of California, Irvine’s Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, stipulating that a matching donation must be made.
Safeway Inc.’s Southern California Vons and Pavilions grocery stores tapped customers to raise $1.4 million for Santa Ana-based Easter Seals Southern California and Long Beach-based Special Olympics Southern California. The stores collected donations that customers made at checkout in April.
Other large donors are in the midst of giving previously announced multimillion, multiyear donations, such as Costa Mesa-based Hyundai Motor America Inc.’s Hope on Wheels program, which is set to donate $2 million this year to Orange-based Children’s Hospital of Orange County, a second installment of a $10 million gift announced in 2011.
Other Donations
Among other large donations to an OC-based institution or nonprofit:
• Disneyland Resort in Anaheim donated $5 million to CHOC. The gift by the unit of Burbank-based Walt Disney Co. includes sponsorship of the lobby in CHOC’s seven-story pediatric tower, under construction since 2009 and set to open in the spring.
• Julia and George Argyros donated $5 million to CHOC for a new pediatric emergency department. George Argyros is founder of Costa Mesa-based Arnel & Affiliates and a former U.S. ambassador to Spain. The 22,000-square-foot emergency facility will be named the Julia and George Argyros Emergency Department.
• Raymond Pryke, owner and publisher of the Hesperia-based Valleywide Newspapers chain, donated $1.5 million to UC Irvine School of Law for the creation of an endowed chair who will teach and research First Amendment law. The Raymond Pryke Endowed Chair on First Amendment and Media Law is expected to be a leader in free speech and media law issues.
• Kathleen and Mark Santora of Los Altos Hills donated $1 million to UCI’s athletics department to expand the Ed Carroll Strength and Conditioning Center in Crawford Hall, a 3,700-square-foot weight-room facility that will be expanded to 8,500 square feet by next summer.
• Vincent “Vinny” Smith, former chief executive of Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software Inc., gave $1 million to Irvine-based Fuel Freedom Foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit that is looking to reduce oil dependency by increasing competition for cheaper, cleaner American-made fuels such as electric power, ethanol, methanol and natural gas. Smith made his donation in two installments through the Orange County Community Foundation.
