Some of the biggest corporate names in Orange County are among the biggest givers here.
Foundations of Pacific Life Insurance Co., Walt Disney Co., Boeing Co. and others support education, healthcare, the arts, charities for kids and families and other causes, according to this week’s Business Journal directory.
Full figures on yearly giving by corporate foundations aren’t readily available. The Business Journal estimates that the corporate foundations on our directory give at least $30 million a year, and likely more.
The Orange County United Way is the biggest beneficiary of the corporate giving. The group in turn uses the money for its own charities and those of other nonprofits.
What’s in it for companies?
“It’s a way to demonstrate they’re good corporate citizens,” said Sushma Raman, president of Southern California Grantmakers, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit group that works with corporate, private and other foundations.
Companies form foundations to show that that they’re not just in it for profits but to deal with issues in their communities, according to Raman.
In the process, companies can create a good public image that helps them in reaching out to potential customers, Raman said.
The corporate giving is done either through a fund set up for the sole purpose of charity, or through direct giving from the company itself.
Employees also give through payroll deductions.
Many companies offer matching programs where employees who give to a charity will be backed by the same amount from their employer.
Donated services and volunteering are other ways corporations give back.
The information collected for the Business Journal’s directory is compiled from tax forms turned in by companies to the Internal Revenue Service, as collected by Southern California Grantmakers.
One of the biggest corporate givers in the county is Newport Beach-based Pacific Life Insurance, which gave $3.6 million through its Pacific Life Foundation in 2006.
The life insurer has yearly revenue of $4.5 billion.
The Pacific Life Foundation was set up in 1984 and has about $60 million in assets. A strong year for Pacific Life in 2006 brought $10 million more for the foundation.
The foundation accepts applications from nonprofits and then has a committee assign grants, according to Pacific Life spokesman Tennyson Oyler.
The money ends up where Pacific Life employees live, mostly in OC and Nebraska.
After Hurricane Katrina hit, $1 million was given for the Gulf Coast, on top of what the foundation gave to its usual community groups.
Last year, 217 nonprofits received money from Pacific Life.
Locally, some of the biggest contributions Pacific Life made went to dental charity Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County, with a $220,000 gift. Orange County United Way got $223,000.
Access OC, which provides surgeries to uninsured patients, received $100,000. Another $100,000 was given to Children’s Health Initiative of Orange County to help get health insurance for children.
Allergan
In 2006, Irvine-based drug maker Allergan Inc. gave $3.2 million through 225 grants.
As its largest donation for the year, $1 million was given to The Eye Institute at the University of California, Irvine, which is awaiting state approval.
Lat year, Allergan funded its charitable arm, the Allergan Foundation, with $28.5 million, which more than doubled the assets of the fund to $45 million.
About half of Allergan’s funding went to health and human services. Forty percent went to education. Fourteen percent went to civic programs and the arts, according to the foundation’s annual report.
The most common donation from Allergan was $17,000, at 188 grants. The company gave another 37 grants worth about $1,000 each.
Disney
The Disneyland Resort, which covers two theme parks, three hotels and a shopping center in Anaheim, gave an estimated $11 million last year.
The figure includes volunteer hours, special projects, food donations, gifts to nonprofits, equipment and merchandise donations, fulfilled wishes and board memberships on nonprofit groups by park executives, according to a report on giving by Disney in Anaheim.
Among other big corporate names operating here, Bank of America Corp. and Edison International each gave about $700,000 to Orange County United Way.
Efforts aimed at the elderly could become a bigger part of corporate giving, according to Shelley Hoss, president of Orange County Community Foundation, which works with foundations on giving.
“Orange County is affected by an age tsunami,” she said.
The Orange County Community Foundation oversees $115 million in charitable assets, an amount that has tripled in the past three years, according to Hoss.
The group primarily works with individuals and families. Hoss said she’s also enlisted donations from corporations to support community activities for its For Good, For Ever endowment.
