Scott Struthers may best be known for co-founding Sonance, which created the world’s first in-wall loudspeaker.
For the last 10 years, however, he has taken up a new full-time gig: philanthropy.
Since becoming less involved in the company in 2010, Struthers has helped start three public charities.
He said that he wants to “make giving popular.”
“I believe I’ve been given a lot and have been very fortunate in my life, and I certainly believe there’s a lot of need out in the world,” Struthers told the Business Journal.
He has taken the success from Sonance and other companies he has founded to give back to these areas, starting first with Africa.
Struthers in 2016 founded his first nonprofit, Elephant Cooperation, which focuses on elephant rescue and rehabilitation and providing wildlife education programs for children.
The San Clemente-based nonprofit reported revenue of $1.5 million and gave out more than $350,000 in grants for anti-poaching in 2023, according to public filings.
He also gives back locally to Orange County through his two other nonprofits Sonance Foundation, which is led by the company, as well as Sonance Cares, formerly called Strut Cares after his luxury car accessories brand Strut that was founded in 2002.
Both nonprofits help raise funds for local organizations such as the Boys and Girls Club and the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.
Combined, all three have donated nearly $8 million to date over the past five years, according to Struthers.
This week’s Business Journal has a special separate issue that highlights philanthropy, including a list of the county’s biggest corporate foundations.
Develops First In-Wall Speaker
Struthers, originally from Minnesota, came to Orange County directly after graduating college at Principia College around 1982.
He was hired to work at the company, then called Home Technology Systems, which was a small video contracting company started by a group of Struthers’ friends from college.
A year later, the original founders were no longer interested in running the company and asked Struthers if he wanted to acquire it.
Struthers called up Geoff Spencer, who was still in school, and asked if he’d join him. The pair bought the company for $12,000, “got in a van with some equipment and took over their jobs,” Struthers said.
Struthers said that Sonance was the only one in Southern California going into home designing and installing multi-room audio systems and what was called media walls before home theaters were invented.
The turning point for the company was when Struthers and Spencer realized that there was no audio solution that integrated well into the home.
This epiphany led them to cutting up manufactured speakers and putting them in walls and ceilings, then putting custom grills over the top, creating the first architectural speaker.
Sonance began providing speakers for tract homes and other home projects.
They found Sonance’s speakers worked well with electronics of Bang & Olufsen, a high-end consumer electrics company in Denmark.
“That was perfect for us because it allowed us to expand our distribution to all of the different audio stores around the country,” Struthers said.
During this time, Sonance grew quickly from an audio contractor to a speaker manufacturer.
“We went from doing hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracting to soon doing millions of dollars’ worth of speakers,” he said.
Today, the company’s products are sold in 15,000 retailers across all 50 states.
When asked what he attributes the company’s continued success to, Struthers said “life is better with music.”
In the audio industry, there’s “a lot of transitions.”
“When companies get bought out by these private equity firms, a lot of times the culture goes away. And when the culture goes away, the family feeling goes away.”
The owners don’t intend to sell their firm.
“I’m very proud of the fact that we have no intention to sell our company to another company,” Struthers said.
Trip to Africa Sparks Love of Animals
Struthers said he participates in the company’s activities like Family Day and is active around Christmas.
“Anything we can do that just hopefully makes the employees happier and feeling more part of the team,” he said. “We have very low turnover in our company.”
Struthers said he’s partial toward animals.
“Whether it’s my dogs or elephants, they’re certainly a huge part of my life,” he said.
His love for elephants stemmed from the beloved classic Disney film “Dumbo” and works by Dr. Seuss.
It was then bolstered by a trip to Africa with his father, who was a biologist, when he was 15 years old. There, he saw a wild elephant for the first time in their natural environment.
“When you actually see them, learn how smart they are, their family culture and how they can communicate, I became more endeared to them,” Struthers said.
In 1998, he returned to Africa with his daughter, who was the same age during his first visit to the country, and saw a noticeable change in the landscape.
There were significantly less elephants, outnumbered by even more people, Struthers said.
Once numerous in Africa and Asia, the world elephant population dropped from 1.2 million in 1980 to around 450,000 as of last year, according to Our World in Data.
The African savanna elephant became classified as endangered as of 2021 on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Endangered species.
Habitat loss and illegal poaching are among the main drivers behind the population decline.
Elephant Cooperation wants to help teach others how to “cooperate to coexist,” a phrase coined for the nonprofit’s very own director, Skyler Bennis.
“When it comes to the future, I certainly want my grandkids and anybody else to be able to still see elephants in Africa,” Struthers said.
This desire drove him to establish Elephant Cooperation with the intention of protecting elephants for future generations to come, as well as educating communities in Africa about conservation.
Every year, the Elephant Cooperation holds two fundraising events in OC to raise more awareness for the nonprofit.
The nonprofit held its 5th annual golf fundraiser on May 18 at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club.
Coming up in October is its 5th annual Anti Gala, described by the nonprofit as the “ultimate Halloween party for a purpose.”
“A lot of the people who go to fundraisers are not enjoying your average white tablecloth and champagne galas, but they all like parties,” Struthers said.
Last year’s gala raised more than $500,000 for elephant conservation and community initiatives.
This year, there will be a Ferris wheel and an immersive room where guests can experience what it’s like to be among elephants in Africa.
When he passes away, he wants the company to have a legacy of giving.
“After I’m gone, the income from the company will continue going into the philanthropy and will continue to be a giving machine.”
Vanguard Receives Record $35M Estate Gift
One of Orange County’s oldest four-year colleges is benefiting from the region’s active philanthropic scene.
Costa Mesa-based Vanguard University has received a $35 million endowment gift from The Fred and Ruth Waugh Family Foundation Trust, the estate of the late Fred and Ruth Waugh.
It marks the largest single donation in the private Christian university’s 105-year history, according to Vanguard, and increases the school’s endowment to $52.5 million.
Part of the endowment is supporting a 30-year master plan adding new facilities to Vanguard’s 40-acre campus, which is currently being overseen by President Michael J. Beals.
It’s not the Waughs’ first contribution to the school.
The $24 million Waugh Student Center, which opened in 2020, was named after an undesignated $3.1 million gift from the couple.
The most recent gift from the Waughs brings together Vanguard’s past and present, Beals said.
“The Waughs have been involved with the university since the 1970s, and through that time, they have carried a deep care and love for the school, our mission and its students,” Beals told the Business Journal.
The Waughs, who lived in Riverside, made their wealth in commercial real estate.
Ruth died in 2022 at age 100 and Fred two years later at 102 years old. The couple was married for 81 years.
Beals and his wife Faith struck up a friendship with the couple when he became president of the university in 2013. He said that Fred often provided him insight on how Vanguard could better prepare students for the future.
Now, the gift will continue their legacy by funding scholarships and workforce development programs.
“College is expensive. That’s the reality,” Beals said. “A critical factor is to make it affordable and really make it worth it.”
Approximately 99% of undergraduate students receive financial aid, according to the school’s website. This includes all forms of aid in addition to federal and state aid.
Vanguard is currently exploring workforce development programs for the Patty Arvielo School of Business and Management, which recently welcomed a founding dean and launched a minor in real estate in the fall.
Enrollment is currently strong at Vanguard, Beals said.
The school is seeing growth in its professional educational and graduate programs, particularly MS in clinical psychology.
Since 2013, the school’s endowment has increased from $4 million to $52.5 million.
Vanguard in May also received a $900,000 gift from the
In-N-Out Burger Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Irvine-based In-N-Out Burger Inc., to establish Headwind Scholars. The scholarship program provides foster youth with financial aid, academic resources and support in their pursuits of higher education.
— Yuika Yoshida
