More people needed a lift last year, and local donors and charitable organizations responded with more money and more people to offer help.
That’s the take-away from a review of the 86 nonprofit organizations on this year’s Business Journal list. The nonprofits are based here or have chapters or affiliate offices in Orange County.
Every category tracked—revenue, employees, volunteers, clients served, and expenses—grew compared to last year’s numbers:
• Revenues were up 10.3% to $1.4 billion;
• Paid staff grew 3.4% to about 11,500;
• Volunteers inched up 0.8% to about 182,000;
• Clients served jumped 11.8% to 7.6 million.
The largesse came at a cost: Expenses grew 12% to $1.2 billion.
Costs, as with any for-profit operation, are part of providing the product or service. The results—in most cases, for the year ended June 30—show local nonprofits together produced gross “profit” of about $150 million, or 12.5%.
OC giving appears to be money well spent.
The Basics
Local nonprofit groups said they help provide the basics most people need, including food, clothing, health and home.
• Nicole Suydam, chief executive of Irvine-based Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, the local affiliate of Chicago-based Feeding America, said, “Our mission is to end hunger in Orange County.”
The organization distributes food to about 320 nonprofit groups that include soup kitchens and homeless shelters.
She said more people are coming to its clients as a result of cuts in public-assistance programs.
Clients the group served increased 31%, and it called on 3,300 more volunteers—a 21.7% jump—to handle the extra demand. Revenue rose 11% to $43.6 million, making it No. 8 on the list, and expenses grew 13% to $43.4 million.
• A newcomer to the list also had a jump in revenue and costs—the largest in each category for any organization this year.
The Orange Catholic Foundation in Garden Grove debuted at No. 3 as its revenue jumped more than 343% to about $70 million. Its expenses grew 124% to $26.4 million.
The fundraising arm of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange ran a capital campaign last year that resulted in the boosts in both numbers.
It is raising about $145 million for projects that include Catholic education, parish support, and transforming the former Crystal Cathedral campus it bought in 2012 into a place for, among others, “the materially poor.”
“We raise, manage, grow and grant money, all to support the diocese,” said Executive Director Cindy Bobruk.
She said the diocese has so far received $45.6 million out of about $105 million in pledges.
About 24,000 people gave or pledged to the campaign in the diocese’s 62 parishes.
Boutique Nonprofit
• The list’s No. 1 entry for several years running has been Goodwill of Orange County in Santa Ana.
It helps people “gain independence, primarily through employment,” said President and Chief Executive Frank Talarico.
The organization works with military veterans re-entering civilian life; the disabled; and others “with barriers to employment,” he said.
Its revenue increased by 10.6% to $113.9 million and its expenses by 10.7% to $111.4 million. Its biggest jumps were in paid staff and clients served—23.7% and 25.5%, respectively.
Talarico said the 240 new employees came after funding from a California state program underwriting the workers’ wages ended and Goodwill took on the costs.
It also expanded a “boutique” concept in its stores.
Goodwill runs 22 local namesake stores, four of them “smaller footprint concepts” with different names and higher-end merchandise, Calarico said.
Each of the smaller stores’ names couple words like “Keepers” or “Rare” with “OC” and “Goodwill,” with the idea of giving a chic feel to the experience.
Talarico said “most of our revenue comes from the stores” and that more revenue from stores means more clients served.
• One of the few declines on the list was No. 13, CHOC Children’s Foundation in Orange. Its revenue dropped 42% to $32.3 million.
Interim Vice President Jan Lansing said the group received a major pledge more than a year ago—$27 million—from an individual donor, and the full amount was booked at that time.
“$32.3 million was an excellent year” in fundraising, she said.
The foundation’s expenses increased about 14% to about $6.3 million as a result of a gala fundraising event headlined by singer Sheryl Crow; investments in technology; and two new staffers.
Its overall expenses are low compared to peers on the list: In the top 36 organizations, it’s one of only three with expenses under $10 million.
