The Irvine-based Orange County Community Foundation, which works with some of the county’s wealthiest to channel their charitable giving, recently awarded $655,000 in grants to 40 local nonprofits.
The money is going to fund groups that provide services to those who have struggled with job losses, home foreclosures or other hardships in the economic downturn.
“There continues to be tremendous challenges for local nonprofits,” said Shelley Hoss, president of the Orange County Community Foundation.
The foundation gave out grants of $10,000 to $20,000.
Recipients include: Costa Mesa-based Serving People in Need, which helps struggling families with food, utility bills and housing; Irvine-based Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County; Laguna Beach Community Clinic, which offers discounted healthcare; Santa Ana-based Taller San Jose, which helps train young adults for work; Newport Community Counseling Center, which helps victims of domestic abuse; and Buena Park-based Korean Community Services, which offers counseling services to South Korean immigrants.
Ellen Ahn, executive director of Korean Community Services, said its $15,000 grant will help hundreds of families for another year.
The foundation gives to nonprofits through tax-deductible funds set up by wealthy donors who want to target their giving.
Those working with the foundation include Kelly Thornton Smith, a full-time philanthropist and former wife of Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software Inc. Chairman Vinny Smith, angel investor Dick Allen and Donald Kennedy, chairman emeritus of First American Corp., now First American Financial Corp.
The foundation has granted $144 million since its 1989 start.
Challenging Period
This is the second year the foundation has held a fundraising effort designed to bolster local nonprofits amid the lingering economic downturn.
Even with the economy in recovery, nonprofits continue to see high demand and fewer donations, according to Hoss.
“It remains a very challenging period with elevated demand for their services,” she said. “They’re doing more with much less.”
Fewer donations threatened to close some nonprofits during the thick of the downturn. But that didn’t pan out en masse, Hoss said. Many nonprofits combined with others, shrank staff and reduced other costs.
“There have been very few closures of nonprofits, which had been feared,” she said.
In addition to raising money for safety net providers that help with basics such as food and shelter, this year’s campaign—called ReachOut OC—gave money to mental health service groups and nonprofits that provide employment assistance.
“We wanted it to be relevant to how the needs were shifting,” Hoss said.
Some of the recipients that help job seekers include Costa Mesa-based Working Wardrobes, which provides clothes and job placement for those in need, and Garden Grove-based St. Anselm’s Cross-Cultural Community Center, which provides job training and other services for refugees.
The foundation set a fundraising goal of $500,000 this year and exceeded it by $155,000.
It kicked off the campaign with $250,000 from its endowment and encouraged others to donate for two months starting in March.
The foundation received checks for as little as $5, Hoss said. Anyone could give.
The goal of last year’s campaign—called See the Need, Seed the Change—was to provide funding to nonprofits that provided emergency food and shelter.
Last year’s campaign raised $832,500, exceeding a $750,000 goal. Money was given to 34 groups.
Other groups that received grants this year: Orange-based Casa Teresa; Irvine-based Families Forward; Laguna Beach’s Friendship Shelter; Garden Grove’s Thomas House Temporary Shelter; Orange’s Women’s Transitional Living Center; Santa Ana’s Child Guidance Center; Irvine’s Human Options; Santa Ana’s Olive Crest Treatment Centers Inc.; Orange’s Providence Speech and Hearing Center; Costa Mesa’s Share Our Selves; and Santa Ana’s Southwest Minority Economic Development Association.
