Laguna Beach-based Impact Giving recently awarded $130,000 in grants to several Orange County nonprofits during a ceremony at the Irvine Marriott.
The group presented the checks to: Irvine-based Families Forward ($30,000), which helps families at risk of becoming homeless through transitional housing and job programs; San Diego-based Just in Time for Foster Youth ($30,000); Laguna Beach-based R Star Foundation ($20,000), which built a school in rural Nepal; San Diego-based Lotus Outreach International’s Lotus Pedal program, which buys bikes for girls in Cambodia; Costa Mesa-based International Princess Project ($20,000), which sells Punjammies loungers and pajama pants and shorts made by women in India; and Orange-based Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center ($10,000), which offers parenting training, mental health services and other programs.
Impact Giving chose recipients from a field of 60 applicants.
Sponsors of the grant-giving ceremony included Laura Tarbox, president of Newport Beach-based The Tarbox Group Inc., a wealth management company, and Kim Shepherd, chief executive of Irvine-based Decision Toolbox.
Impact Giving is funded through “collective giving,” in which the organization pools donations of $1,000 a year from each person in a collective. The goal is to have 1,000 collective members donate a pot of $1 million annually.
Impact Giving chooses recipients once a year after analyzing financial data and making onsite visits to the prospective nonprofit. It has granted $345,000 to 20 organizations, including 11 local nonprofits, since starting in 2009.
Karen Wilson, the group’s chair and co-founder, has worked in various capacities for nonprofits that serve women, children, minorities, immigrants and prisoners. Ann Duncan, vice chair and cofounder, formerly worked for Round Rock, Texas-based Dell Inc. for 20 years.
Hyundai Nonprofit
Costa Mesa-based Hyundai Motor America’s nonprofit Hope On Wheels will travel to 85 children’s hospitals across the U.S. to award $12 million in grants to fund research projects in pediatric cancer through September.
Hope on Wheels’ Hyundai Scholar program will award $3 million in research grants from April through August and the remaining $9 million during Childhood Cancer Awareness month in September. Hope on Wheels will donate more than $57 million to childhood cancer research this year, its 14th.
The total includes $10 million being donated over a five-year span, starting last year, to fund the Hyundai Cancer Institute wing at Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange. The Hyundai Cancer Institute provides patients with research trials, which aims to find the most effective treatment for a patient.
The grant to CHOC was its largest ever.
Wells Donation
San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. has donated $10,000 to Irvine-based Orange County United Way.
The donation will support OC United Way’s new SparkPoint OC, a center intended to help OC families improve their financial standing. SparkPoint OC is based at Westminster-based community center Abrazar Inc. and opened in February.
Etnies at Easter
Lake Forest-based Sole Technology Inc. handed out 2,000 pairs of new etnies shoes to homeless people in Los Angeles’ Skid Row during Los Angeles Mission’s annual Easter celebration.
Sole Technology Chief Executive Pierre-André Senizergues participated, along with members of the company’s skateboard team and staff.
In the past, the company has donated 34,000 pairs of shoes to the homeless during the Los Angeles Mission’s annual Easter event, which includes a Good Friday feast, Easter basket distribution and foot washing.
Senizergues brought filmmaker Mike Manzoori, who filmed behind the scenes at the event this year. The video shows Senizergues interviewing people such as Herb Smith, executive director of the Los Angeles Mission, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Tutu Speech
Naomi Tutu will speak at the ninth annual Orange County United Way Women’s Philanthropy Fund Breakfast May 8 at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.
About 650 people are expected to attend the fundraiser. The event is put on by the Women’s Philanthropy Fund, a group of 108 people who annually donate $10,000 or more to Orange County United Way.
Tutu is the daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Tutu’s speech topic: “What Gift Do You Bring?”
Mother of the Year
Orange-based Casa Teresa, which provides temporary shelter and support for pregnant women 18 years and older, will hold its fourth annual Orange County Mother of the Year Awards fundraiser May 24 at Hyatt Regency Irvine.
Casa Teresa will honor Alanna Psomas, a Newport Beach resident and chair of the St. John Vianney Bereavement ministry; Kathleen McGaughan, an Irvine resident and program leader for the Order of Malta; Diann LeVecke, a Villa Park resident and member of the Order of Malta and Legatus Orange Coast; and Bonnie Allen-Luna, an Irvine resident and a Casa Teresa mentor for women in recovery.
