Corporate foundations active in Orange County marked their fifth year of yearly increases in total cash contributions and cash contributions to OC charities.
Total cash contributions were up by 6.1% in 2014 to about $1.2 billion. Local contributions were up about 7.2%, with more than $21 million in Orange County contributions compared to $19.9 million in 2013.
The Business Journal ranked 36 corporate foundations and charitable arms of businesses with headquarters or significant operations in the county.
Twelve of the foundations reported a drop in contributions last year, seven of them reporting under $1 million in total contributions. The same number of foundations reported a drop in direct cash giving in Orange County.
• Some of the top foundations reported large increases in contributions, including San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co., which ranked No. 1 on the list again this year.
It reported over $320 million in contributions, 14.8% more than its 2013 total of $278.8 million.
Wells Fargo invested in local volunteer programs last year, according to Community Affairs Manager Jack Toan.
“We spent a lot of time and resources in increasing team member contributions and fostering a culture of giving back in our team members,” he said. “Active engagement on behalf of our team members is what is increasing Wells Fargo’s philanthropy activity.”
Toan also said Wells Fargo is in the process of a large military veterans initiative in Orange County called “Operation Gratitude.”
“We are sending letters to military men and women stationed around the world, with nonprofit partners like [Costa Mesa-based] Working Wardrobes and [the Santa Ana-based] Black Chamber of Commerce,” Toan said.
Wells Fargo plans on sending 30,000 handwritten letters from the Pacific and Midwest regions, 5,000 of them from Orange County.
“We also continue to focus on community development in Orange County—economic development, community revitalization projects, and K-12 education initiatives,” he said.
Wells Fargo is for the second consecutive year a sponsor of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, which takes place in October at Great Park in Irvine.
The program “challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive,” according to its website.
• Irvine-based Mazda Foundation USA Inc. made the largest jump last year with a 240.8% increase in total cash contributions and a 153% increase in local contributions. It jumped from No. 28 to No. 21. Mazda reported $1.3 million in total contributions compared with $387,314 in 2013.
“The Mazda Drive for Good charitable program launched in 2013 and further established Mazda’s commitment to charitable service,” Tamara Mlynarczyk, manager of public affairs for Mazda’s North American operations, said in an email. “Responsible for donating more than $7.6 million and pledging more than 120,000 charitable service hours over the past two years, Mazda Drive for Good continues to provide monetary donations and community service throughout the year.”
Mlynarczyk said Mazda Foundation USA has been able to increase its annual giving because it’s one of the charitable organizations receiving funds from its parent’s Mazda Drive For Good charitable program.
• Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Foundation reported a 28.1% increase, with total giving at more than $7 million. It reported a 24% decrease in Orange County cash contributions.
Amanda Fowler, executive director of global corporate giving for Edwards Lifesciences Corp., said most of the foundation’s contributions have been made through a philanthropic initiative that launched last year called “Every Heartbeat Matters.”
Fowler said she didn’t have information on the reason for the drop in local donations.
“We thought really hard about how we want our philanthropy to affect a specific cause, and we picked one we know well because of the business we are in and the talent we have,” Fowler said. “We decided to focus on the global burden of heart valve disease.”
Fowler said the foundation expects to help 1 million people living in underserved communities by the year 2020, mainly by providing them with free mobile heart screenings.
Fowler also said local Orange County partners are enthusiastic about participating.
“Hoag Hospital is supporting a mobile heart valve screening program. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in the world, but it’s largely treatable if detected early. We are really going to go after it in a meaningful way.”
Edwards’ website says it funded some grants at the $250,000 level, the majority at or below $100,000 last year.
• Not all foundations reported increases in corporate giving—Arkansas-based Walmart Foundation Inc., No. 4 on this year’s list, reported an almost 8% decrease in total contributions and a nearly 90% decrease in Orange County contributions.
• Brea-based Beckman Coulter Foundation, No. 29 on the list, down from No. 20 last year, reported an 82% decrease in total cash contributions. A representative of the foundation said it keeps details on giving confidential but did say “its donations can fluctuate year over year.”
Four of the five lowest-ranked foundations on this year’s list reported a negative change in total cash contributions and contributions to OC charities.
