This year’s Business Journal list of corporate and private foundations lost a few names after we narrowed rankings to firms most connected to Orange County charities, as opposed to earlier lists based on both local and total contributions.
We ranked 25 corporate foundations and 45 private foundations based on cash contributions to OC charities in their most recent fiscal years. OC giving, total giving and assets are based on the most recent figures provided by firms or on their most recently filed tax returns.
Eight organizations dropped off the corporate foundations list: Western Digital Foundation, United Health Foundation, Wal-Mart Foundation Inc., Edison International, UPS Foundation, Walt Disney Co. Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation and Fieldstone Foundation. They either didn’t provide OC giving dollars or didn’t break out separate contributions by geographical area.
• The corporate list, which includes privately held and public companies, has two newcomers. Fifth-placed Irvine Co. reported $2.1 million in OC donations last year, flat based on an estimate of the previous year’s giving. KPMG LLP, No. 11 with $581,266 in local contributions, was up 11.6%.
Overall corporate contributions here totaled an estimated $24.8 million, up 3.2%. Donations to OC causes by private foundations were $47.7 million, down an estimated 18%. Some organizations offered 12-month figures up to June 2016, others through last December.
OneOC President and Chief Executive Dan McQuaid said corporate giving can fluctuate widely from year to year but that he anticipates growth, since charitable giving by U.S. corporations grew 8% last year to $20.8 billion.
“I think millennials are major influencers now, as they are the majority of the workforce, and they have a higher expectation that their companies do good in the community,” he said, adding that midsize and small companies are increasing philanthropy.
Santa Ana-based OneOC works with companies and nonprofit groups to help them maximize giving. McQuaid said he’s also noticed corporations recently changing how and what they give to.
“In Orange County, more companies are developing partnerships with specific nonprofits. So, rather than doing a confetti approach to charitable giving, they are now targeting resources to specific causes and forming long-term partnerships.”
The Allergan Foundation Executive Director Gwyn Grenrock echoed McQuaid, saying it recently changed its community grants application process from an open one to one whereby organizations must first submit a letter of interest. That helps Allergan better assess if a group’s mission aligns with its values.
“We have so many requests for funding,” Grenrock said. “We let it be known that we have a strong priority on health and human services—we just can’t be all things to all people.”
Its Irvine-based foundation is eighth on the corporate list with $1.4 million to OC causes, roughly the same as last year. Its companywide cash contributions were $9.2 million, which Grenrock said has been steady for several years.
Corporate Giving
• San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co., whose regional foundation is in Irvine, retained the top spot, reporting an 11.2% decline to $4 million to OC causes. Its $34 million in assets was down roughly 53% as the country’s third-largest bank boosted total giving about $38 million, or 15.3%.
• Giving by No. 2, Pacific Life Foundation in Newport Beach, dropped 4% to $3.9 million. Foundation President and Vice President of Brand Management and Public Affairs Tennyson Oyler said it plans to boost community giving to $7 million this year in celebration of its 150th anniversary. “Additionally, we are offering more volunteer opportunities for our employees, increasing our matching gifts to 150%, and providing on-site community service projects at all of our major office locations.”
• Irvine-based Capital Group Cos. Charitable Foundation, No. 3, gave $2.2 million in OC, down 1.7% based on estimated giving the previous year.
Private Giving
Newport Beach-based Orange County Community Foundation President Shelley Hoss said she’s noticed more individuals and private foundations donating to local charities.
“Local philanthropists are bringing innovative strategies and their full intellectual capital to the practice of their charitable giving,” she said. “We’ve been working with a number of family foundations, for example, on big-idea initiatives where they will make significant multiyear investments in game-changing solutions with strategic nonprofit partners.”
The organization helps individuals, families and companies partner with charitable organizations, and provides grants and resources to nonprofits.
The Business Journal’s private foundations list consists of individuals and families with 501(c)(3) foundations.
• Five organizations dropped off the list for various reasons, from liquidating assets to not breaking out OC figures: Ahmanson Charitable Community Trust; B. John Garrick Foundation; William and Sue Gross Foundation; Don P. Nichols Foundation; and Donald Bren Foundation.
•Cashion Family Foundation in Newport Beach, which donated $100,000 to local charities, up 33.3%.
• The Laguna Beach-based Marisla Foundation tops the private list. Its figures are Business Journal estimates that show its giving dropped 11%.
• Second is the Costa Mesa-based Argyros Family Foundation, which contributed $6.2 million, or roughly 55% of its $11.4 million in total cash contributions, to OC charities, down 61%.
• The Simon Foundation for Education and Housing in Newport Beach ranks third, boosting local contributions by a whopping 72% to $4.8 million. Its 2017 assets were $39 million, down 25%. Industrialist Ron Simon sold his two operating companies, a homebuilder and a cabinet-making business, in the past 10 months.
