THE MONEY: Received estimated $1.5B after her 2017 divorce from billionaire bond king and PIMCO co-founder Bill Gross. Received half of the couple’s art collection, and sold a Picasso painting for $35M, according to Forbes.
REAL ESTATE: Owns four of the 12 homes in Laguna Beach’s exclusive Abalone Point enclave within Irvine Cove, as well as a property in Palm Springs and several homes in Beverly Hills. In December 2024, she sold a four-bedroom, four and half bath home in Beverly Hills for $33M, 6% below the $35M asking price. She bought the 6,569-square-foot home in 2018 for $20M.
PHILANTHROPY: Founded the Sue J. Gross Foundation (SJGF) in 2017. Has focused on healthcare with significant gifts to local institutions. In 2020, Hoag Hospital Foundation announced a $1M gift for Hoag’s Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine Center. Sue Gross credits Hoag with saving the life of her brother-in-law, Dr. Joseph Warpinski, who suffered a horrific wound and received care at the wound center.
Past Hoag gifts included one for $20M to fund comprehensive women’s services at Hoag, which renamed its women’s health care facility the Sue & Bill Gross Women’s Pavilion and a $5M gift to expand services at the Hoag Breast Center in Newport Beach. The foundation made a $3M gift in 2022 to the University of California, Irvine to support its nursing programs. Other donations have been made to Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science Nursing School and the nursing program at Gross’ alma mater, Saddleback College. Gifted over the past two years $250K to the Environmental Nature Center of Newport Beach.
FUNDING RADAR: “Sue Gross, in light of previous work, is a funder that likes to roll up her sleeves and think deeply about what she supports and how,” according to the news website Inside Philanthropy. “SJGF prefers a proactive grantmaking approach that does not accept unsolicited LOIs or applications. Getting through the door will be challenging here unless you’re willing to network deeply to get on her funding radar. Typically, established and larger organizations have the most luck here.”
