That’s right! The Orange County Community Foundation will have a new home as of September 1. Our staff is busy packing for the Foundation’s forthcoming move to Redstone Plaza in Newport Beach—the red brick building on the corner of MacArthur and Newport Place, across from the Pacific Club. OCCF’s new address will be:

4041 MacArthur Boulevard, Suite 510
Newport Beach, CA 92660

Our phone and fax numbers and website remain the same. In our new location, we look forward to continued partnership with our friends and colleagues as we move forward in our efforts to encourage, support and facilitate philanthropy in Orange County. We can’t wait to welcome you to our new home!

Last month the Orange County Community Foundation sent two talented staff members, Claudia Montesano and Rachel Hansen, off to the next chapter in their professional journeys. While they will both be missed, I am delighted to welcome three recent college graduates to our team.

 

As program associate, Adele Lee will manage OCCF’s more than 60 scholarship programs, assist scholarship students and act as a liaison on behalf of donors. Adele brings an impressive array of nonprofit experience to OCCF, having previously assisted in managing grants and scholarships as a program intern at the Tiger Woods Foundation. She has also worked as a behavioral therapist for children with autism. Adele graduated from the University of California, Irvine last winter with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in business management.

Marisa Conner, program assistant, will provide administrative support to the Donor Relations and Programs Department and assist with granting and program activities, donor relations and other projects. Marisa graduated from Chapman University this spring with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a minor in art. She has been active in the local nonprofit community as an intern with Casa Teresa, Orange County Therapeutic Arts Center and Girls Inc. Marisa has also led a number of philanthropy and service projects through Chapman.

And finally, Andrea Landis has joined our staff full-time after completing a year-long internship with the Marketing and Communications Department through UC Irvine’s SAGE Scholars Program. In her new position as marketing and communications assistant, Andrea will be assisting with the writing, design and publication of OCCF communications, outreaching to news media outlets, coordinating Foundation events and providing administrative support to the department. Andrea served as director of Women and Youth Supporting Each other (WYSE) and as a Right to KNOW sexual assault peer educator while at UC Irvine, and she received her bachelor’s degree in literary journalism with a minor in women’s studies.

We warmly welcome Adele, Marisa and Andrea to the OCCF family!

This week the Orange County Community Foundation celebrated the extraordinary response to ReachOut OC. The goal of ReachOut OC was to provide safety-net services to vulnerable children and families impacted by the economic crisis. OCCF donors and the community at large made contributions from $5 to $50,000, resulting in a total of $655,000 to be granted to local nonprofits serving Orange County neighbors in need. I would like to extend a sincere thank you to all who supported ReachOut OC. Your response exceeded our highest hopes and expectations.

The 40 organizations that received ReachOut OC grants, which ranged from $10,000 to $20,000, are leaders in their fields, working to help families avoid falling into a chronic cycle of poverty by providing food, shelter, job training and mental health and medical services. Programs funded by ReachOut include food pantries and meal services, transitional housing and rental assistance programs, job training and skills development and low or no-cost medical care and counseling. To view a complete list of grant recipients, click here. Congratulations to each of these outstanding organizations!

For more information about the ReachOut OC campaign, click here. Join OCCF’s Facebook Fan Page and follow us on Twitter for features on each ReachOut OC grant recipient agency through the month of July.

I was honored to present Mark Moehlman with the Orange County Community Foundation’s Power-Packed Philanthropist Award at a recent lunch event hosted by the Center for Investment and Wealth Management at UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business. Mark, principal and co-founder of Newport Beach-based Wealth Management Network, LLC, was recognized for his positive impact as a philanthropic role model to emerging professionals. The award was accompanied by a $500 grant to the nonprofit of Mark’s choice, which he directed to the Merage School to fund student attendance at the annual Schwab Impact conference where they can interview with major investment companies from around the country.

Mark was a driving force in launching the Center for Investment and Wealth Management through an influential lead gift. And as a founding member of Wealth Management Network, he has instilled in his staff an ethos of charitable involvement in organizations that address the firm’s core interest areas of education, children and healthcare. We congratulate Mark Moehlman, a deeply compassionate business leader, on receiving this honor.

To learn more about Mark’s commitment to our community, read the press release here. For more on the Center for Investment and Wealth Management at the Paul Merage School of Business, visit their web site. 

Hello! You have been directed to the Shelley Shares blog because the Orange County Community Foundation’s web site, www.oc-cf.org, is currently undergoing scheduled updates. The site will be down until approximately 3:00 p.m. today. Should you have any questions or concerns about your donor-advised fund during this time, please contact Joanne Udell at judell@oc-cf.org. We appreciate your patience as we strive to encourage, support and facilitate local philanthropy through the highest quality services possible.

Please feel free to browse the blog postings as well as the Orange County Community Foundation’s Facebook Fan Page and Twitter Profile for the latest OCCF news, events, and resources. 

All of us at the Orange County Community Foundation are overjoyed to announce that we have met our goal of raising $650,000 to help our neighbors in need through the ReachOut OC community initiative!

The generosity of so many donors and community members helped us to reach our expanded goal BEFORE the deadline and will allow us to deliver critical assistance—food, shelter, healthcare and job training—to local families struggling to make ends meet. We are grateful to all of you who made this endeavor a reality.

Because OCCF is underwriting all program expenses, 100% of the funds raised will be granted to outstanding local nonprofit organizations helping our vulnerable neighbors get back on their feet. A list of grantees will be announced at a special celebration and posted on OCCF’s web site by June 30.

Thank you to all who have shown such incredible support for those in our community who truly need our help. Together we will make a difference!

Although many think of Orange County as an affluent community, thousands continue to struggle to meet even the most basic needs for themselves and their children. As many as 615,000 people in Orange County are hungry, 21,479 are homeless and 100,000 children are at risk of losing health care coverage.

I am thrilled to announce that OCCF’s generous donors and friends met our ReachOut OC challenge—which sought to raise $250,000 to serve those in our community in greatest need as a result of the lingering economic crisis—more than a week before our deadline!

The morning after this achievement, two generous OCCF donors committed an additional $75,000 to expand the ReachOut challenge, enabling us to increase the goal for our granting pool to $650,000. In light of this expanded challenge, we have extended the deadline for contributions to May 15.

If you have already made a contribution to this effort, thank you! If you or your loved ones have been thinking about contributing to ReachOut OC, now is the time to join with us to make an even greater impact in the lives of vulnerable OC neighbors who have found themselves unable to feed, shelter and protect their children. Remember, 100% of all donations, no matter how big or small, will be put to work directly by local nonprofit agencies providing food, shelter, back-to-work assistance, and healthcare to our neighbors in greatest need.

If you would like to lend a hand, click here to make an online contribution. Or send a check by mail (payable to OCCF) to:

Orange County Community Foundation
30 Corporate Park, Suite 410
Irvine, CA 92606

With just three weeks remaining to join ReachOut OC, our community challenge to help Orange County neighbors in need, I am delighted to report that we have received commitments of $125,000 toward our community goal of raising $250,000. 

OCCF will double all donations contributed by April 30 (up to $250,000). Our goal is to deliver at least $500,000 into our community to provide aid for local individuals and families who are struggling to make ends meet during the continuing economic crisis. Because OCCF is underwriting all program expenses, 100% of your donation—whether $10, $100, $1000 or more—will be granted to outstanding Orange County nonprofit agencies feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, training the unemployed, and caring for those in need of medical services.

We are incredibly grateful for the generous support of so many of out donors and friends. We encourage those who wish to join us to REACH OUT before April 30!

To learn more about ReachOut OC, visit reachoutoc.org. To make an online contribution, click here. Or send a check by mail (payable to OCCF) to: 

Orange County Community Foundation
30 Corporate Park, Suite 410
Irvine, CA 92606

Please join us today. Together we can make a difference in the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors.

Friends,

Earlier this month, 2010 Census forms were distributed to every residence in the U.S. Please encourage everyone served by your organization to complete and return the Census form by April 1. This is particularly important within “hard to count” populations, such as immigrant communities which may have greater anxiety about participating in the Census. Please make sure your clients understand that the Census is completely confidential, and that there is no collection of data about their documentation status or other information which they may feel uncomfortable providing.

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The February and March 2010 issues of Coast Magazine spotlighted young local leaders as well as a restaurateur with a charitable vision who have partnered with the Orange County Community Foundation to make a difference in our community.

This month’s edition includes interviews with three members of OCCF’s Next Generation Philanthropy Group, a select group of business and community leaders who participate in working sessions and share strategic and analytic tools, resources, networking and leadership skills to lay the groundwork for philanthropic impact now and in the future. In “The Next Generation” article, Ethan Morgan, Emily Horowitz and founding member of the Next Generation Philanthropy Group Bill Lyon share how they became involved in philanthropy, their personal philanthropic passions, and how modern philanthropists differ from their predecessors. To read the article, click here.

 “The Extra Yard,” Coast’s February feature on philanthropy, took a look at Yard House Restaurants’ Round It Up America™ program and the thoughtful CEO who conceived the idea, Harald Herrman. The program encourages Yard House patrons to round their check to the nearest dollar and directs the sum of all change donated to charities doing important work in the communities where their restaurants are located. OCCF administers the program through the Round It Up America™ fund. Click here to view the article.