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.

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

Over a year and a half after the country’s economic downturn hit, thousands of our friends and neighbors here in Orange County continue to struggle. Amid this sustained economic crisis, the safety net of local nonprofits is being stretched farther than it ever has before.

The Orange County Community Foundation invites you to join with us in our 2010 community-wide response: ReachOut OC: Our Continuing Commitment to Neighbors in Need. The goal of this community-wide initiative is to provide aid to the most vulnerable individuals in our county through grants to local nonprofits providing food, shelter, back-to-work assistance, and access to health care and mental health services.

OCCF will match every $1 contributed to ReachOut OC between March 5 and April 30, 2010 up to $250,000. Our goal is to infuse at least $500,000 into our community to meet its most pressing needs. OCCF is underwriting all expenses for the program so that 100 percent of your contribution will be put to work directly to support nonprofits that are effectively responding to these needs.

For more information about the response effort, visit the ReachOut OC page on OCCF’s web site. You can 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

We look forward to partnering together with you to reach out to our neighbors in need.

In trying economic times such as these, our team at the Orange County Community Foundation knows that our work to encourage, support and facilitate philanthropy in Orange County is needed now more than ever. While the foundation has certainly been impacted by the recession, our mission delivery has never been stronger. I am thrilled to share with you a few exciting highlights from the past year: More...

It is with great joy that I announce that two of the Orange County Community Foundation’s most dedicated and generous donors, Dick and Mary Allen, have been selected to receive this year’s Outstanding Philanthropist Award by the Orange County chapter of the Association for Fundraising Professionals. Dick and Mary will receive this honor on November 18, 2009 at Orange County’s National Philanthropy Day luncheon.

Dick and Mary Allen have served Orange County for decades as civic and charitable leaders. Their efforts and generosity have supported older adults, educated youth, provided access to quality healthcare, and fortified the local nonprofit sector. They have provided generous support to local nonprofits including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Orange County Council on Aging, St. Mark Presbyterian Church, Adult Day Services of Orange County (now the Alzheimer’s Family Services Center), M.I.N.D. Institute, and UCI Foundation, among others. Inspired to “do something” by their grandaughter’s diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes at the age of two, Mary and Dick made a heartfelt leadership gift to Hoag Hospital to establish The Mary & Dick Allen Diabetes Center. Just recently opened, the Center, in partnership with Children’s Hospital of Orange County, will provide multilingual and multicultural treatment, education and outreach to Orange County’s diverse populations who are affected by diabetes. More...

On April 8, 2009, I had the pleasure of presenting Orange County Community Foundation’s Power-Packed Philanthropist Award to Bill McGarvey for his more than four decades of philanthropic work and community service within the city of Fullerton and throughout Orange County. Along with the award, we presented Bill with a $5,000 grant to the charity of his choice, which he directed to the Fullerton Rotary Foundation for their community granting program.  More...