A novel, if seemingly obvious, strategy for philanthropic giving – asking local nonprofits what they need to stay alive and giving them the money to get it done – is gaining steam in Orange County.
The Samueli Foundation on Thursday announced a second round of donations issued through two philanthropic programs, the Breakaway Fund and the Build OC Fund. In all, the foundation, backed by multi-billionaires Henry and Susan Samueli, said the two funds will give about $15 million to 89 nonprofits. The money will finance dozens of routine but essential items, such as a new roof, a 24-seat school bus and outrigger canoes that will be used by military veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress.
Though the dollars are comparatively small (the combined Breakaway and Build OC grants represent just a fraction of the $180 million the Samueli family expects to give away in Orange County this year), the impact can be big. A $225,000 roof, for example, will help Meals on Wheels in Anaheim make an estimated 1 million meals a year for seniors and others who survive on home-delivered nutrition assistance.
The impact also is big for the nonprofits, many of which are smaller agencies that offer services for specific populations. On Thursday, when Samueli Foundation officials called to notify grant winners – in this case, 22 nonprofits that will receive Build OC money – the conversations sometimes turned emotional.
“For these people, this is truly their life’s work. So, even though the money isn’t necessarily huge, this is, literally, their dreams coming true,” said Lindsey Spindle, president of the Samueli Family Philanthropies.
“And because these grants are designed to fill the hardest-to-meet, unmet needs, the un-sexy stuff, they’re really important,” she added. “They say, over and over, that they couldn’t get this anywhere else.
“There’s been some weeping.”
The new round of Breakaway and Build OC donations follows an announcement, in September, that the Samueli family would use those then-new programs to distribute about $11 million to 138 local nonprofits. Spindle said the year-to-year growth, and interest from other organizations, suggest the idea is succeeding.
In some ways, the Breakaway/Build donation model operates like a mirror image of traditional philanthropy.
Typically, big-money gifts come after a donor has expressed a desire to support a particular cause or idea or group. Nonprofits that might match up with the donor’s desires then reach out to ask for, and sometimes receive, money.
But in the Breakaway/Build model, the order is reversed. The Samueli Foundation notified nonprofits in Orange County earlier this year that they could apply for money that could be used for what the nonprofit deemed important. Not every request would be granted, but the decision on whether or not to fund any idea would be based on how well a project appeared to work for that nonprofit, not on how it would please the donors.
That model, simple as it sounds, isn’t typical. There are few, if any, similar projects underway anywhere in the country.
It also fills gaps. Nonprofits typically are financed with donations earmarked for specific programs, meaning the agencies have money for projects but sometimes lack money for other essentials, such as equipment purchases, repairs, human resources and travel. The Breakaway/Build OC model is aimed at meeting those needs. Last year’s grants paid for things like job skills training aimed at retaining nonprofit employees, specialized accounting services and a marketing program for thrift stores.
Another goal is agility.
The Samueli family, owners of the Anaheim Ducks, chose the term “breakaway” to reflect what happens in a hockey game when a player picks off a stray puck and bolts down the ice to score. Donations made via the Breakaway Fund are typically processed faster, and with less oversight, than other philanthropic gifts, with applications that take minutes, not days, to complete, and vetting that is finalized within weeks instead of months. Build OC grants operate in a similar fashion, but are typically bigger dollars and are aimed at projects that will have long-term value, like new buildings and repairs. In the 2026 cycle, 67 Breakaway donations averaged about $75,000, while 22 Build OC grants were, on average, about $455,000.
But beyond speed and simplicity, the Breakaway/Build model also requires trust.
Typical philanthropic gifts come with rules about how the money is spent, and requirements that the nonprofit show how a project in question is turning out as planned. Spindle said the Samueli Foundation also vets every request, and that the organization turns down far more than it finances: 1,108 applications, requesting more than $263 million, came in during this year’s cycle. But she also indicated that Breakaway and Build OC dollars aren’t micromanaged.
“The nonprofits are telling us that nothing else is designed to meet their needs like this,” Spindle said. “And they’re telling us, ‘This is so easy to do. We aren’t being bossed around and told what funders want.’ They’re saying, ‘You’re trusting us.’
“That’s giving me confidence that this concept is working.”
The concept, which became public about nine months ago, is working well enough that it is starting to attract other deep-pocketed philanthropists.
A year ago, when the Breakaway/Build OC model was announced, the Samueli Foundation said it would create a list of pre-vetted requests that were turned away, but that other nonprofits could look at to determine if they might want to step in and finance projects that appealed to them.
This year, that list was used by the Sun Family Foundation, which is backed by Diana and David Sun, co-founder of privately held Kingston Technologies, one of the world’s biggest makers of computer memory products.
On Thursday, Sun Family Foundation officials said they are giving $1.5 million to eight nonprofits that applied for Breakaway and Build OC grants, money that will pay for projects as diverse as teacher training to building repairs.
“Nonprofits are often asked to work together for greater impact. We believe philanthropy should model that same spirit of partnership,” said Joanna Kong, executive director of the Sun Family Foundation, in a prepared statement.
“Working alongside the Samueli Foundation allowed us to discover outstanding organizations. … We hope this kind of collaboration becomes the norm.”
The gifts announced Thursday come during what is, nationally, a mixed financial outlook for nonprofits.
Last year, charitable giving in the United States grew slightly, to a record $617.2 billion, according to Giving USA’s Annual Report on Philanthropy.
Though individuals remain the biggest source of charity in the United States – giving about $394.2 billion last year – most of the 2025 upturn came from a huge jump (16.6%) in charitable bequests from estates of the recently deceased. Gifts from foundations, such as those backed by the Samueli and Sun families, rose by about 3%, despite huge gains in stock markets and other assets that typically boost the financial health of foundations.
Going forward, the Breakaway/Build model might spark more giving from foundations and corporations and others that are looking to give in simple, practical ways.
“We’ve had meetings with family foundations around the country. … They’re asking us if they could take pieces of this and adapt it, or take the whole model,” Spindle said. “I think you’ll see many more of these that are very similar in different parts of the country.”
The model also is working well enough to expand locally. Spindle said the Samueli Foundation has launched a third fund, OC Plus, that’s aimed at helping local nonprofits collaborate on projects that might be too big, or too complex, for a single nonprofit.
“I think there’s a tremendous misunderstanding about nonprofits being unwilling to collaborate,” Spindle said. “I think, instead, that there is a strong desire to maximize resources and serve more people. … We’re trying to give them the tools to do that.”