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Funding will support 10 implementation-ready projects and planning grants that help earlier-stage collaborations move toward implementation
CORONA DEL MAR, Calif. (August 26, 2026) — The Samueli Foundation today announced the inaugural recipients of its OC+ Fund – designed specifically to help nonprofits work together –awarding $4.7 million to 10 collaborative projects involving 44 organizations and $300,000 in planning support for promising collaborations.
The selected collaborations are advancing coordinated, efficient approaches to housing, legal services, health, family support, science education, arts and culture, and other community priorities. Eight of the 10 funded projects are already underway, with the remaining two at or near implementation.
“Orange County nonprofits do not need convincing to collaborate; they need resources to take that work further,” said Lindsey Spindle, president of Samueli Family Philanthropies. “Collaboration may be one of philanthropy's favorite buzz words, but it remains one of its least reliably funded practices. Funders of all stripes ask nonprofits to work together, but rarely pay for the staff time, technology, shared systems and relationship-building time that make partnership real. We created the OC+ Fund to pay for that connective tissue in service of accelerated impact and greater operational efficiency.”
Strong Demand for Collaborative Funding
The Samueli Foundation launched OC+ in direct response to the 2025 Orange County Nonprofit Needs Assessment, through which local nonprofit leaders identified collaboration as essential, and the resources required to sustain it as consistently difficult to attain.
The response to the inaugural open call demonstrated the scale of interest and demand. The OC+ Fund by the numbers:
APPLICATIONS: 265 submitted
ORGANIZATIONS: 758 involved across proposed partnerships
FUNDING REQUESTED: $94 million total, with a median request of $425,000
IMPLEMENTATION: 56% of proposed projects were already underway
The applicant pool showed that organizations throughout Orange County are already working together, debunking a widely held myth that nonprofits don’t or won’t collaborate. Some are ready to take established partnerships to the next level, while others are building new collaborations and seeking the resources needed to move them forward.
“These 10 awards should not be interpreted to mean that only 10 ideas were worthy of funding—far from it,” said Spindle. “The math makes the gap plain: Orange County nonprofits asked for $94 million to support working together, and we had $5 million available. We hope other funders, businesses and public agencies see that gap as an invitation to join us in support of innovative, efficient, team-oriented delivery of social services.”
The Inaugural OC+ Awardees
The 10 funded collaborative projects are listed alphabetically below. Lead organizations are identified within each collaboration.
92707 Community Wellness Hub
Purpose: Creates a place-based hub connecting 92707 residents with culturally and linguistically responsive health, mental health, housing, education and workforce services.
Partners: Delhi Center (lead), Latino Health Access, Lightening Youth Academy, Santa Ana College, Family Promise OC
CivicMind Community
Purpose: Builds shared back-office technology and hands-on support to help small and emerging nonprofits strengthen financial management, fundraising, compliance and impact tracking.
Partners: Charitable Ventures (lead), CIELO
Every Family Home Visiting Collaborative
Purpose: Strengthens Orange County's home-visiting system for families with young children through shared supervision, referrals, quality standards and sustainability infrastructure.
Partners: Vital Access Care Foundation (lead), Beyond Blindness, Access California Services, Sacred Path Indigenous Wellness Center, BPSOS Center for Community Advancement, Children and Families Coalition of Orange County, Children's Cause Orange County
Imagine Science Collaborative
Purpose: Delivers coordinated STEM programming to more than 800 underserved youth annually while aligning curriculum, staff development and evaluation across partners.
Partners: Boys & Girls Clubs of Garden Grove (lead), Girls Inc. of Orange County, Boys & Girls Clubs of Huntington Valley, UCCE Orange County 4-H
JustOC: A Coordinated Entry System for Legal Services in Orange County
Purpose: Creates one client-centered pathway to civil legal aid, helping under resourced residents reach the right provider while reducing duplicative screening and referrals.
Partners: Community Legal Aid SoCal (lead), Public Law Center, Community Counsel, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, Veterans Legal Institute
Keep OC Housed
Purpose: Builds a countywide, no-wrong-door homelessness prevention system linking housing and legal providers through 211OC, shared referrals, data and case coordination.
Partners: Orange County United Way (lead), Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL), Community Legal Aid SoCal, Families Forward, Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance, Pathways of Hope, Public Law Center, South County Outreach
Music, Identity, and Community: A Collaborative Program Partnership
Purpose: Uses live classical music to strengthen Jewish identity, foster intergenerational connection and expand cultural access and understanding across Orange County.
Partners: Philharmonic Society of Orange County (lead), Jewish Federation of Orange County
Nourish and Nurture Community of Care
Purpose: Sustains culturally responsive prenatal, postpartum and lactation support by integrating UC Irvine clinical care with trusted community-based services and workforce development.
Partners: Breastfeeding Task Force of Greater Los Angeles (lead), UC Irvine School of Medicine
OC Regional Affordable Housing Access Partnership
Purpose: Completes a centralized platform for housing intake, eligibility screening and referrals, helping residents connect with affordable housing and homeownership opportunities.
Partners: People for Housing Orange County (lead), Orange County United Way, HomeOwnership OC
Young Adult Court of Orange County: A Collaborative Research-Informed Program
Purpose: Sustains a specialized court for justice-involved young men ages 18 to 25, combining developmentally appropriate accountability, wraparound services and rigorous evaluation.
Partners: UC Irvine (lead), Orangewood Foundation, Orange County Superior Court, Orange County Public Defender's Office, Orange County District Attorney, Orange County Department of Probation
Across the cohort, partners will share staff expertise, technology, referral systems, data and community relationships to expand access and reduce duplication.
Creating a Pathway for Earlier-Stage Collaborations
The application process also identified promising collaborations that need dedicated planning support before they are ready for implementation. To help build that pipeline, the Samueli Foundation is granting $300,000 to work with the nonprofit community on planning grants that can help partnerships develop further.
Three Funds Responding to What Nonprofits Said They Need
The OC+ Fund announcement completes the Samueli Foundation's second Community Funds cycle in less than a year. Over a nine-month period, the Foundation deployed three funds across two cycles: Breakaway and Build OC in 2025, followed by Breakaway, Build OC and OC+ in 2026. Together, the two cycles represent approximately $37 million in commitments—more than $17 million through the 2025 Breakaway and Build OC cycle, $15 million through the 2026 Breakaway and Build OC cycle, and approximately $5 million through OC+ awards and planning support.
Breakaway invests in the often-unseen people, systems, technology and outside expertise that keep organizations strong.
Build OC invests in the physical spaces where communities receive care, opportunity and support.
OC+ invests in viable, ready to act on collaborations addressing challenges no single nonprofit can solve alone.
Turning Interest Into Additional Investment
The 10 funded projects represent only a fraction of the strong collaborations identified through the OC+ review process. Samueli Foundation is inviting other funders to help move more of this work forward by connecting them with vetted projects aligned with their interests.
“Why ask funders to duplicate months of outreach and diligence when we can share what we have already learned?” said Spindle. “Every additional project we can fund together means more Orange County residents connected to the services, opportunities and support they need.”
Funders interested in exploring vetted projects can complete the Foundation's brief Projects to Support interest form or contact connect@samueli.org. A member of the Foundation team will follow up directly.
About Samueli Foundation
The Samueli Foundation's mission is to make Orange County, California a vibrant mosaic of community well-being. We support and unite catalytic forces whose innovations yield a high quality of life for everyone. The Foundation works closely with the constellation of Samueli Family-backed for-profit and nonprofit organizations to ensure that giving back to the community is central to everything they do.
These include the Anaheim Ducks Foundation, the San Diego Gulls Foundation, the Irvine Ice Foundation, The Rinks Foundation, and OC Sports & Entertainment, which oversees the family's sports and entertainment assets, including the Anaheim Ducks, the San Diego Gulls and Honda Center.
Over the last 25 years, the Samueli Family, through its various entities, has contributed more than $1 billion in charitable grants.