The William, Jeff & Jennifer Gross Family Foundation, the charity founded by renowned investor and philanthropist Bill Gross and his son and daughter, continued its annual tradition of donating to multiple organizations in Laguna Beach in 2023, including the Laguna Art Museum, the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts and the Laguna Beach Police & Community Foundation. In total, the foundation donated more than $18 million to 67 local and international non-profits and charities in 2023, the most recipients ever in a single year for the Gross Family Foundation.
Laguna Beach represented the largest geographic region by far receiving donations from the Gross Family Foundation.
“If charity begins at home, my adopted hometown of Laguna Beach holds a special place in the heart of myself and my family,” said Bill Gross, who co-founded the Newport Beach-based PIMCO fixed income firm. “We can never begin to repay Laguna Beach enough for all the wonderful years the community has provided. Between the arts, culture and the natural environment, there is no place like Laguna Beach.”
Other Laguna Beach recipients of donations include the Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach; Coast Film Festival (Laguna Beach); Laguna Outreach for Community Arts (LOCA); Laguna Beach Community Clinic; Laguna Beach Parade Corp; Laguna Canyon Foundation; Laguna College of Art + Design; Laguna Food Pantry; Laguna Beach Historical Society; Laguna Ocean Foundation; Laguna Beach Senior Center and the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.
Organizations in Laguna Beach and Orange County have traditionally been heavily represented in the Gross family’s annual giving, including $20 million to Hoag Hospital Newport Beach and $10 million for the Emergency Department at Mission Hospital Laguna Beach. The family’s largest-ever donation was $40 million to establish a nursing school at the University of California at Irvine.
With $465 million in assets, the William, Jeff & Jennifer Gross Family Foundation ranks as one of the largest private foundations in Orange County, far surpassing even the PIMCO Foundation, which Gross established as PIMCO’s chief investment officer. He is a signatory to the Giving Pledge, a global, multi-generational commitment by some of the world’s wealthiest individuals and couples to give a majority of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes, either during their lifetimes, or in their wills.