Orange Coast College Foundation

The Mission of the Orange Coast College Foundation is to support the college by encouraging gifts of time, treasure and talent from alumni, campus stakeholders, and community members. This mission includes current and future students as well as reaching out to the community for mutually beneficial programs.

A volunteer Board of Directors consisting of community members, four members of the college administration, a faculty representative, and the president of the college’s associated students oversee the activities and programs of the Foundation. Since its founding in 1985, the Orange Coast College Foundation has received over $110 million that has been split almost equally between cash donations and in-kind gifts of property, boats and equipment. As of June, 2024 the Foundation had cash assets of over $49 million. The OCC Foundation has dedicated its fundraising efforts towards supporting the students at Orange Coast College. These efforts include current and future students as well as reaching out to the community for mutually beneficial programs. The Foundation has awarded $25 million in scholarship dollars to over 9,200 students. The donors of the OCC Foundation have provided a breadth and depth of contributions supporting students and the surrounding community across the curriculum spectrum: allied health, athletic fields, science, literacy, library, computer centers, and on the water front. All of these generous donations reflect the vast array of opportunities available here at the Orange Coast College campus.

As California’s system of public higher education battles through tough financial cycles and innovative changes, OCC students need your philanthropic support more than ever. For the Orange Coast College Foundation to continue to change the lives for our students, we continually need donations of time, talent, money and property. Our donors support for scholarships, the performing arts, athletics, the library and countless other programs and activities across the campus is needed now more than ever. The combined gifts of our generous donors who include community members, retired and current faculty and staff, local companies, family foundations and service clubs help us meet the ongoing and now increased needs of our students.

The Orange Coast College Foundation has a legacy of successful capital campaigns to fund facilities, buildings and scholarships for the students. The need for updated and upgraded facilities remains and the Foundation continues with its commitment to fulfill these. Currently we have 3 Campaigns underway: $8 million to endow the new, state of the art Planetarium on campus for students of all ages (pre-school through ‘well past school’ ages). The Planetarium is now open and serving the K-12 community, current OCC Students, and the community at large. The endowment will provide the resources to provide the programs running inside the theater as well as the interactive science exhibit hall. New Marine Science Training Center and Bridge opened in July, 2021 at the School of Sailing & Seamanship, fundraising goal of $4 Million for ongoing costs of serving the the local, state and national Maritime community. A new initiative by the foundation is supporting the expansion of the food pantry on campus. We found many students at OCC suffer from food insecurities, so we have established an annual goal of $30,000 to supplement the partnership resources of the Second Harvest Food Bank and the OC Food Bank. With more and more of community college students suffering from not only food insecurities, but also from homelessness, OCC on-campus housing, The Harbour opened in Fall 2020 with 800 beds.  This is the first housing available to students served by an urban community college in the state of California.  We have launched a fundraising initiative to raise money to pay for housing for those students least likely to complete their education due to homelessness: former foster youth, current homeless students, former incarcerated youth, suffering from poverty, etc.  Our goal is raise a housing trust endowment of over $10 million to enable 200 students beds.

Orange County, CA and most especially the cities of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Fountain Valley, Seal Beach, Westminster, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Irvine and Tustin.