Samueli Foundation
/OVERVIEW: The Samueli Foundation supports education, youth services, Jewish culture and values and integrated health in Southern California.
IP TAKE: This family foundation's grantmaking in the Jewish community is but one small component of a large puzzle, but expect steady, modest sums to continue to support select Jewish organizations, particularly in the Orange County region of Southern California, where all of its funding concentrates, except for grantmaking for health, which spans the nation.
This is an approachable and supportive funder, even though it is not particularly accessible. The family likes to stay close to its foundation, which also means they prefer taking a proactive approach. They are open to discussing new projects, if you want to get on their radar, but note that it’s unlikely unless you network through previous grantees.
PROFILE: Established in 1998, the Samueli Foundation is a private family foundation based in Corona del Mar, California founded by Henry and Susan Samueli, who signed the Giving Pledge. Henry Samueli is the co-founder of the Broadcom Corporation and owner of the Anaheim Ducks National Hockey League team. Henry Samueli graduated from UCLA, receiving a BS, MS, and Ph.D in electrical engineering from the school. In February 2016, Avago Technologies acquired Broadcom Corp. for $37 billion in cash and stock. Henry Samueli also conducts grantmaking through the Broadcom Foundation. The Samueli Foundation aims to "create societal value by investing in innovative, entrepreneurial and sustainable ideas.” It funds local efforts for education, youth services, Jewish culture and values and integrated health.
The Samueli Foundation adjusted its grants process several years ago to focus on establish partnerships and collaborations on strategic initiatives. For example, it is involved with the OC Stem Initiative, STEM Ecosystems and Health Funders Partnership of Orange County.
Grants for K-12, STEM, and Higher Education
Grants for education focus on STEM education at all levels. One of the first things Samuelli did after Broadcom went public in 1998, was to give $30 million to his alma mater, UCLA, to support what came to be called the Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, where he once served as department head. The Samueli Foundation gave $10 million for 20 new endowed engineering faculty chairs in a recent year. Samueli gave another $200 million to UC Irvine in 2017 in his home of Orange County, California. It is one of the largest gifts made to higher education on record. The funds name the College of Health Sciences and launched a major integrative health initiative to advance research, education and clinical practice for individual and population wellness. Samueli gave another $50 million in 2023 to support the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the school. Samueli has served as UCLA faculty since 1985 and is an adjunct professor at UC Irvine.
Other higher education grants have gone to Georgetown University, Chapman University and Tulane University. In the K-12 arena, the Samueli Foundation has supported the Orange County High School of the Arts, the Californians Dedicated to Education Foundation and St. Margaret’s Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, California.
Grants for Jewish Causes
Jewish culture is important to the Samueli family and guides much of the foundation’s giving. Jewish education grants focus on providing students with quality education, as well as furthering the field of engineering in Southern California. Other grants related to Jewish causes focus on promoting “tolerance and diversity and combat Anti-Semitism in the community.”
The Samueli Foundation has several partners in the Jewish causes space, among them Samueli Jewish Campus, which is home to the Merage Jewish Community Center, and the Holocaust Art & Writing Contest at Chapman University.
In a recent tax year, support went to American Support for Israel, Friends of Yemen Orde, UCLA Hillel, and the Jewish Federation & Family Services Orange County (the geographic region that receives the majority of Samueli’s domestic granting).
Grants for Racial Equity, Justice and Indigenous Rights and LGBTQ
A new vein of funding, Samueli’s funding for racial equity and Indigenous rights is a natural outgrowth of its Jewish philosophy of giving. Samueli conducts related grants through it’s broader Social Justice program, which invests in grassroots organizing efforts and “organizations led by and for indigenous, people of color, or communities impacted directly at the intersections of gender and sexuality justice, racial, economic and social justice, criminalization, reproductive rights, and models for community justice.”
In the LGBTQ space, the Samueli Foundation has partnered with the Tides Foundation to fund the Trans Justice Funding Project’s Collective Action Fund, which TJFP founded in 2012 to support grassroots, trans justice groups run by and for trans people. For now, Samueli’s funding for the LGBTQ space is limited to the trans community, but this could expand.
Grants for Public Health
Samueli funds public health through its integrative health program, which reflects a passion for medical research and helped establish both the Center for Integrative Medicine and first-of-its-kind College of Health Sciences focused on interdisciplinary integrative health at UC Irvine, establishing it as a bold, new leader in "population health, patient care, education and research." He has also generously supported the John Wayne Cancer Institute, which has made a lot of progress in the area of cancer prevention and treatment, and established the Samueli Institute for Information Biology based in Washington, D.C. Like the John Wayne Institute, the Samueli Institute seeks to make major inroads into cancer research.
Grants for SoCal
While Samueli conducts grantmaking for Southern California across all of its programs, its program dedicated to Youth Services focuses only on Orange County. Partnering with the Orangewood Foundation, Samueli addresses former foster youth and community youth. Funding for youth focuses almost exclusively on at-risk youth and those in foster care.
Important Grant Details:
Grants range between about $1,000 and $50,000. Learn more about this funder’s local giving by examining its recent tax records. Grantmaking largely focuses on Southern California and most specifically Orange County. Past local grantees include Child Creativity Lab, Family Medicine Education Consortium and the Foster Care Auxiliary of Orange County.
The foundation unfortunately no longer accepts unsolicited LOIs. In a recent tax year, the foundation gave a little over $500,000. This has been the foundation’s policy since around 2008; however, the funder plans to also reveal a responsive-based component to its giving in the future. Direct general questions to the staff at info@samueli.org or 949-760-4400.
PEOPLE:
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