Smith Details $30-Million Charity Plan

Multimillionaire Joan Irvine Smith said Thursday that about $30 million of the proceeds she expects from the sale of her stake in the Irvine Co. will be dedicated this year to public or nonprofit agencies, most of them involved in improving the environment.

“Capitalism with a conscience is what you have to have,” Smith said in an interview Thursday. “We need a new age of environmentalism in which people solve problems.”

Smith said that she will designate $10 million of the taxes she will be required to pay this year and another $20 million out of her own pocket for contributions to organizations that she selects.

After an eight-year battle with the Irvine Co. and its chairman, Donald L. Bren, over the value of her 11% share of the company, a court earlier this year awarded Smith $252.6 million, including interest, for her stock. Smith said she is planning her philanthropy now in expectation of receiving a check before the end of the year.

She said an undetermined portion of the money will be distributed in this calendar year and the remainder will be placed in a foundation to make gifts in subsequent years to causes favored by Smith and her mother, Athalie R. Clarke. It will be called the Joan Irvine Smith and Athalie R. Clarke Foundation, and Smith will serve as its president.

Two weeks ago, Smith announced that she intends to give millions of dollars to UC Irvine for the founding of a law school, establishment of a water reclamation department in the School of Engineering, creation of clinical research facilities at the medical school and research to help preserve the Earth’s ozone layer.

“We’re all looking at this in the most positive light,” said Karen Young, a UC Irvine spokeswoman. “We’re really thrilled with what she’s been talking about. It’s an opportunity for some positive research.”

On Thursday, Smith added numerous new charities and causes to the list. Smith said she will offer about $1 million to the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles to help establish an affiliated ear research center at UC Irvine. Smith’s mother serves on the board of directors of the institute and has been active in fund raising.

In addition, Smith said she would help fund a proposal by the Orange County Water District to establish a national ground-water research center to study new techniques for improving water quality.

The proposal, which was presented by district General Manager William Mills at the agency’s Wednesday night board meeting, came in response to Smith’s request two weeks ago for a “wish list” of research projects that she might support.

As a start, Mills has suggested five projects that would cost about $4 million over three years. They include a study of the use of bacteria to remove the toxic solvent trichloroethylene from drinking water; a study of the impact of water discharged from upstream treatment plants on the quality of Santa Ana River water reaching Orange County; the development of a mechanism that would continuously clean basins used for recharging Orange County’s ground water, and assessment of the health effects of some of the thousands of synthetic compounds found in minute quantities in drinking water supplies.

The plan for the research center calls for the Orange County Water District to be the lead agency, but also to seek participation from the Irvine Ranch Water District and the Municipal Water District of Orange County.

Mills said the center would be operated by his administrative staff but would also be served by an advisory council with representatives from the academic community, including UC Irvine and the California Water Research Center in Riverside.

“I am very excited by the plan,” Smith said. “It is just what I was looking for.”

At Wednesday night’s meeting, Smith turned down Mills’ offer to name a building after her that would be constructed at the center, saying she would prefer her funds be spent on research rather than brick and mortar.

Smith said Thursday that while UC Irvine and water research will receive the largest share of her bounty, in the last week she has added 10 more organizations to her list of prospective recipients.

Organizations that can expect to receive gifts of $100,000, she said, include the San Juan Capistrano Mission, the Audubon Society, the National Wildlife Federation, World Wildlife Fund, Save the Rainforest, the Dolphin Research Center, the Cousteau Society, the Nature Conservancy, the Bowers Museum and the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute.

Smith said her philanthropy is motivated in large part by her love of animals and plants.

“I have a great reverence for nature,” she said. “It is an important part of our lives.”

Many of those whom Smith named for gifts were surprised to learn of it Thursday.

“Joan Irvine who?” said Rev. Paul Martin, pastor of the mission at San Juan Capistrano, which Smith said she has loved since she fed the pigeons there as a young girl.

Martin said the contribution would help in a project to reinforce the mission’s walls to withstand earthquakes. He said the gift is particularly welcome during the current recession, which has had a dampening effect on philanthropy.

“For a person to be generous at this time I think is outstanding,” he said.

Similarly, Don Kent, director of operations for the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, said he was gratified by Smith’s desire to fund the organization’s research into ways to save otters and other sea life that are drenched by oil slicks. He said that the federal deficit has resulted in a limit on grants to do such work.

Dr. Howard House, founder of the House Ear Institute, said that he learned only two days ago of Smith’s intention to help the institute place a research branch at UC Irvine, but she had not told him how much money she was willing to contribute.

House said that although he had been discussing such a project “confidentially” with some of his colleagues, he hasn’t broached the issue yet with his board of directors.

“It comes as quite a surprise,” he said, noting that they have no plans yet as to what to do with the money. “I’m sure others are in the same predicament.”

DONATIONS PROPOSED BY JOAN IRVINE SMITH

$1-million chair in UC Irvine’s School of Engineering to focus on research into a range of water issues, including reclamation, toxic waste management and desalination.

$60,000 to study how to clean the San Juan Basin, which underlies San Juan Capistrano.

$1-million chair to help establish a law school at UCI.

Gift of unspecified size to UCI program to study ways to preserve the earth’s ozone layer.

Gift of $1 million to help establish a research branch of the House Ear Institute at UCI as part of the medical school’s proposed new clinical research facilities.

Unspecified gift to help establish a National Ground Water Research Center to be managed by the Orange County Water District.

$100,000 to Mission San Juan Capistrano for historical renovation.

$100,000 to the National Audubon Society.

$100,000 to the National Wildlife Federation.

$100,000 to the World Wildlife Fund.

$100,000 to Save the Rainforest.

$100,000 to the Dolphin Research Center.

$100,000 to the Cousteau Society.

$100,000 to the Nature Conservancy.

$100,000 to the Bowers Museum.

$100,000 to the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute.