A Changing Climate in O.C. Philanthropy

The timing couldn’t have been worse when the Orange County Marine Institute unveiled its $7.5-million building plan in 1990. Southern California’s economy was in a tailspin and contributions from real estate developers, long the county’s main source of philanthropic contributions, were disappearing.

But rather than waiting for developers to regain their financial health, the institute started knocking on doors of local companies with strong ties to the ocean. That door-to-door approach has paid off: During the past three years, the Corona del Mar-based Surf Industry Manufacturers Assn. has donated more than $60,000 to the institute’s capital fund.

The contribution will be blended with other gifts as the institute works toward its goal of building a new marine education institute valued at more than $20 million. And SIMA’s contribution has led to a second level of support: Accountants, lawyers and other companies that work with surf apparel companies also have started to make donations.

“It’s an interesting partnership because without the ocean, the surf industry isn’t going to survive,” said Stan Cummings, executive director of the Marine Institute, who senses “a (growing) general awareness in the business community of the importance of environmental matters . . . and there’s less of the ‘us and them’ mentality.”

As government funding and donations from traditional business sources disappear, conservation and environmental advocacy groups such as the Marine Institute are increasingly turning to companies that have a vested interest in ensuring that surfers, cyclists, hikers and climbers have safe and easy access to trails, open space and oceans.

Cummings said he doesn’t expect developers to reprise their prominence as the county’s leading source of philanthropic funding. “Orange County is maturing,” he said. “Developers helped to ensure that cultural facilities are begun and now it’s time for other industries to come into the fore.”

Some of those alternative companies are starting to fund environmental and conservation organizations.

“It’s in our interest for people to have places to go and enjoy the outdoors,” said Marianne Jones, a full-time grants administrator for Sumner, Wash.-based Recreational Equipment Inc., who processes hundreds of grant requests each month. “We want people to have space to use our products but it has to make good business sense. . . . You don’t want (corporate directors) questioning why you’re giving money away.”

Most larger companies are geared up to deal with larger, better-established conservation groups that have longstanding track records like the Sierra Club or the Nature Conservancy, said Pam Maurath, an official with the Environmental Grantmakers Assn., a New York-based group that represents 172 businesses and nonprofit groups that contribute to various green organizations.

However, most smaller organizations lack the sophistication needed to make effective funding pitches to large, faraway companies.

But neighborhood activists have few qualms about approaching smaller companies that make products--surfboards, hiking boots, tents, etc.--that are used in the outdoors.

Outdoor clothing and equipment manufacturers responded to the growing number of requests by forming an industry group that, like the surf industry association, directs funds into grass-roots groups.

In 1989, REI, Patagonia, Adventure 16 and nearly 40 other outdoors equipment and clothing companies created the Conservation Alliance, a nonprofit outfit that has handed out more than $1 million in donations. Most of the alliance’s grants are for $30,000 or less, and all are directed at smaller, nonprofit organizations.

“A lot of the best work is being done by 10 people gathering around a coffee table who want to change something on their block,” said Steve Barker, president of Eagle Creek Travel Gear in Escondido. “The big companies aren’t likely to give them any money because they’re not sophisticated enough. But a buck takes them a long way and that’s what we like . . . we get a lot of go-power for our money.”

Eagle Creek Travel Gear is active in its own back yard. The company, which manufactures backpacks and other gear, is supporting a group that’s trying to preserve what’s left of the nearby Escondido Creek’s natural habitat. The company also helped to rescue a local Sierra Club essay contest that was endangered by a funding shortfall.

Conservation Alliance grants are being used to protect the largest remaining unprotected virgin redwood grove in Northern California, to expand and maintain hiking trails in the Adirondack Mountains and to support legislators who want to remove 12 dams on rivers in Oregon.

Surf industry companies also are targeting grass-roots conservation groups.

Club Sportswear in Irvine is donating portions of its “Ecology Tees” T-shirt line to the Surfrider Foundation. Similarly, Freestyle, a Camarillo-based sports watch manufacturer, contributes proceeds from the sale of a line of bracelets it makes to American Oceans Campaign, a Santa Monica-based organization that lobbies for legislation to protect the oceans.

Barker said that the greening of corporate giving is a “lifestyle choice. . . . People are still dressing up to go to an opera or symphony fund-raisers because it’s something that should be done.”

“But we’re also trying to help local grass-roots groups that are the most in need of funds and are small enough where we can make an impact with our limited funds.”

That’s a significant change for some manufacturers who previously limited their support of environmental causes to outfitting high-profile expeditions to the Amazon or Antarctica.

Now, there’s “less of the ‘me and 75 Sherpas (mountain guides) are going to climb a mountain’ and more of a trend toward people who are volunteering to work on an environmental project that truly benefits the ecology,” Barker said.

That’s the driving force behind the surf industry manufacturers’ decision to fund three Southern California organizations that are working to protect the Pacific Ocean.

Proceeds from SIMA’s fifth annual Waterman’s Ball gala on Saturday will support the Marine Institute, American Oceans Campaign and the San Clemente-based Surfrider Foundation. The 1993 ball raised a total of $75,000 that was split equally among the three groups. Saturday’s affair was expected to generate about $150,000.

SIMA raises funds through ticket sales to the gala and an auction that includes surfboards, clothing and all-expense-paid trips to idyllic surfing spots. And it capitalizes on its strong Hollywood connections to help auction walk-on roles on television shows, including “Coach” and “Murphy Brown.”

Actor Ted Danson, founder and president of American Oceans, is one of SIMA’s strongest supporters. “What I do is shine a light on issues,” Danson said. “But what these (business leaders) are doing is actually responding to the issues.”

Danson helped to establish American Oceans in 1987 in order to go head-to-head with big oil companies on the volatile issue of offshore oil drilling.

SIMA members are excited by one of American Oceans’ latest projects--an automotive oil recycling program for Los Angeles city residents. Co-sponsored by Unocal, the program is designed to intercept the thousands of gallons of motor oil that are dumped into storm drains that empty into the Pacific.

Danson applauded Unocal, usually the target of environmentalists’ ire, for its willingness to join the recycling program.

“The issues are so huge that we didn’t want to just sit there stuck in a brick-throwing mentality,” Danson said. “We’ve been fighting them for so long that we’ve become friends. . . . We both agreed to sit down and agree on this one issue and agree to disagree on other issues.”

Freestyle Vice President Jimmy Olmos said that business support for environmental causes is, in part, selfish.

“Most of us in the surf industry live at or near the beach,” Olmos said. “And we all have young children. We’re realizing that the children love the ocean but it’s getting more difficult for them to get into the water.

Employers also are making it increasingly easy for employees to make green donations.

More than 150 companies with operations in California--including Wells Fargo Bank, Patagonia and Recreational Equipment Inc.--give environmental organizations access to their employees’ donations through automatic payroll deductions.