OUR LAGUNA: A Foundation for the community

The Laguna Community Foundation was launched this week, anchored by an anonymous $500,000 donation.

Foundation Chairwoman Laura Tarbox announced the donation at a gathering Tuesday at Aliso Creek Inn, held to introduce the group’s mission to representatives of some of Laguna’s high profile nonprofit organizations. She is scheduled to make a presentation Tuesday at the City Council meeting.

“Our goal is to serve nonprofits and to educate donors about the benefits of giving,” Tarbox said. “There are tax benefits, but there is more to personal philanthropy, and we need to educate donors.

“Laguna Beach is such a unique community, but a lot of people haven’t figured out what group they would like to support.”

The foundation’s mission is to encourage philanthropy in the greater Laguna Beach Area through serving its charitable organizations and residents.

In no way will the foundation compete with nonprofits. The idea is to help strengthen them by providing information, and assistance in areas of need, such as taxes, board development and fundraising support.

The donation announced at the meeting will be used to seed an endowment fund.

Assistance to the nonprofits will include encouragement of community philanthropy, the development of endowments and donor advised funds.

“This offers tremendous opportunities to raise new money and really focuses on Laguna Beach,” said former school board member and Planning Commissioner Robert Whalen, who represented the Boys & Girls Club at the meeting.

The foundation is fruition of a dream that came out of a casual conversation more than six years ago at a Laguna Canyon Foundation meeting — a long time coming

Former Mayor Wayne Peterson, Laguna Canyon Foundation President Michael Pinto, former LCF Executive Director Mary Fegraus and board member Peter Kote were chatting about their dreams one day in early 2003 and realized they all wanted to do something for Laguna Beach nonprofits and had similar notions how to do it.

“Laguna Beach Community Foundation has been a number of years in formation, but how fortuitous that it is coming to fruition in these difficult economic times,” Fegraus said. “We are on our way to bringing together the interests of Laguna Beach residents and our charities to help them now and in the future.

“Wayne was the driving force at that first meeting and subsequent meetings.”

The foursome took almost immediate action to put their dream in motion.

They met with an attorney March 26, 2003, to discuss the organization required for a community foundation and elected to frame it as a trust, rather than a corporation.

But it was more than a year later that they hosted meetings on May 5 and June 2, 2004, with representatives of local nonprofits to learn their needs, collect their mission and vision statements and suss out what they thought a community foundation should be.

In December of that year, the Laguna Beach Community Foundation Charitable Trust Agreement was executed by Peterson, Pinto, Kote and Fegraus, as settlers, a legal term for the creators of a trust, also called trustors in some states and sometimes referred to as the donors.

They were named as the first trustees.

A domain name was reserved in February 2005. An application for 501(c)3 IRS status was filed in May and approved in August 2006.

After an 18-month hiatus, the founders held the first meeting with people who were interested in becoming trustees, and Rick Balzer joined the group.

In April, Robert Gamez and Richard Crum signed on, followed by Bob Dornin in June.

Tarbox joined at a retreat in July, facilitated by Kathy Jones.

The charitable trust agreement was amended last December to reflect new terms for existing trustees and to elect the newcomers.

The professional expertise of the board members is probably as big an asset to the foundation as the $500,000 donation — not to mention their experience as volunteers, both locally and on a broader scale.

Tarbox has been a resident of Laguna since 1980, almost since she graduated from university in Los Angeles and flouted friends’ advice not to settle behind the Orange Curtain. She is the founder of a fee-only wealth advisory firm, has served on various financial industry boards and has taught financial planning classes for 20 years, the last 18 at UC Irvine, where she received the Distinguished Instructor Award in 1997 and was the financial planning program director.

She has volunteered with the SchoolPower Endowment and Capital Fund, the Laguna Beach Community Clinic and the Laguna Canyon Foundation.

“Mary and Michael are my mentors,” Tarbox said.

Vice Chairman Dornin is a Realtor with Sotheby’s International, a certified public accountant and previous chief financial officer of publicly held companies.

He has volunteered with SchoolPower and the Boys & Girls Club.

Secretary Fegraus is one of the most highly regarded women in Laguna. She has been a resident since 1973, a trustee for the Laguna Beach High School Scholarship Foundation since 1985, past Laguna Beach Girl School Service Unit chairwoman, director of Laguna Greenbelt Inc. and a former city Planning Commissioner, in addition to her work with Laguna Canyon Foundation — for which a trail in the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park was named in her honor.

CPA-Treasurer Gamez has lived in Laguna since 1969. He is the founding owner of his accounting firm and serves or has served on boards of organizations that benefit education and youth programs.

He was a volunteer for the Girls’ Club, now assimilated into the Boys & Girls Club, the Laguna Beach Boosters, SchoolPower and the Laguna Beach Playhouse. He assists organizations in management and accounting systems.

Balzer is a Realtor and active on that board. A resident since 1949, Balzer has served on the city’s Parking, Transportation and Circulation Committee, on the board of the Boys & Girls Club and currently on the board of the Laguna Art Museum.

Kote is founder and president of Professional Fiduciary Services, a board member and officer of the Laguna Canyon Foundation, a past president of the Planned Giving Committee of Orange County, past board member of the SchoolPower Endowment Fund and former Laguna Beach Open Space Committee chairman.

Peterson became a teacher of English as a Second Language in Santa Ana after retiring as manager of Pacific Mutual Life, Group Pension Department. He was elected to the City Council in 1991 and 1995, after serving on the city’s Design Review Board and the Planning Commission.

Pinto has plenty of experience in charitable foundations and a doctorate in philanthropy.

He is the founding and only president of the Laguna Canyon Foundation, past president of SchoolPower and founder and past president of its Endowment Fund, vice chairman of the Orange County Great Park, co-chairman of the Advisory Board of San Diego University’s Institute for Nonprofit Education and Research and has served as chairman and pro bono advisor to numerous nonprofits.

The foundation has hired Amanda J. Ferrari and Robert Shelton as executive directors.

Both are graduates of law schools, have worked with philanthropic, estate planning and fundraising organizations, and have volunteered at Human Options, a program for battered women that was founded in Laguna Beach.

“We are very pleased to have snagged them,” Gamez said.

Ferrari and Sheldon are the primary contacts for the foundation and its website, www.lagunabeachcommunity foundation.org.

The website lists Laguna nonprofits that have submitted their names by categories such as education, environment, performing and fine arts, service, health, and animal welfare; and features a bulletin board where nonprofits can post information. An events calendar is under construction.

Ferrrari can be reached at Amanda4re@aol.com, and Sheldon can be reached at Rsheldon01@aol.com, or call (949) 375-7968.

To learn more about the foundation, visit the website, hear about it in person at Tuesday’s council meeting, or watch it on television.

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, 92652; call (949) 380-4321 or e-mail coastlinepilot@latimes.com