Orange County Register
By: Theresa Walker
Helping Hand
A quarter of a century is a long time. Just ask Shelley Hoss, chief executive officer of Orange County Community Foundation.
She is the longest tenured community foundation leader in California.
Hoss has spent 25 years growing and guiding what now amounts to $100 million a year in grants and scholarships from some 650 charitable funds — among the top community foundations in the country with more than $1.6 billion in cumulative giving since its inception in 1989.
In November, UC Irvine will bestow its highest alumni award to Hoss, who earned her Masters of Business and Public Administration there in 1987.
Shelley Hoss
CEO, Orange County Community Foundation
Nearly 40 years in the world of nonprofits and philanthropy includes a decade as associate executive director of Orangewood Children’s Foundation and nearly four years as executive director of Girls Inc. of Orange County.
Hoss still has a lot she wants to accomplish on behalf of those in need and those who want to help, at a time of increasing polarization and uncertainty in American life.
“My sights are on the future, but I am leaning into the work. In some ways I feel like I spent my whole career getting ready to show up for this moment.”
What does your longevity mean, if anything, to you personally?
[She laughs.] It happens when you just get old and don’t leave.
What’s the key to that staying power?
For me, finding where I truly met the marriage of my head and my heart and the difference I wanted to make in the world. Finding out that that could be a career — I mean, my gosh, I feel like I’ve already won all the awards and get to win every day.
In an environment like we’re living in now, so much feels out of control. We’re watching impacts on our community that we don’t really have influence over. But we get to approach each day with work that is meaningful to benefit our communities.
That is a balm to my soul. It gives me an incredible sense of purpose.
We have all kinds of things we could argue about, but helping people rise, helping uplift local communities, giving people opportunities — all those things are undebatable.
What led you into the field of nonprofits and philanthropy? Was it a light bulb moment?
It was a rolling light bulb. The opposite of a rolling blackout.
I did my undergrad at UC Riverside. I loved their approach at the time. You kind of designed your bespoke program covering all the basics but focusing on areas of concentration that drew you most.
So, along with all my financing and accounting and some work in statistics, I did a lot of political science, sociology, psychology and organizational behavior.
Along the way I discovered that, ooh, I’m going to need to do something that I feel has a purpose or a meaning. I started to think, what are some industries that I feel are helping people?
And then what?
I was already headed for grad school but I spent the summer between volunteering at a camp for kids in the foster care system. That was a big light bulb moment when I saw these kids.
I’d never been exposed to anything like what these kids were coming out of. Their life experience was just a whole horrid revelation.
To see the transformation from people just reflecting their values with love and respect, taking them up to the mountains and teaching them things — just the unbelievable gratitude and wonder made you realize, oh my gosh, you can make such a huge difference with a relatively small thing.
Light bulb No. 3 came in the MBA program. I would talk to anybody who would listen about my experience at Orangewood and how inspiring it was. An entire public housing course was a major research project on a public policy topic. I did my research project on the building of Orangewood Children’s Home.
And I talked to Bill Steiner (now-deceased founder of Orangewood Foundation and former Orange County supervisor). It was like, he’s doing what I want to do — he’s leading a nonprofit organization that was doing all the things I was learning about in business school, but doing it on behalf of these kids.
That was, “Oh my gosh, that’s it. I found it! That’s what I want to do.”
Talk about some of the most important lessons you’ve learned at OCCF.
Orange County is a community of first-generation wealth, self-made people. Most of the people that we work with came from very little. Some are products of philanthropy — went to school on a scholarship, raised at the Boys & Girls Club.
They know the difference that it makes.
In all my 40 years in this community, the happiest people I know are those who are actively engaged in giving. The sense of purpose. The sense of meaning and shared meaning with their families. The sense of living in integrity with their values. It is something that money can’t buy.
And I always share this when I’m talking to a group of fundraisers or nonprofits: It’s like, don’t be bashful. Be respectful and definitely be good listeners. Don’t go asking your donors for something that is crazy and out of reach for them. But when you’ve done your due diligence and you feel confident you’re asking for the right thing, then you’re really extending an invitation for them to join you.
Never be bashful about that invitation as long as you’ve done your homework.
