Pacific Life Foundation Plans $7.25 Million in 2020 Giving: Philanthropy

Newport Beach, California-based foundation will focus on supporting organizations in the communities where Pacific Life employees work: Orange County, California; Omaha, Nebraska; and Lynchburg, Virginia.

The foundation gave about $2 million to 155 nonprofit organizations recently at a reception in Newport Beach.

(Related: Upper-Income Investors Say Charitable Giving Is a Top Priority: Wells Fargo)

The biggest recipient may be the United Way.

The Pacific Life Foundation will match employee contributions to the United Way, and it expects employee contributions and the matching contributions to total $1 million.

Another major 2020 recipient is the Ronald McDonald House Orange County. The Ronald McDonald House system provides lodging for the families of seriously ill children who are in the hospital. The Pacific Life Foundation gave the Orange County facility $150,000 to renovate its space, add 24 rooms, and add a playground and other amenities.

In other charitable giving news:

The Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation, a Cincinnati-based arm of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Ohio, says it, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Anthem associates gave charities in Ohio $3.7 million in 2019.

Anthem associates gave $500,000 in cash donations and 8,200 volunteer hours, the foundation says.

About $285,000 of the grants from Anthem and the foundation went to support projects addressing housing insecurity, such as a shelter for homeless families, the foundation says.

The company and the foundation also gave $214,000 to organizations that focus on mental illness and substance use disorders, such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness Ohio.

The foundation announced Friday that it has started a special two-week grant application window for nonprofit organizations in Ohio. The foundation says it wants to see proposals for addressing top Ohio health challenges, including ways to strengthen neighborhoods, encourage healthy behavior, and deal with socioeconomic issues, such as problems with paying for healthy food, that affect people's health.

Northwestern Mutual's foundation has given $1 million to the Milwaukee Public Museum. Part of the grant will go toward helping the museum move to a new location.

The foundation is also giving $350,000 to a scholarship program that helps families affected by cancer. The foundation's 2019 Childhood Cancer Survivor and Sibling Scholarship program helped 35 students pay for college.

Each of the recipients either is a survivor of childhood cancer or the sibling of a survivor.

Each recipient is eligible to get $5,000 per year in scholarship money for two years.

A third Northwestern Mutual program makes grants on behalf of financial advisors who receive the company's Community Service Award.

The top award winners were Jesse Bergland, Scott Cohen, Marc Eisenshtat and Chad Greer.

The grant on half of Bergland went to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

The grant on behalf of Cohen went to Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, and the grant behalf of Eisenshtat went to Sunrise Day Camps.

The grant on behalf of Greer went to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee.

GetInsured recently celebrated a major contract win in Pennsylvania by paying to eradicate $1.8 mllion in Pennsylvania residents' medical debt.

GetInsured worked with RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit organization, to buy back the medical debt and council it.

GetInsured is a company that helps states run their Affordable Care Act public exchange programs. It recently won a contract to help Pennsylvania set up a state-based ACA public exchange program starting with the open enrollment period for 2021 coverage.

The company also provides support services for the ACA exchange programs in California, Idaho, Minnesota, Nevada and Washington state.

Legal & General America says it has raised $940,000 through its annual charitable giving campaign.

Some of the money raised will go to the Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership of Frederick County, in Maryland

About 853 students in the Frederick County School System were homeless at least part of the 2018-2019 school year, and some of those were no longer under the direct care of a parent or legal guardian, Legal & General says.

Legal & General is the parent of Banner Life Insurance Company and William Penn Life Insurance Company of New York.

Munich Re Life US has formed a four-year partnership with the American Cancer Society.

The organizations will work on cancer-related research projects together, and Munich Re will provide $250,000 in funding for two American Cancer Society research scholar grants. The grants will help pay for cancer-related research projects.

Athene USA has given $12,000 to Operation HOPE, a nonprofit organization that provides financial literacy education and coaching.

Athene gave the organization the donation in Hollywood, Florida, at the 2020 Bank Insurance & Securities Association convention.

Athene also supported Operation HOPE last year.

— Read U.S. Charitable Giving Projected to Grow in 2020 and 2021, on ThinkAdvisor.

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