The Breakaway fund provides unrestricted, easy-to-access capital that helps you and your team barrel past the usual obstacles, giving you the best possible advantage for achieving your goals.
Donor Name: Samueli Foundation
State: California
County: Orange County (CA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/13/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
According to the Orange County Nonprofit Needs Assessment, nonprofits serving Orange County face significant challenges in securing unrestricted funds to support staffing and leadership development, enhance their infrastructure, and engage in meaningful inter-organizational collaboration.
The Breakaway Fund will provide one year grant awards of $50,000-$100,000 for projects in the following categories:
- Talent and Leadership: Every professional hockey team invests in coaches, trainers, nutritionists and other people who help their players thrive. Why should nonprofit organizations go without the same types of support? They will consider requests that cover investments in human capital to improve employee recruitment, professional development, organizational culture, and retention other than personnel salaries. Examples include:
- Professional development (e.g., executive coaching, training, conferences
- Organization culture-building efforts (e.g., team retreats, feedback tools)
- Employee benefits or perks (e.g., wellness stipends, staff meals)
- Systems and “Stuff”: Hockey players rely on having abundant equipment including skates, sticks, pads, helmets, and mouth guards. Their coaches use sophisticated technology to assess game play and plan team logistics. Nonprofits also need to purchase new equipment to support their missions. They will consider requests that cover capital expenses or physical assets that improve your organization’s ability to deliver its mission through investments in the tools and infrastructure you need to operate effectively. Examples include:
- Technology upgrades (e.g., new laptops, CRM or financial software, WiFi upgrades)
- Facility improvements (e.g., painting, lighting upgrades, security systems)
- Furniture or equipment (e.g., filing systems, HVAC systems, AV gear)
- Expertise: Behind every great team are experts that help with complex legal issues, human resources, financial planning, and other work that requires specific contracted expertise. They will consider requests that cover third party technical assistance to augment your current team with the right experts at the right time. Examples include:
- Legal assistance (e.g., revising bylaws, contract review)
- Accounting or finance support (e.g., audit prep, forecasting help)
- HR consultants (e.g., crafting new policies, compensation benchmarking)
- Season Ticket: Not everything you dream of fits into neat boxes. If you have a unique funding request that falls outside of the above categories, please describe your request in your application and they will consider it.
Eligible Projects
Eligible projects will be selected for funding based on the following criteria:
- Organization: The organization helps to advance well-being and opportunity for all individuals and families living in Orange County
- Project: The proposed activities are realistic and feasible and will enable the organization to better deliver its mission
- Funding: “Right resources” for the project (would allow the organization to cover 100% of the requested expense).
Eligibility Criteria
To be considered for the Breakaway Fund, your organization:
- Must be able to receive charitable dollars.
- Must serve communities in Orange County, California.
- Must be aligned with the Samueli Foundation’s mission and values.
- Must submit the application request through the Samueli Foundation portal.
- Must be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, not classified as a private foundation or have a fiscal sponsor that has 501(c)(3) status and provides written authorization confirming its willingness to act as the fiscal sponsor, or fall into one of the following categories:
- Government entity (non-501(c)(3)): U.S. federal agencies territories and commonwealths, state agencies and departments and political subdivisions (including cities, counties, municipal agencies).
- School: All K-12 public or nonprofit private schools, charter schools, community/junior colleges, state/private colleges, or universities. Institutions must have a NCES (National Center for Education Statistics) number or 501c3 tax status.
- Church or other faith-based organization with a proposed project that benefits the community at large, such as food pantries, soup kitchens and clothing closets.
For more information, visit Samueli Foundation.
