A $50,000 grant and 33,000 volunteer hours: Laguna's nonprofit engine rolls into fall

Laguna Beach's senior transportation nonprofit is about to get stronger behind the scenes. Sally's Fund, Inc. has been selected to receive a $50,000 Breakaway Fund grant from the Samueli Foundation, announced Aug. 26, 2026, which the nonprofit will use to strengthen its organizational infrastructure and support long-term sustainability as it provides transportation and related services to Laguna Beach seniors.

"This grant comes at a pivotal moment for Sally's Fund. Unrestricted funding like this allows us to invest where it is most needed ... Most importantly, it helps ensure that we can continue providing dependable, compassionate transportation to the seniors and disabled adults who rely on Sally's Fund," said Rachael Berger, executive director of Sally's Fund.

Main Beach Park, the community gathering place at the center of downtown Laguna Beach.

Patrick Nouhailler, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Source

The grant is part of $15 million the Samueli Foundation awarded to 89 Orange County-serving nonprofits through its Breakaway Fund and Build OC Fund initiatives, a record-setting pace for the foundation founded by Henry and Susan Samueli. Sally's Fund was one of two Laguna Beach nonprofits to receive a grant in this round, alongside the Glennwood Housing Foundation, Inc., whose residents at Glennwood House regularly rely on Sally's Fund for rides.

Across town, the Assistance League of Laguna Beach closed its 2025-26 year with numbers that show what an all-volunteer chapter can do: $500,000 in local support, more than 6,000 people served, and 33,000 hours volunteered. The chapter's signature Infant Development Program, for which the Assistance League has provided the facility and 100 percent of the funding since 1976, recently celebrated 50 years of helping infants and their families.

Beachgoers crowd Main Beach on a busy day, the kind of community the fund's volunteers serve.

Dirk, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Source

The Assistance League is also recruiting the next wave of volunteers. Its Professionals group hosts a Gather Grow Give networking event on Oct. 21, 2026, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., a wine and cheese open house where attendees are invited to donate business attire and accessories for Working Wardrobes. The chapter's thrift shop, which funds its programs, is open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The giving impulse is not limited to the established chapters. Rising Laguna Beach High School senior Nicolo Cambruzzi, through his own organization A Good Foundation, is raising money to buy new shoes for young students living at Colette's Children's Home in Huntington Beach, a shelter supporting women and children who are homeless. Cambruzzi started his first drive in fourth grade at Top of the World Elementary, collecting underwear, T-shirts, and socks for preschool students, and later ran drives for underserved children across Orange County and baseball equipment for children in the Dominican Republic. "It was an eye-opening experience," Cambruzzi said of the visit that started it. "I saw how different their lives were."