{"id":488540,"date":"2026-10-07T23:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T23:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488540\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T23:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T23:24:17","slug":"orange-county-grantmakers-summit-focuses-on-action-impact-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488540\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County Grantmakers Summit focuses on action, impact, joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Orange County Grantmakers executive director Taryn Palumbo said she planned her organization\u2019s annual summit event down to the minute.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, life happens.<\/p>\n

A fire alarm went off at the Anaheim Marriott Suites in Garden Grove midway through the keynote speech of Cristela Alonzo.<\/p>\n

The voice behind an announcement said that there was no fire, it was only a test. Alonzo, who counts stand-up comedian as one of her jobs, did not flinch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love that it rang and none of us ran,\u201d she told the 525 philanthropic, nonprofit and business leaders assembled. \u201cThere was an alarm, and everybody\u2019s like, \u2018Whatever.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Attendees <\/p>\n

Attendees of the Orange County Grantmakers Summit share what brings them joy in a collage hanging during the event on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

(Eric Licas)<\/p>\n

Alonzo provided plenty of laughs to close out the annual Orange County Grantmakers<\/a> Summit on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

The theme for the summit, held while OC Grantmakers is celebrating its milestone 20th anniversary, included three keywords: action, impact and joy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, we really intentionally moved away from issue-specific things to this idea of just bringing everyone together,\u201d said Palumbo, a Huntington Beach resident and city council hopeful who was less than a day removed from participating in a candidates forum<\/a>. \u201cWe felt like the world today needed an opportunity for just connection and pause. We really wanted to be intentional about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The all-day event featured 25 speakers from positions around the county. The summit, which started in 2010 as a way to support nonprofits<\/a> coming out of the recession, has continued to grow. <\/p>\n

\"Chantias <\/p>\n

Chantias Ford discusses how to maintain joy in difficult situations during the Orange County Grantmakers Summit on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

(Eric Licas)<\/p>\n

Before Alonzo\u2019s speech, guests heard so-called \u201cLightning Labs,\u201d short talks from speakers on subjects ranging from using artificial intelligence well in the nonprofit world to maintaining joy in difficult conversations. There were also Lightning Labs in the morning session.<\/p>\n

Renata Simril, president and chief executive of LA84 Foundation, spoke about joy and sports.<\/p>\n

The event concluded with a happy hour, designed to encourage more networking between the attendees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is always a little bit of a level set of, what are people thinking about?\u201d Palumbo said. \u201cWhat are people stressed about? What is the nonprofit community focused on right now? Then we use that to build out the rest of our year, from here on. This is our opportunity to take a pause, then I use the next couple of months to figure out how we\u2019re going to be focusing on that for 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jay <\/p>\n

Jay Golden addresses attendees of the Orange County Grantmakers Summit on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

(Eric Licas)<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Andrade is the executive director of 2-1-1 Orange County, a key program run by Orange County United Way that provides connections to housing, food, financial resources and more. She has been coming to the OC Grantmakers Summit for several years, and has seen it grow since its days at the Delhi Center in Santa Ana.<\/p>\n

Andrade, a candidate for the Fountain Valley City Council, said the need for collaboration is critical in the aftermath of H.R. 1. The legislation, also known as the \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill,\u201d was signed into law in 2025, affecting nonprofits through new restrictions to charitable donations while slashing programs like Medi-Cal<\/a> and SNAP.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to see more people in need in our community,\u201d Andrade said. \u201cThis is the social safety net. These are the people that are going to catch the people that are falling out of those services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alonzo, the youngest of four children raised in Texas by a single mother, understands some of the challenges. She went on to become the first Mexican American woman to create, produce and star in her own American primetime comedy, as \u201cCristela\u201d aired for one season starting in 2014.<\/p>\n

\"Comedian, <\/p>\n

Comedian, actress and writer Cristela Alonzo gives the keynote speech at the Orange County Grantmakers Summit on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

(Eric Licas)<\/p>\n

She encouraged the leaders to \u201csee the movie,\u201d unlike her late mother, who worked double shifts at a Mexican restaurant in Texas and died before taking the time to enjoy entertainment like a movie at a local theater.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here because of action, impact, and joy,\u201d Alonzo said. \u201cAction is something you don\u2019t have a problem with. Action is movement; you move all the time, nonstop. The impact \u2014 you know exactly why you\u2019re doing it. You see the results. It\u2019s the last part you have to work on. It\u2019s the joy, because some of you have never been told that it\u2019s OK to seek out the joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alonzo said that at 47, she had recently started swimming lessons, and she regularly plans family trips to places like Hawaii and the Grand Canyon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want anybody to live like my mother did,\u201d she said. \u201cI want you all to see the movie \u2026 You work enough. In fact, I know you work too much. Don\u2019t wait until you\u2019re older. Do it now, while you can still move, while you can still have the energy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orange County Grantmakers executive director Taryn Palumbo said she planned her organization\u2019s annual summit event down to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[6650,163,165,164,16273,190746,190747,14545,45798,190749,190748,4287,5751,190750,1759,592,47929,72],"class_list":["post-488540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-action","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-connection","tag-cristela-alonzo","tag-elizabeth-andrade","tag-impact","tag-joy","tag-keynote-speech","tag-lightning-labs","tag-movie","tag-nonprofit","tag-oc-grantmakers","tag-orange-county-grantmakers-summit","tag-people","tag-speaker","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}