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Family Foundation
Mission
Founded in 1991, the Caruso Family Foundation empowers underserved children and their families in Southern California with the ability to change their life’s trajectory and break the cycle of poverty. It is through high quality educational opportunities and access to superior healthcare that we are able to help make these communities stronger. Working with a network of local organizations — each with a proven track record of providing exceptional services and programs to the communities they serve — the foundation takes a long-term approach to transforming the lives of underserved youth with initiatives beginning as early as 6 months of age to graduate-level opportunities.
Values
Evidence suggests that education is critical to success later in life. Providing early educational opportunities to children whose lives are beset by socioeconomic disadvantages is one way to minimize the gap. Low-income households and people of color have historically faced significant hardships and systemic challenges, resulting in an achievement gap earlier in life that grows over time. Our foundation aims to confront this disparity at its roots. The programs we support not only measure success through academic achievements, but also the long-term effects on students’ lives through innovative mentorship programs, wraparound services that support families and communities, and various career resources. We continue to enhance our pipeline of educational opportunities with unique collaborations with local law enforcement, educators and community leaders.
The foundation’s commitment to quality healthcare and pioneering medical research at USC
Caruso Department of Otolaryngology reflects a personal mission for the Caruso family. Studies have shown that early intervention for children born with hearing loss has a tremendous impact on life-long communicative competencies. These are basic life skills that children need for their education and future success. This area of focus continues to underscore the family’s commitment to helping children that wouldn’t otherwise have the ability to afford these technologies or have access to this level of healthcare.
MARY MELTON, EDITOR IN CHIEF, LOS ANGELES MAGAZINERick’s impact on Los Angeles reaches far beyond the borders of his commercial enterprises. Through his many philanthropic commitments—whether it’s transforming the lives of the city’s neediest children at Para Los Niños, providing mentorship and enriched educational opportunities for severely underserved children in Watts with Operation Progress, supporting vitally needed medical research at the Keck School of Medicine, or building and endowing our Savior Parish and the USC Caruso Catholic Church, he has exhibited a deep sense of social responsibility and civic investment across the county.
Operation Progress
In 2013, the Caruso Family Foundation made a $5 million commitment to launch the Operation Progress ecosystem in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, an area that has among the lowest life expectancy and college graduation rates in California. A partnership between Operation Progress, LAPD, and local Catholic schools, the ecosystem aims to guide hundreds of underserved students — most of whom live in the area’s housing developments — from elementary school through college graduation over the next decade.
This unique collaboration between law enforcement, educators, and community leaders is already being viewed as a national model for both student achievement and improved police-community relations.
People try and place limits on kids like me about how far we can go, especially in my community. But in OP, you create your own floor and own ceiling.
Meah, Freshman at morgan state university
People try and place limits on kids like me about how far we can go, especially in my community. But in OP, you create your own floor and own ceiling.
Meah, Freshman at morgan state university
PARA LOS NIÑOS
Para Los Niños, founded on Skid Row in 1980, provides education and wraparound support to over 6,000 of Los Angeles’ neediest children, youth, and families each year. The organization fosters pathways to success by striving for excellence in education and family support, as well as comprehensive social-emotional and community-based services. Tina and Rick Caruso have donated more than $3 million and established the Tina & Rick Caruso Early Education Center, providing Early Head Start and Head Start for 80+ infants and toddlers 6 weeks old to 5 years old, in the heart of Skid Row.
You guys at PLN have no idea how much I love and appreciate you. No one has ever helped me as much as you. I’ve been through many rough patches and you guys have gotten to know my story and have always been there for me. From help with food and transportation assistance to referrals for different resources — like the time that I was homeless and you guys helped me — and help with my college applications, and much more support and guidance.
CHRISTOPHER, YWS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Endowed the Caruso Department of Otolaryngology at the Keck School of Medicine and the USC Caruso Family Center for Childhood Communication.
Endowed and built the USC Caruso Catholic Center & Our Savior Parish Church to provide spiritual support and a gathering place for people of all faiths. The Center serves thousands of students, families, and community members.
In 2017, Rick Caruso was honored with the Asa V. Call Award, the highest
alumni honor.
This gift reflects Rick’s long legacy of support and deeply held personal philosophy of giving back to organizations that are transforming lives in Southern California for children living in poverty. He is a primary benefactor to Operation Progress, which guides hundreds of at-risk students in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles to and through college, as well as Para Los Niños, which provides healthcare, education, and social services to Angelenos living in poverty.
PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY
PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY
In 2019, Caruso committed $50 million to the Pepperdine School of Law, inspiring the new name of Rick J. Caruso School of Law in recognition of the historic gift.
The contribution will expand educational access to exceptional, historically underserved student populations — a hallmark of the Caruso family’s philanthropic efforts in the Los Angeles area and beyond — as well as fuel several initiatives to strengthen the School of Law’s academic programming.
Caruso also established the Caruso Family Loan Forgiveness Fund, an endowed fund for graduates who are dedicated to a career in public service.
Tina and I believe that rising levels of student debt is causing a crisis in the American educational system. The system is broken and does a poor job at giving kids living in poverty equal access to educational opportunities, thus creating a tectonic divide between the rich and poor. Providing access to quality education for underprivileged children is an important social cause that demands our time and investment. Educational access influences the diversity of candidates that pursue careers in public service — roles that have a critical impact on society — as well as the labor market more broadly. There was once a time when education was considered the great equalizer in America, and our society has strayed too far from this ideal — education should not be a privilege.
—RICK J. CARUSO
Tina and I believe that rising levels of student debt is causing a crisis in the American educational system. The system is broken and does a poor job at giving kids living in poverty equal access to educational opportunities, thus creating a tectonic divide between the rich and poor. Providing access to quality education for underprivileged children is an important social cause that demands our time and investment. Educational access influences the diversity of candidates that pursue careers in public service — roles that have a critical impact on society — as well as the labor market more broadly. There was once a time when education was considered the great equalizer in America, and our society has strayed too far from this ideal — education should not be a privilege.
—RICK J. CARUSO
RICK J. CARUSOTina and I believe that rising levels of student debt is causing a crisis in the American educational system. The system is broken and does a poor job at giving kids living in poverty equal access to educational opportunities, thus creating a tectonic divide between the rich and poor. Providing access to quality education for underprivileged children is an important social cause that demands our time and investment. Educational access influences the diversity of candidates that pursue careers in public service — roles that have a critical impact on society — as well as the labor market more broadly. There was once a time when education was considered the great equalizer in America, and our society has strayed too far from this ideal — education should not be a privilege.
HEALTHCARE
The Caruso Family Foundation is long-time supporter of major healthcare institutions:
- Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
- Dignity Health California Medical Center
- Providence St. John’s Health Center
FAITH-BASED EDUCATIONAL INITIATIVE
The Caruso Family Foundation is one of the most active and engaged supporters of Catholic education, especially at schools in low-income neighborhoods. The Catholic Education Foundation committed $1 million to provide scholarships over the next 6 years. Significant support is provided to schools, including Loyola High School, St. Francis High School, St. Paul of the Apostle School, Verbum Dei High School, St. Mary’s Academy, and St. Lawrence of Brindisi School.
At our core is a long-standing commitment to serving our communities, a philosophy that runs through our entire team. Giving our team members a way to participate in connecting to the people and organizations that enrich our communities has been vital to our employee experience. Our properties have always existed as reflections of the communities they serve, so understanding, working with, and participating in ways to better those communities is a natural supplement to our existing philanthropic ethos. In addition to many of our employees doubling as mentors through Operation Progress and Caruso Scholar programs, we have been lucky to work with local organizations to prepare and feed homeless veterans, work on construction projects at local faith-based schools, and support our city’s first responders.
