Sue Gross, the Orange County philanthropist who received an estimated $1.5 billion in her 2017 divorce from PIMCO co-founder Bill Gross, has directed more than $26 million to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian over two decades, according to the Orange County Business Journal's 2026 "OC's Wealthiest" report published Monday, July 27.

The gifts include a $20 million contribution for the Sue and Bill Gross Women's Pavilion, a $5 million expansion of the Hoag Breast Center in Newport Beach, and a $1 million donation to Hoag's Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine Center.

Gross founded the Sue J. Gross Foundation in 2017. The foundation held $101 million in assets as of its 2025 tax filing, according to OCBJ.

The Women's Pavilion

The $20 million gift, announced January 8, 2005, funded a seven-story tower at Hoag that was the largest donation in the hospital's history at the time. The money paid for $10 million in construction, $4 million in digital mammography equipment, and a $6 million endowment for the Women's Wellness Center. That gift was made jointly by Sue and Bill Gross before their divorce.

"Part of our gift will endow the innovative Women's Wellness Center and we are especially pleased that this program is designed to benefit generations of women of all ages and from all walks of life," Sue Gross said at the 2005 announcement.

Newport Beach breast center

In October 2020, Gross gave $5 million to expand services at the Hoag Breast Center in Newport Beach. Hoag renamed the facility the Sue J. Gross Comprehensive Breast Center. Hoag says the center is the only breast center in Orange County with a Certified Quality Breast Center of Excellence designation from the National Quality Measures for Breast Centers Program.

Gross said the gift honored her mother and two sisters, all of whom faced breast cancer. A month earlier, in September 2020, she donated $1 million to Hoag's wound center in honor of her brother-in-law, Joseph Warpinski, who received lifesaving care there.

Beyond Hoag

The foundation gave $3 million to UC Irvine's Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing in January 2022, funding a simulation center and doctoral scholarships. It has also donated to nursing programs at Charles R. Drew University and Saddleback College, Gross's alma mater, according to OCBJ. Between 2024 and 2026, the foundation gave $250,000 to the Environmental Nature Center of Newport Beach.

Real estate and wealth

Gross owns four of the 12 homes in Laguna Beach's Abalone Point enclave within Irvine Cove, along with properties in Palm Springs and Beverly Hills, according to OCBJ. In 2024, she sold a 6,569-square-foot Beverly Hills home for $33 million after purchasing it in 2018 for $20 million. She also sold a Picasso painting for $35 million following the divorce, according to OCBJ, citing Forbes.

The Sue J. Gross Foundation does not accept unsolicited grant applications, preferring what the philanthropy tracking site Inside Philanthropy describes as a "proactive grantmaking approach."