Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation

About Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation

The Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation’s recent giving is defined by targeted support for Christian higher education and religious-liberty legal work in California. One of the largest awards in the file is $750,000 to Westmont College for facilities purchase and renovation, signaling a pattern that pairs faith-based education with physical campus investment. The foundation also backed Pepperdine University with multiple grants for its religious liberty clinic, including a $500,000 award in 2025, showing sustained interest in legal education tied to religious advocacy. Across the recent record, the foundation favors established institutions and programs that deepen Christian liberal arts, ministry training, and legal scholarship. Chapman University School of Law received repeated endowed or academic chair support, while Simpson University drew funding for facilities and a tech-and-engineering grant. These awards sit alongside support for church-strengthening efforts and scholarship programs, suggesting a grantmaking approach centered on institutional capacity rather than short-term project grants. The pattern is consistent with a donor that uses sizable, directed awards to reinforce campus infrastructure, faculty roles, and legal programs connected to evangelical and religious-liberty priorities.

What Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Funds

In campus development, The Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation gave $250,000 to Simpson University for facilities construction and $100,000 to Life Pacific University for facilities renovations, while Westmont College received support for purchase and renovation work. These grants point to a clear interest in physical infrastructure at faith-based colleges. In legal education, the foundation supported Pepperdine University’s religious liberty clinic with $500,000 in 2025 and additional $100,000 awards in 2024 and 2025. It also gave $75,000 to the University of San Diego’s constitutional originalism center in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and funded the Pacific Legal Foundation for both fellows programming and program support. For church and ministry support, Thriving Churches International received $125,000 in both 2023 and 2024 for program support and scholarships, and Fuller Theological Seminary received $50,000 for program support in 2023. These grants show a mix of institutional and leadership-development funding.

How Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Gives