Newport Beach financial advisor awarded for National Philanthropy Day in Orange County

When Nella Webster O’Grady found out she’d received an award, she didn’t believe it.

She had to ask the woman on the other end of the line what award she was talking about. At first, she thought the woman was calling to tell her she’d been nominated or that she would be one of the individuals being recognized. Then, she heard again that she was being awarded Outstanding Philanthropist as part of National Philanthropy Day in Orange County.

“It’s hard for me to be speechless,” Webster O’Grady joked. “But I started crying. I was speechless and stunned because most of the people that have won this [award] have been major dollar contributors in the community. I had given money before but also my talent and my energy — the fact that they recognized me for this.”

“I was just so humbled by it,” Webster O’Grady said. “There’s no other way to describe it.”

Webster O’Grady, a resident of Newport Coast, is a financial advisor but stresses that she operates on fees only, not on commission, and acts as a fiduciary to her clients at Miracle Mile Advisors. But in her free time, which she jokes she spends being busy, she serves on the board of directors for the Girl Scouts of Orange County, Mission Plasticos and WHW, previously known as Women Helping Women.

All three organizations nominated Webster O’Grady for the award, which will she’ll receive on Nov. 19 during a virtual ceremony hosted by the Assn. of Professional Fundraising Professionals, which organizes National Philanthropy Day.

WHW Chief Executive Officer Trina Fleming said the organization couldn’t think of anyone more deserving, adding that Webster O’Grady has financially supported Women Helping Women’s mission for almost a decade.

“Her regular monthly donations made in addition to her annual support has helped to change the lives of countless job seekers in their journey to economic self-sufficiency,” Fleming said, “And still Nella continues to give.”

Susan Williamson, executive director of Mission Plasticos, said the title of the award was an understatement to what she felt Webster O’Grady did for nonprofits throughout Orange County and that she was instrumental in the revitalization of the organization’s fundraising and marketing communities.

“I was just so humbled by it. There’s no other way to describe it,” said Nella Webster O’Grady about winning the award for Outstanding Philanthropist, as part of National Philanthropy Day in Orange County.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

“She genuinely cares about the mission of our organization and our efforts to engage the broadest spectrum of our community,” Williamson said. “As a member of our volunteer leadership team, she contributes to our efforts to move the organization forward to serve more people in need.”

Vikki Shepp, the chief executive officer for Girl Scouts of Orange County, said the organization was proud to have nominated Webster O’Grady for the award and described her impact as “nothing short of remarkable.”

“We are thrilled to see her recognized with this esteemed and deeply deserved honor, and we simply cannot thank [Webster O’Grady] enough for helping girls across Orange County see what they can be — extraordinary leaders who inspire others, through their courage, confidence and character, to make the world better place,” Shepp said.

Webster O’Grady is not an Orange County native, but she’s lived here since 1967 and moved from Guam to attend Chapman University, which she joked was only 30 minutes from the beach. She said she’d brought her surfboard, then sold it when she realized how much colder California’s oceans were compared to the South Pacific.

So, she picked up snow skiing instead.

She said there isn’t much to be said about her childhood in Panama, where she was born and lived until she was 10, and Guam, but her parents had a significant influence on her interests in philanthropy from a young age.

Her involvement with the Girl Scouts, for example, comes from her mother, who was a Girl Scout troop leader. Webster O’Grady said that she felt Scouts “helped so many women with their self-esteem and teaching them leadership skills to compete in a world that’s traditionally male dominated.”

As for her father, she said she was in high school during the Vietnam War years. When troops would be sent to a naval hospital in Guam, her father would come home and hook up a Ham radio to call families at home to tell them soldiers had been injured.

“They were just philanthropic. They were not rich or wealthy, but through their actions, it was really ingrained in me to really share what you have with those you don’t,” Webster O’Grady said.

“That’s always been with me,” she said.

“I’ve been very involved with Chapman. They weren’t the ones that nominated me, but I had an email immediately from them and other organizations,” Webster O’Grady said. “Stuff like that, it just validates the way I’ve lived my life. I’m 71 now; I should have been retired for five years, but I’m in a position where I can continue this.”

Webster O’Grady said she was uncomfortable talking about herself, often pivoting the conversation to the organizations she supports or to praise others. She said she was thrilled to have been nominated but stunned not only that had she won but that the press was reaching out to speak with her.

She doesn’t plan on retiring or giving up her philanthropic work now, but she does plan to begin winding down some of her efforts in favor of bringing in the next generation.

“My mission is really to get that succession plan in place. It’s not that I’m going to move out. I just love to build something that will still be going beyond my years of being engaged,” Webster O’Grady said. “At this stage of my career, this is like the Academy Award. There’s nothing in my mind that’s higher than this particular award for someone like me. I don’t want to say more of the same.

“It will be strategic in terms of getting more people involved in the organizations,” she said.

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