Foundation History

Over an extended lunch in Fall 2007, Sacramento business leaders Gary Lardy of IntelliQuote and Pat McClain of Hanson McClain, began a discussion regarding the need for additional support for community-based charities—specifically youth and children’s charities.

As the premier sponsor of several successful nonprofit events in the area, McClain considered ways to replicate successful fundraising models in communities throughout the U.S. to better support nonprofit organizations needing increased opportunity for viability, sustainability and awareness. His thought was to create a template or “how to” guide, of sorts, to roll out fundraisers or to even create a new event that could be used for this purpose.

Likewise, yet in different form, Lardy had recently worked with an organization that sponsored charity concerts benefiting qualified local children’s nonprofits. Impressed by the support, and the creativity in implementing the event, Lardy wanted to find a way to make this model work in Sacramento as well as nationwide. He envisioned a series of concerts in key U.S. cities to raise money to support local children’s charities.

By combining their visions, Hope Productions Foundation was formed as an umbrella organization charged with planning and implementing turnkey active and entertaining events on behalf of local and regional children’s charities while also offering the chosen nonprofits free training to help them achieve greater success.