Over breakfast not too long ago, we realized that 18 years separate the second when the 2 of us every took the helm of Seattle Foundation as CEOs — first in 2004 (Phyllis) after which in 2022 (Alesha). As we marked the inspiration’s eightieth yr, we mirrored on how the town has modified, what has stayed the identical and what lies forward for an establishment deliberately created to serve this place.
Eighty years in the past, within the wake of World Warfare II, Seattle confronted a turning level. Households had been nonetheless reeling from The Nice Despair; returning veterans confronted a extreme housing scarcity; and large layoffs at Boeing weakened the area’s industrial spine. On the peak of the disaster, roughly 8,000 men and women filed weekly for unemployment benefits. And but, amid that uncertainty, individuals selected solidarity over retreat: they pooled sources, supported neighbors and constructed an establishment designed to endure.
Seattle Basis was born from these circumstances in 1946, as a automobile to enhance the standard of life in Seattle. Created as an middleman, half financial institution and half advocate, it mixed monetary experience with a dedication to make sure sources reached the individuals and communities that wanted them most. That ethos has by no means left us.
Like Seattle in 1946, our area is once more navigating financial uncertainty, rising inequality, political polarization and cuts to federal funding. Right now’s nonprofit leaders, together with these in Seattle, face unprecedented burnout whereas serving communities with rising wants amid an unpredictable funding panorama.
The scope of this disaster is stark. In keeping with the Center for Effective Philanthropy’s State of Nonprofits 2026 report, which surveyed almost 400 nonprofit leaders, nearly three-quarters of those leaders say their organizations have skilled elevated demand for companies, whereas funding from foundations has decreased. The examine additionally notes that many nonprofits are making strategic variations to their work with a purpose to survive. On this local weather, nonprofits should transfer with agility. Trust-based philanthropy addresses this want, permitting foundations to maneuver discretionary funding to nonprofits who’re on the entrance line of addressing neighborhood wants.
Seattle Basis has been maintaining tempo with these challenges. From an preliminary $8,000 in grants in 1946, Seattle Basis has mobilized greater than $5 billion in public investments over the previous decade in Seattle and throughout Washington. That progress displays this neighborhood’s generosity and its enduring dedication to a resilient, vibrant area. However sources alone aren’t sufficient. Lasting change comes from taking motion throughout occasions of uncertainty and standing agency on the beliefs that unify us.
We should see ourselves as one neighborhood: one that offers generously and one which commits itself to activating that generosity by means of grassroots efforts. That is how we guarantee our collective resiliency in occasions of shock. This fuels our strategy as a neighborhood basis to guide daring, responsive grantmaking, together with rapid-response funding, assist for nonprofit leaders’ care and restoration, and work throughout sectors to satisfy neighborhood wants in disaster.
This was evident in 2008, when Seattle Basis launched the Building Resilience Fund to assist King County households climate the financial disaster. In 2021, we partnered with the private and non-private sector to ascertain the Evergreen Impact Housing Fund to advance inexpensive housing improvement within the area. EIFH has already invested in 5 initiatives that may present greater than 1,100 items of inexpensive housing for working households in our area. And simply this yr, we joined the town of Seattle to launch the First Folks’s Local weather Fund, to put money into Indigenous-led local weather options.
Our strategy to grantmaking and public partnership is part of our legacy and serves as our compass. Now will not be the time to step again from supporting work occurring on the bottom. It’s time to step up.
We name on the philanthropic neighborhood,which has turn into a daring power of generosity, to lean in, and we name on our neighborhood of grassroots nonprofit companions to courageously maintain the road as all of us work collectively to maneuver sources shortly throughout this time of social disaster.
The info is evident: Demand for companies is rising. Funding is diminishing. We should unite, align and gas the complete ecosystem of leaders driving actual change the place communities want it most.
Simply as we shared our hopes over breakfast that morning, we move this dedication ahead to the following technology: The work of constructing neighborhood continues, and Seattle’s finest days are nonetheless forward of us.
