True North Group is a left-leaning consultancy that focuses its work on communications strategies, messaging development, and website development for organizations focused on policy, research, and advocacy goals. ¹

Previous True North Group projects have received funding from left-of-center and traditional establishments in Washington, D.C., including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Duke Endowment, and Brookings Institution. ²

Leadership

True North Group was founded in 2012 in Seattle, Washington, by Hope Cooper. ³ As of May 2023, Cooper retains her role as founding partner of True North Group. ⁴ Previously, Cooper has held various senior-level roles at Pew Charitable Trusts, the American Red Cross, Child Trends, and the U.S. Senate Finance Committee and Special Committee on Aging. ^{5 6} While at Pew, she helped design and direct the organization’s public policy initiatives, including Pew’s foster-care reform initiative. ⁷

Activities and Funding

True North Group is a left-leaning consultancy that focuses its work on communications strategies, messaging development, and website development for organizations focused on policy, research, and advocacy goals. ⁸ The organization provides consulting services to mainly nonprofits, foundations, and government agencies with a focus on policies, programs, and practices that affect vulnerable children and families. ⁹

True North Group’s business services include communication strategies, message development, research and writing, campaign and coalition building, strategic communications, and project management. ¹⁰ Additionally, True North Group aims to support organizations that support what True North Group considers as vulnerable populations with proactive communication strategies. On issue-specific campaigns, True North Group will drive issue campaigns, craft persuasive messages, build coalitions and translate information for a variety of policy and practice audiences. ¹¹

True North Group has worked with the U.S. Department of State Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities ¹² and activist organization Child Trends to support early childhood education, child welfare and health, and other issues. ¹³

At the state and local level, True North Group has worked with Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) to adapt a mentoring toolkit for engaging with law enforcement. The group also worked with BGCA to develop a toolkit for Native American youth. ¹⁴

True North Group has also worked with Children Need Amazing Parents to work on federal policy changes including policy advocacy on foster parenting work in 40 states and has partnered with advocates at the state level to advance these priorities. ¹⁵ Its other partners have included FosterClub, ¹⁶ Voice for Adoption, ¹⁷ center-left Bipartisan Policy Center, American Public Human Services Association, Alliance for Early Success, First Focus, the left-of-center Annie E. Casey Foundation, and others. ¹⁸ The organization also worked with early learning networks to develop communications research and policy briefings. ¹⁹

From 2017 until 2022, True North Group worked with the national Children Need Amazing Parents (CHAMPS) program. A portion of the funding for CHAMPS came from Annie E. Casey Foundation, as well as the Duke Endowment, Brookings Institution, Lumos Foundation, Hilton Foundation, and others. ²⁰

Funding

True North Group is a for-profit consultancy. ²¹ Previous True North Group projects have received funding from left-of-center and traditional establishments in Washington, D.C., including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Duke Endowment, and Brookings Institution. ²²

1. “True North Group LLC.” Bloomberg. Accessed May 20, 2022. https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0969679D:US#xj4y7vzkg.
2. Kelly, John. “New CHAMPS Campaign Focus on State-Level Foster Care Improvement.” The Imprint. June 29, 2017. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://imprintnews.org/subscriber-content/new-champs-campaign-focus-state-level-foster-care-improvement/27366.
3. “True North Group, LLC.” LinkedIn. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/company/true-north-group-llc-/about/.
4. “USA Today: When Trump signed spending bill, he signed into law a huge overhaul of foster care.” True North Group. May 5, 2018. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/post/how-to-stay-organized-at-work.
5. “Leadership.” True North Group LLC. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/bios.
6. “Hope Cooper.” Hope Cooper LinkedIn Profile. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/hope-cooper-50536a11/.
7. “Leadership.” True North Group LLC. Accessed May 19, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/bios.
8. “True North Group LLC.” Bloomberg. Accessed May 20, 2022. https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/0969679D:US#xj4y7vzkg.
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10. “Who We Are.” True North Group. Accessed May 20, 2022. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/aboutus.
11. “Home.” True North Group. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/.
12. “Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities.” True North Group. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/copy-of-early-learning-network-1.
13. “Child Trends.” True North Group. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/copy-of-early-learning-network.
14. “The Boys and Girls Club of North America.” True North Group. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/bgca.
15. “CHAMPS.” True North Group. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/copy-of-fosterclub-1.
16. “fosterclub.” True North Group. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/fosterclub.
17. “Voice for Adoption.” True North Group. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/vfa
18. “Meet Some of Our Clients.” True North Group. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/clients.
19.  “Early Learning Network.” True North LLC. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/copy-of-boys-and-girls-clubs-of-ame.
20. Kelly, John. “New CHAMPS Campaign Focus on State-Level Foster Care Improvement.” The Imprint. June 29, 2017. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://imprintnews.org/subscriber-content/new-champs-campaign-focus-state-level-foster-care-improvement/27366
21. “Home.” True North Group. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://www.truenorthgroup.com/.
22. Kelly, John. “New CHAMPS Campaign Focus on State-Level Foster Care Improvement.” The Imprint. June 29, 2017. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://imprintnews.org/subscriber-content/new-champs-campaign-focus-state-level-foster-care-improvement/27366.