Seattle Foundation

Background

In 1946, Seattle businessman and founder of the Seattle Art Museum, Richard Fuller raised $289, 000 to be an endowment for the general improvement of life in Seattle, Washington. And in October 1947, using that endowment, Fuller established the Seattle Foundation as a 501(c)(3) community organization. ² During its first year, the Foundation disbursed a total of $8,000 to organizations in the area, including Overlake Hospital, YMCA Camp Orkila, and the Swedish Hospital. ¹

In 1981, the Foundation hired its first full-time President, David Lindsey Moberly, an education activist and district superintendent, who was succeeded two years later, by Anne V. Farrell who proceeded to grow the foundation’s endowment to $300 million during her 23-year tenure. Notably, during her tenure, the Foundation funded a variety of organizations aiming to assist individuals with HIV/AIDS, such as Bailey-Boushay House, a dedicated nursing facility, and the Northwest AIDS Foundation, which has since become Lifelong, and the Chicken Soup Brigade. ¹

Grantmaking

The Seattle Foundation makes grants to organizations through three programs: the Resilience Fund, Neighbor to Neighbor, and the Center for Community Partnerships. ³

The Resilience Fund

The Resilience Fund is focused on making grants to local nonprofits dealing with unanticipated expenses related to new initiatives intended to assist racial minority communities. Recipients of grants from the fund include, Hip Hop is Green, which engages in youth-oriented environmentalist advocacy; Missing and Murdered Indigenous People and Families, which provides support to families of indigenous communities who have gone missing; and the Muslim Community Network Association, which provides programming and support to local Muslim communities. ⁴

Neighbor to Neighbor

The Neighbor to Neighbor program, (also known as N2N), is focused on making grants to organizations that provide programmatic and professional assistance to poor and racial minority members of the Seattle community. Recipients of grants from the program include Somali Community Services of Seattle, a Somali community organization; the White Center Community Development Association, which aims at providing affordable housing to immigrants; and the Iraqi Community Center of Washington, a state-wide Iraqi community organization. ⁵

The Center for Community Partnerships

The Center for Community Partnerships is focused on developing standalone initiatives with the local community to assist poor and racial minorities. For instance, in collaboration with King County, the center launched Communities of Opportunity in 2014, providing an initial investment of $2.5 million over half a decade, which focuses on awarding grants to local organizations in the Seattle region, particularly those based in White Center, Rainier Valley, and SeaTac-Tukwila. ⁶

Leadership

Alesha Washington has been the president and CEO of the Seattle Foundation since May 11, 2022. Formerly, Washington was the program director for the Vibrant Neighborhoods and Inclusive Economy programs at the George Gund Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio, vice president of government advocacy for the Greater Cleveland Partnership, (a chamber of commerce), as well as a government relations staffer with Cleveland Neighborhood Progress and the Centers for Families and Children. Additionally, Washington is a member of the Policy Advisory Committee of the W.E. Upjohn Institute and a member of the Brookings Metro Leadership Council. Formerly, Washington served on the boards of the Cleveland Public Library and the Center for Community Solutions. ⁷