Wilburforce Foundation

Background

The Wilburforce Foundation is a conservation-focused private philanthropy based in Seattle, Washington. It concentrates on protecting land, water, and wildlife across specific areas of western North America. The foundation was established by Rose Letwin in 1991. ²

Letwin, whose first job was as a technical writer for Microsoft when it was a start-up, leveraged her systems background to develop a scientific approach to the foundation’s grantmaking. She established priority regions in western North America to focus on protecting large, connected ecosystems and making the “largest net impact on biodiversity.” The foundation invests in organizations that share its vision and strategy, fosters relationships with these organizations, and invests overtime to build their organizational capacity to be more effective. Some of the Wilburforce Foundation’s early projects included grants to the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Yukon Conservation Society, and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. ^{3  4}

Letwin and the Wilburforce Foundation have been recognized by the Wilderness Society and Defenders of Wildlife for their “commitment to conservation science, diversity, equity and inclusion.” ^{5  6}

Programs

The Wilburforce Foundation organizes its programs into three regions in western North America: Alaska / British Columbia, Northwest / Southwest, and Yellowstone to Yukon. ⁷

The Alaska / British Columbia program supports wild lands in the Arctic, the Tongass National Forest, the Great Bear Rainforest, Transboundary Watersheds, and British Columbia’s Central Interior. It invests in organizations that conduct policy research and advocacy to address “climate change, inequity, and sustainable economies” with a focus on Indigenous-led lands and wildlife stewardship. ⁸

The Northwest / Southwest program supports wild lands in Cascadia, the Great Basin, and the Southwest Crescent. ⁹

The Yellowstone to Yukon programs support wild lands in Crown of the Continent, the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, the Inland Temperate Rainforest, the Salmon Selway and Hells Canyon Ecosystems, and Far North to address “large landscape conservation” and climate resilience. ¹⁰

The Wilburforce Foundation partnered and helped to support Training Resources for the Environmental Community, a nonprofit capacity-building consultancy that works with the foundation’s grantees. ³

In addition to grantmaking, the Wilburforce Foundation engages its grantees and partners in networking and information exchange to continue to improve their effectiveness. ¹¹

The Wilburforce Foundation is a member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a membership network of government and civil society organizations founded in 1948 focused on conserving nature and accelerating the transition to “sustainable development.” The IUCN has over 1,400 member organizations globally. ^{12  13}

Funding

The Wilburforce Foundation is a private foundation that is entirely funded by Letwin. ¹⁴ In 2024, Letwin gave 50,000 shares of Microsoft with a value of over $20.2 million to the Wilburforce Foundation. ¹⁵

Organizations that were awarded 2024 grants in the Alaska / British Columbia program area included the Alaska Wilderness League, the Coast Conservation Endowment Fund Foundation, the Makeway Foundation, the Alaska Venture Fund, and SalmonState. ¹⁶

2024 grants in the Northwest / Southwest program area included Conservation Northwest, Defenders of Wildlife, Oregon Wild, the Wilderness Society, and the Western Environmental Law Center. ¹⁶

2024 grants in the Yellowstone to Yukon program area included the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Earthjustice, the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, the Heart of the Rockies Initiative, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Wilderness Society, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. ¹⁶

Additional grants were made to the Sierra Club Foundation, the Conservation Alliance, The Mobilization Center, The Nature Conservancy, the Tides Center, and the Center for Effective Philanthropy. ¹⁶

The Wilburforce Foundation granted over $480,000 to several organizations in support of “conservation law and policy,” which was a separate program area that was phased out at the end of 2024 and integrated into each regional program. ^{17  16}

Leadership

Rose Letwin is the founder, president, and sole funder of the Wilburforce Foundation. ¹⁴ After graduating from high school, she married Gordon Letwin, a computer coder who became the eleventh employee of Microsoft. She also joined Microsoft as a technical writer and secretary and spent her free time volunteering at a nonprofit that rehabilitated wild animals. She left Microsoft after three years to work for an aerospace company and earn her bachelor’s degree in forestry management and wildlife conservation from the University of Washington. Her husband stayed with Microsoft for over a decade. She founded the Wilburforce Foundation in 1991. She and Gordon divorced in 2008. ^{18  3}

Lisa Weinstein is the executive director of the Wilburforce Foundation. Previously, she has held positions with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Turner Foundation, and the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership. ¹⁹

Board member Jim Orr joined the board in 2017. He was a teacher and a volleyball referee throughout his career. He met Letwin in 2010 and they married in 2012. ²⁰

Board member Tim Greyhavens was the executive director of the Wilburforce Foundation from 1994 through 2016. He is a professional wildlife and nature photographer and has spent over 35 years working on environmental, conservation, and wildlife conservation. During the Obama administration, the United States Department of the Interior appointed him to the America’s Great Outdoors Task Force. He was a board member of the Environmental Grantmakers Association and the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity. ²⁰

Board member Birch Beaudet was the executive director of the Wilburforce Foundation from 2017 to 2023. He was also a board member of the Environmental Grantmakers Association and the Center for Effective Philanthropy. ²⁰

Board member Jennifer Miller Herzog is the chief program officer for the Land Trust Alliance, where she has worked for almost ten years. Previously she worked for the Wilburforce Foundation for 10 years, as well as the Wilderness Society and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. ^{21  20}