Sapling Fund

Goals and Strategies

The Laird Norton family continually promotes the advancement of intellectual growth, business experience, and philanthropic focus in order to ensure the excellence of its youngest generations. Through the Sapling Fund, young Laird Norton family members (ages 14–21) come together to learn about grantmaking, the nonprofit sector, and family philanthropy. The Sapling Fund provides young family members a chance to identify and support causes that resonate with them, and endows future family leaders with a sense of fiscal and social responsibility.

Approach

Sapling Fund grants are guided by a “for kids, from kids” philosophy. Grants support programs and organizations that cater specifically to youth and specific priorities change each year as new cohorts of Sapling members collectively identify shared priorities for the year’s grantmaking.

Why Take This Approach?

Sapling Fund committee members gain valuable experience by organizing an annual campaign to raise money for their grantmaking activities through contributions from Laird Norton family members. The annual budget supports three to five grant awards each year and an all-family service project organized by members of the committee.

2021 Sapling Fund Grants

Last year the Sapling Fund made grants totaling $50,000 to organizations listed below.

Breakthrough Central Texas

Breakthrough Central Texas (Austin, TX)
​For general operating support. Breakthrough Central Texas’s mission to create a path to and through college for students who will become the first in their families to earn a college degree.​

Friends of Explorer Post 58

Friends of Explorer Post 58 (Portland, OR)
For general operating support. Post 58 offers Portland-area teenagers the opportunity to engage in outdoor adventures under the guidance of experienced adults. Their mission is to provide an arena for personal growth and social interaction by creating diverse experiences that foster responsibility, respect, and a passion for the outdoors.

Friends of the Children, Tacoma

Friends of the Children (Tacoma, WA)
General operating support for Friends of the Children Tacoma chapter. Friends of the Children is a proven, professional mentoring program for youth that in or are at great risk of entering the foster care system. Children receive 14-16 hours of one-on-one support each month from a salaried, full-time, professional mentor called a Friend, creating an intentional, stable relationship with a caring adult.

Outdoor Outreach

Outdoor Outreach (San Diego, CA)
For general operating support. Outdoor Outreach utilizes outdoor physical experiences to provide youth with the support, relationship, resources and opportunities they need to become successful adults.

Plummer Youth Promise

Plummer Youth Promise (Salem, MA)
For general operating support. Plummer Youth promise believes that every young person needs something most of us take for granted, a family unconditionally committed to nurture, protect and guide them; someone who will be with them forever. Their mission is to set a standard of excellence that improves outcomes for young people in or at risk of entering state care by deeply engaging youth, families, and the systems that impact them to develop permanent family relationships, skills, and community connections.

Safe Passage

Safe Passage (New Gloucester, ME / Guatemala) 
For general operating support. Safe Passage is a Guatemalan-led learning community of educators, volunteers, and administrators creating real opportunities through education for students living around the Guatemala City garbage dump. ​Safe Passage transforms lives by providing students with an excellent education, a higher quality of life, and pathways to a job with dignity so they can achieve a better future for themselves and their families.

SAY San Diego

SAY San Diego (San Diego, CA)
For general operating support. SAY San Diego’s mission is to partner with youth, adults, families, and communities to reach their full potential. SAY engages the community to work collaboratively and works with systems such as law enforcement, schools, and local government to create positive change. SAY San Diego’s holistic approach enriches youth, empowers individuals and families, and engages communities.

Son of a Saint

Son of a Saint (New Orleans, LA)
For general operating support. Son of a Saint’s mission to enhance the lives of fatherless boys through mentorship, emotional support, development of life skills, exposure to constructive experiences and formation of positive, lasting peer-to-peer relationships.

Una Vida

Una Vida (Petaluma, CA)
For general operating support. Una Vida is a  community organization serving people in Petaluma, California and La Descubierta, Dominican Republic. Their mission is to empower community-members with the resources they need to thrive while building community, fostering connection and inspiring a lifestyle of service.