Mission and Beliefs

Our mission is to support people facing barriers in their pursuit of lifelong learning and enrichment by combining our collective resources, knowledge, and passion. We offer the promise that in these overwhelming times of unlimited options and unfathomable need, we will consistently identify organizations doing high-quality work in our communities — and do everything we can to support them.

Treehouse Foundation believes in collaborative giving that is high-impact, thoughtfully researched, and focused on supporting community-based organizations to meet their goals. Every dollar of your donation will go to supporting community-based organizations breaking down barriers to lifelong learning and enrichment.

How we accomplish our mission

Treehouse Foundation strives to identify partners doing meaningful, community-informed work to build social and racial equity that improves opportunities for those facing barriers to learning and enrichment.

We give unrestricted gifts to our partner organizations that allow them to focus on their mission, on innovation, and on growth. In other words, we want to empower our partners to use their judgment and insight in choosing how to use our gifts— not the other way around. By identifying organizations we trust and believe in, we are able to give our funds with confidence that the people doing the work will be able to do it better, faster, smarter, and with more financial security. We carefully choose organizations to receive our collective funds by identifying organizations that:

• demonstrate a commitment to building equity in our communities;

• maintain high degree of transparency in their work and finances;

• have a strong alignment with our mission;

• have diversity in their leadership, staff, and served community;

• and where our gifts will make an impact.

Know an organization you think we should consider?  We’d love to hear from you.  Contact us at treehousefdn@gmail.com

History

Established in 2020, Treehouse Foundation was born out of years of conversations among a group of civically-minded friends. We realized we could give back to our communities and maximize our impact on the issues important to us if we worked together to identify organizations we believe in and pool our resources to offer them support.  

Over time, and after lots of video conferences, we realized that so many of the issues we care about have a direct link to inequities in education at all ages — especially those that emerge from inequalities in income, health care, and access to high-quality schools. While we can’t solve every problem facing education, we can go further by working together. So, we decided to start Treehouse Foundation — named to honor a too-small apartment that brought us together in Madison, WI — to make an impact in the communities that gave so much to us.

Board of Directors