The Bullitt Foundation is a foundation established in 1952 by Dorothy S. Bullitt, a prominent Seattle businesswoman and philanthropist who founded King Broadcasting Company in Seattle. Its assets in the late 1990s were in excess of US$100M.
After Dorothy Bullitt died in 1989, the foundation inherited 28% of the stock from King Broadcasting Company.
In 1992, the Bullitt Foundation hired internationally recognized conservationist Denis Hayes as President. Soon thereafter, it began to broaden the Board beyond family members and decided to devote the Foundation exclusively to protecting and restoring the environment of the Pacific Northwest.
The Foundation's mission is "to safeguard the natural environment by promoting responsible human activities and sustainable communities in the Pacific Northwest" by making grants to nonprofit organizations.
In 2008, Denis Hayes wrote the following: "the Foundation looks for high risk, high potential payoff opportunities to exert unusual leverage. It has a special interest in demonstrating innovative approaches that promise to solve multiple problems simultaneously. It searches the world for successful projects and policies that can be adapted to the Pacific Northwest. It strives to build the intellectual foundations and political support needed for sweeping innovation.
Operationally, the Bullitt Foundation has moved to a more proactive, streamlined, and collaborative approach to its work, seeking a true partnership with its grantee community. We will work closely with our colleagues in the field to devise strategies, identify opportunities, and help find needed resources to move the environmental agenda forward.
The Foundation focuses on root causes rather than symptoms. It prefers to prevent problems rather than cure them. It seeks to identify the most talented individuals and most effective organizations and empower them to respond to the most important issues facing the region."
In 2009, the Foundation began developing the Bullitt Center, which is seeking to meet the ambitious Living Building Challenge and aims to be the most energy efficient commercial building in the world.
As of 2011, the board consisted of: Harriet Bullitt, Jabe Blumenthal, Rod Brown, Maud Daudon, Anne Fennessy, Denis Hayes, Estella Leopold, Michael Parham, Doug Raff, Maggie Walker, and Phyllis Wise
Famous quotes containing the word foundation:
“I desire to speak somewhere without bounds; like a man in a waking moment, to men in their waking moments; for I am convinced that I cannot exaggerate enough even to lay the foundation of a true expression.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)