Mark Torrance Foundation Grant

Mark Torrance Foundation Grant is sponsored by Mark Torrance Foundation. This foundation is interested in supporting social and environmental challenges with creative approaches. They accept brief project descriptions by email.

Investing in Organizations Using Creative Solutions Forefront: Innovations in suicide prevention Working together to reduce suicide risk in Washington. Inspire and empower youth to experience food in new ways through gardening, cooking and eating together. Learn more about our involvement with Green Plate Special.

Bicycling for a better world - cycling has the potential to transform cities. MTF helped with the installation of bike counters in the city of Seattle to measure cycling activity and impact of cycling infrastructure investments.

Investing in Organizations Using Creative Solutions of creative collaboration to transform people and communities P hilanthropists are investors seeking the ultimate return on investment: healthy and vibrant communities. At the Mark Torrance Foundation (MTF), we invest in people and organizations with the potential to strengthen communities locally and globally.

When I first began my journey in philanthropy, I was most inspired by those who were taking on social and environmental challenges with new and creative approaches. They taught me early on that success comes from collaboration and shared vision. My first endeavors with MTF were lessons in the value of connections.

We saw that the best solutions come when organizations work together with shared purpose. Our approach evolved to view investment as not simply a financial transaction but a dynamic relationship. A relationship where funders, grantees and other partners share expertise and resources to build a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts.

Today MTF continues to learn and evolve. Our aim is to understand the challenges facing our communities and how we can partner in creating lasting change. We are entering a new and exciting period of growth where our giving portfolio will grow both geographically and into new issues.

The results of our work will be measured in many ways. We know our ultimate success will be found in collaboration with people and organizations in order to create healthy and vibrant communities. Since 2003, the Mark Torrance Foundation has invested more than $8 million in 160 organizations in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.

Providing Green Plate Special with a permanent home for their healthy eating programs for young people. Forefront: Innovations in suicide prevention Working together to reduce suicide risk in Washington Bicycling for a better world - Cycling has the potential to transform cities.

Beechers Pure Food Kids Foundation University of Washington Advanced Experience Program in Clean Energy University of Washington Diversity Equity & Inclusion You must be a non-profit, tax exempt organization as defined under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code to submit a grant application. The Board of Directors meets twice annually, at which time funding decisions are made.

Please email a brief description of your project and request to Karin Cirillo at mtfinfo@tobagroup. com If the project meets the mission of the Foundation and is of interest, you will be contacted with additional information, and a grant request form. The Mark Torrance Foundation is a non-profit organization as defined under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code.

View Our IRS Letter of Determination Mark Torrance is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and founder of the Mark Torrance Foundation. Since forming the foundation in 2000, Mark has guided its work supporting hundreds of non-profit organizations working to create healthy and vibrant communities. A native of Seattle, Mark attended Gonzaga Prep and The University of Washington.

He founded Yesco Foreground Music which merged with Muzak LLP. He went on to found Photo Disc which combined with Getty Communications Ltd. from London to form Getty Images, Inc. Mark now runs The Toba Group, a single family office which oversees family holdings in real estate, publishing, communications and other ventures.

He has served on the Boards of the Nature Conservancy, the Pacific Science Center, The Northwest Children's Fund and others. Chris Birkeland is an expert in finance and operations for small, fast growing companies. His background includes various roles as a business consultant and investor as well as eight years as vice president of finance and operations for PhotoDisc, Inc. (Getty Images) and 20 years at Sugar Mountain Capital.

As a partner at Sugar Mountain Capital and VP Production, Chris is responsible for the business development and operations development of companies such as Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, Pasta & Co. , Sugar Mountain Livestock and other various portfolio companies. Currently Chris is heading up eCommerce and business strategy for RPI Print and Blurb.

com ; innovators in print-on-demand services worldwide. Chris has served on the board of the Ackerley Group, a publicly traded diversified media company, and serves as president and trustee of The Bishop Fleet Foundation. Chris is a graduate of the University of Southern California entrepreneurial program.

Mike Mathieu is an entrepreneur focused on using the power of technology to advance the common good. As Chairman of Front Seat, he has served as an active founder, investor, or advisor to dozens of civic, political, and for-profit tech startups.

Mike is co-founder of Walk Score and founder and former CEO of All Star Directories, an INC 500-listed online marketing company serving the higher education market, and he spent a decade at Microsoft where he was general manager of MSN. com. He holds a BA from Harvard and lives in Seattle.

Paul Okner is a practicing attorney and principal at Fremont Law, PLLC, a real estate and commercial law firm based in Seattle. Paul graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt University with dual degrees in Economics and Russian, received his Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School, and completed the certificate in commercial Real Estate program at the University of Washington.

Paul's pro bono work includes serving as a volunteer attorney with a variety of nonprofit organizations around Puget Sound.

Dana Bass Solomon has over 25 years of senior management in hospitality and social business, leading and working with diverse organizations such as Hollyhock, a transformational lifelong learning organization and innovator in creative culture and social entrepreneur networks; PURPPL-working with leaders to build the capability and capacity to implement sustainable business and impact models; Cavallo Point, Osmosis, Two Bunch Palms and the Jean Michel Cousteau Resort.

Dana serves as a director of Terracycle Foundation, the Forever Land Trust Foundation, and Reef Point Farm, in addition to the Mark Torrance Foundation. A proud mother of four adult children and happy grandmother of five, Dana loves to swim in the ocean and walk in the forest with her husband Joel Solomon, and enjoys the joy of laughter shared with family and friends. Our goal is to help those who are making things better.

If you are a non-profit organization seeking help with your project, we may be able to help. Questions on the application process? See our guidelines below.

712 N 34th Street, Suite 200 Seattle, WA 98103 You must be a non-profit, tax exempt organization as defined under section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code to submit a grant application. The Board of Directors meets twice annually, at which time funding decisions are made. Please email a brief description of your project and request to Karin Cirillo at mtfinfo@tobagroup.

com If the project meets the mission of the Foundation and is of interest, you will be contacted with additional information, and a grant request form. Addressing a critical issue Healthy eating habits can provide a lifetime of good health. But far too many living in inner cities never develop these habits because they’re not exposed to healthy foods early in life.

This causes a higher risk of obesity, heart disease and diabetes. Green Plate Special (GPS) is an organization that helps youth develop healthy eating habits through an innovative "seed to table" approach where they garden, cook and dine together. Through GPS programs, middle school students prepare healthy, tasty meals with ingredients they’ve helped to grow.

By focusing on simple and inexpensive recipes, students leave GPS with the taste and tools for preparing healthy snacks and meals in their own homes. A partnership with the Mark Torrance Foundation In 2013, GPS programs were growing and they were looking for a new space in order to better serve increasing demand.

Around the same time, Mark Torrance and GPS executive director Laura Dewell were in conversations about how the Mark Torrance Foundation (MTF) could support the long-term growth of the organization. Mark was interested in funding a project in memory of his late wife Susan that would support her life-long passions for gardening, cooking and youth issues.

Their collaboration led to a three-year investment to build long-term capacity so GPS could expand its program offerings and serve more young people. The grant would fund expanded teaching garden space, with new planting beds, irrigation systems, herb garden, fencing, green house, storage sheds and outdoor eating spaces.

The commitment from the foundation paved the way for a long-term, low-cost lease for a property owned by the Laurel Foundation, providing a home for GPS for years to come. An organization transformed Today, with the new and expanded facility, GPS has increased its class capacity significantly and is now planning new programs that include families.

The new greenhouse extends the growing season through the winter and the irrigation system reduces water use allowing more time to experiment in the garden and kitchen. Students can wind down in a sitting area within the herb garden that is dedicated to Susan Torrance.

In keeping with the investment strategy of MTF, the new facility has provided GPS leadership with the tools they need to continue to innovate and expand the organization‘s reach. The three-year commitment from the Foundation provides a stable foundation for growth for years to come. Bicycling for a better world Cycling has the potential to transform cities.

It shrinks our carbon footprint, reduces congestion on roadways, and contributes to happier and healthier lives for cyclists. In Seattle, city planners and organizations like Cascade Bicycle Club are always looking for new ways to make the city safer and more accessible to cyclists. They focus on improving our bike routes so that people of all ages, abilities and backgrounds feel comfortable getting where they need to go by bike.

Building cycling infrastructure that works, requires a deep understanding of how cyclists use the city’s streets. In European cities, the most bike friendly in the world, bike counters are used to capture critical data on bike traffic patterns. This has facilitated data-driven decisions regarding how and where to invest resources to encourage cycling.

The Mark Torrance Foundation (MTF) was interested in bringing this powerful tool to Seattle in order to help city planners in their work, and show the people of Seattle the benefits of investing in cycling infrastructure. The goal was to show solid success with an initial project to build momentum for additional counters throughout the city.

The counter would replace periodic hand counting, an inaccurate, cumbersome, staff intensive process which could only be implemented infrequently. The conversation started in 2012 with Cascade Bicycle Club to identify the best way to plan an investment. Cascade then facilitated conversations with the Seattle Dept.

of Transportation, which led to an initial grant to fund Seattle’s first bicycle counter located on Seattle’s Fremont Bridge, one of the city’s busiest bike routes. Shifting the conversation In late December 2014, the Fremont bike counter reached a major milestone when it hit one million bike trips for 2014 – a ten percent increase over the previous year.

The data is already paying big dividends for city planners and the citizens of Seattle. It has supported further improvements on bicycle route and shown that public investment in cycling infrastructure can lead to increased ridership. "In the near term the counters are helping get more people out of cars and on their bikes," said Mark Torrance founder of the Mark Torrance Foundation.

"In the long term we want to show how data supports good public policy. This data goes a long way in refuting the argument that too few people commute by bike to justify investing in bike infrastructure." The MTF funded the installation of a second counter on the West Seattle Bridge and encouraged the city to match the investment by installing additional invisible counters on key thoroughfares.

Today, electronic data gathering is a key element of the city's public works strategy. Altogether the counters record over 1. 3 million bike trips a year on the busy bike routes.

Forefront: Innovations in suicide prevention Helping everyone play a role Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. today, and the second leading cause of death among young people ages 10-24. It‘s also one of the most preventable—when everyone plays a role.

Forefront is making everyone‘s role more effective by: working with lawmakers on policies that improve awareness and training requirements training health professionals, educators and others to identify risk giving grieving survivors peer support and ways to turn grief into good supporting research to guide prevention efforts Thanks to bold, innovative actions by Forefront‘s founders, Washington became the first state in the country to require suicide prevention training for mental health professionals.

The momentum kept growing—with more legislation, training, media interviews and campus outreach. All with a small, primarily part-time staff. In 2014 the first grant from the Mark Torrance Foundation enabled Forefront to hire an operations manager to build systems and engage directly with the public and staff.

Non-profits rarely receive grants for their infrastructure, but this investment in the basics freed the organization to maximize its potential. Making Washington a leader This in turn will make it easier for individuals to get the help they need and for Forefront to meet its goal of reducing Washington‘s suicide rate by 20% by the year 2020. At the same time, developing a model that may be used on a national level.