The Russell Family Foundation, which is headquartered in Gig Harbor, announced this week new grants and investments totaling more than $2.3 million to support of its Environmental Education and Food for Climate Solutions programs.
This year’s funding reflects an increase in grantmaking aligned with the foundation’s commitment to an average 10% annual spend rate from 2025–27, according to a news release. The expanded investment is helping The Russell Family Foundation, or TRFF, respond to emerging needs through a new category of Meet the Moment grants designed to provide timely, flexible support to organizations addressing urgent environmental and community challenges, it said.
TRFF is spending a fixed amount each year on grants, averaging about 10% of its endowment. The endowment was valued at about $75 million at the time of the TRFF board’s spend-rate decision.
“We believe in supporting both the steady, long-term work and the emerging opportunities communities are facing today,” Kathleen Simpson, TRFF CEO, said in the release. “These one-time grants are meant to help with immediate needs our partners are facing, like transportation challenges, gaps in equipment or facilities, and disruptions that affect youth participation, in addition to our multi-year core grants.”
Within the Environmental Education portfolio, TRFF awarded 26 core grants alongside 27 Meet the Moment grants, with some organizations receiving support across both categories.
A $60,000 grant to the Aspen Institute supports four statewide convenings over two years and ongoing coordination to strengthen cross-sector alignment across Washington’s outdoor education, youth development, and community wellbeing fields.
A $77,000 grant to Pacific Education helps sustain critical statewide coordination and collective impact activities that strengthen environmental and sustainability education, or ESE, across Washington.
A $50,000 grant to E3 Washington assists strategic rebranding and organizational positioning work intended to clarify E3’s role in the field, strengthen coordination among education and workforce partners, and increase the visibility and coherence of ESE efforts statewide.
Together, these grants strengthen a network of partners working to expand equitable access to environmental learning, deepen community connections to place, and build long-term climate resilience, TRFF said in the release.
TRFF also continues to advance its Food for Climate Solutions, or FCS, program, supporting three organizations through a combination of two grants and one investment. Funding includes a $500,000 recoverable grant to the Institute for Washington’s Future, fiscal sponsor for Community-to-Community Development, to support farmworker-led agricultural infrastructure. Another $250,000 investment supports the Native Nation Development Fund providing access to capital for Native-led food and agricultural enterprises, advancing the FCS strategy through culturally grounded, community-based financing. These efforts focus on place-based solutions that connect sustainable food systems, climate action, and regional economic vitality, the release said.
Fabiola Greenawalt, TRFF senior program lead, said in the release, “These FCS recommendations are intended to complement grantmaking by deploying catalytic capital tools that strengthen food system resilience and advance long-term climate and equity outcomes.”
Beneficiary organizations include:
Food for Climate Solutions
- Institute for Washington’s Future, Fiscal Sponsor for Community-to-Community Development
- Northwest Native Development Fund Impact Investment
- Pacific Northwest BIPOC Farmland Trust
Environmental Education
- Arboretum Foundation (UW Botanic Gardens)
- Aspen Institute — Open Pathways Project
- Braided Seeds
- Collaborative Field-Building (Community Marine Centers of the Salish Sea)
- Community Boat Project
- E3 Washington
- Environmental Science Center
- Foss Waterway Seaport
- Friends of Lakewold
- Garden Raised Bounty (GRuB)
- Great Peninsula Conservancy
- Harbor WildWatch
- Mason Conservation District
- Nisqually Reach Nature Center
- Northwest Natural Resource
- Northwest Youth Corps
- Pacific Education Institute
- Port Townsend Marine Science Center
- Puget Sound Estuarium
- Puget Soundkeeper Alliance
- SEA Discovery Center
- Sea Potential
- Summer Search
- Vashon Nature Center
- Washington Outdoor School Consortium
- WaYa Outdoor Institute
- Wild Society
- World Relief Seattle
- YMCA of Pierce & Kitsap Counties