Mission

Mission

To safeguard the natural environment by promoting responsible human activities and sustainable communities in the Pacific Northwest.

Vision

A future that safeguards the vitality of natural ecosystems while accommodating a sustainable human population in healthy, vibrant, equitable, and prosperous communities.

Geography

The Foundation's geographic focus is Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana (including the Rocky Mountain range), coastal Alaska from Cook Inlet to the Canadian border, and British Columbia. Within that broad geographic range, work is targeted to specific sub-regions generally associated with major population centers or selected rural areas experiencing significant growth pressures.

Approach

The Foundation’s resources are modest when compared to the ambitious mission of promoting sustainable development over a huge region. So its role will necessarily be mostly catalytic.

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 strives to build the intellectual foundations and political support needed for sweeping innovation.

The Bullitt Foundation places high value on being nimble and able to respond quickly to emerging threats and opportunities, while still acting with deliberation and strategic sensibility. At any moment, within its broad mission, the Foundation will be focused on a relatively small subset of explicit priorities that appear especially ripe for progress. The Foundation recognizes that environmental issues are inherently interconnected, and it marshals staff and financial resources across its programs to achieve success.

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.

Tactics

The Bullitt Foundation supports a variety of tactics to advance its mission, and its grantees tend to be very creative in devising projects and campaigns to build understanding, advance policy innovations, and enhance the political power needed to affect change. These tactics generally include the following:

• Creating the intellectual capital needed to underpin policy innovations and campaigns.
• Informing and shaping public opinion.
• Directly influencing important decisions and actions in the public and private sectors.
• Ensuring compliance with environmental laws and policies.
• Leveraging the power of markets to advance sustainable economies.
• Convening environmental, scientific, business, and political leaders to clarify differences and seek common ground.
• Developing a diverse pipeline of future environmental and sustainability leaders.
• Enhancing the management and organizational strength of grantee organizations