Everyone should have access to the opportunities they need to design the future they want.
This core belief drives the Gates Foundation’s work around the world and in our home state of Washington, where we work at the local, regional, and state level.
In all our work, we focus on the people and communities who face the highest barriers to opportunity—including Black, Latino, Indigenous, and low-income and rural communities.
As the only team at the Gates Foundation to invest in just one state, we know that an authentic and ongoing connection to the community is critical. We are committed to ensuring the choices we make are guided by community input and align with our team’s values.
Our place-based principles
Engage the community
We aim to earn the trust of our partners and their communities—and offer our trust in return. When making grant or other strategic decisions, we will engage a diverse range of community members to get feedback and input.
Long-term commitment
Student voice
Mutual learning
Power sharing
Targeted universalism
While we pursue our universal goal of increased postsecondary enrollment for all Washington students, we’ll explore targeted approaches to reach this goal—ensuring we support students facing the highest barriers.
Diverse ecosystems
Transparent communication
Why do we have place-based principles?
While most grantmaking teams at the foundation have reach that extends around the globe or a specific country, our investments focus just on Washington state. That makes us unique at the foundation.
Our Washington state team also partners with other U.S. Program teams at the foundation—taking the best practices they are uncovering and applying it to Washington state, or bringing what we’re learning back to our U.S. Program colleagues who are working across the country.
To get this kind of collaboration right, we knew we had to be intentional about how we built partnerships and made grants in our home state. We came up with these principles to guide us.
Learn more about us
Learn more about the team that makes grants to support local organizations, students, and communities in Washington.
We partner with local schools and communities to give young people the opportunities they need to design the future they want.