Our mission is to protect and promote vitality and innate wisdom in ecosystems, their inhabitants and all species with equality.
The wild forests, landscapes, watersheds and biodiverse ecosystems are the wellsprings that replenish diversity, resilience and health.
We value and support indigenous intelligence to teach, grow, and make, both individually and in community. Quite simply put, our investments are chosen with the hopes of keeping our planet habitable and offering its peoples a greater health-span thru wellness education and health opportunities. We view this as an urgent calling and hold the deep hope that we will be in time to return to practices that will nourish ourselves and the earth.
We support partners and initiatives that follow nature as the highest source of wisdom. We choose early intervention for the biggest impact, whether it be the young mind or initiatives that are not yet widely known, accepted or supported. For this reason, we create and maintain intimate relationships with the entities we partner with, either as an advisor or as a Board Member. These relationships provide an atmosphere of trust for seed funding, to allow projects the bandwidth to progress. We have also found that a proximity to the administrative stake holders of a project or organization provide the possibility of better involvement and accountability. As a small organization we take our privilege of funding humbly, seriously, but also with joy.
Our own initiative, The Sage Garden Project currently serves 27,000 California Elementary children and has been a focus of 11 years. Re-skilling in cooking and growing and exposure to nature are essential to create human health. Each person deserves these basic abilities to create a nourished life. The overarching goal is to prove the value of this type of education, in metrics that governmental agencies value, so that it will eventually be included for all schools and students. Sage Garden Project offers experiential education developed for all learning styles and abilities.
We support projects in the following areas:
Experiential education
Diabetes interventions
Providing equal access to wild spaces for all people
Preserving the health of endangered ecosystems
Ecological stewardship
Mind-body health
Public arts, activism, and engagement
• Publications that promote community and individual wellness
Projects of special interest
The Sage Garden Project
An experiential learning program that currently offers California Elementary students the opportunity to gain practical skills in the kitchen and garden. The award program helps support and train dedicated teachers to offer the Sage Garden Projects original experiential curriculum. The Foundation has invested over 14 million dollars in this project over 11 years.
Nature and Culture International
An incredibly efficient organization with administrative offices in San Diego which has 91% of its staff and 80% of its funding working in conservation in South America and Mexico. They have successfully protected over 21 million acres of the most biodiverse forests in the world, and the peoples who live in them. An unparalleled capability that gives donors an effective and direct opportunity to help the living world and its indigenous peoples
The Nature Collective
Nature Collective is based in San Diego. The mission is to drive a passion for nature, for all. They think inclusively while serving those growing up devoid of nature, those who remember nature and want to connect back to it and those who already have an affinity with nature. They are experts in Habitat Restoration, preservation of San Diegan lands, and have a unique educational program and volunteer opportunities.
The Human Nature Center
The Human Nature Center is a mobile ecology arts shop based in Ventura, California. They connect people to Nature and to each other through hands-on acts of growing and making. They use the arts as teaching tools for ecology. The Human Nature Center helps people of all ages reconnect with the basic cycles of life and with deeper meaning through our native role as tenders of the earth.
Seed Star Initiative
A new project currently in development synergizing our own 62 Sage Gardens as mini farms, a local farm and the writing and publishing of a new book written for elementary age children about seeds. Our goal is to support the practice of saving and exchanging seeds by creating seeding skills, support biodiversity, community sharing and growing in a new climate.
For More Information.
Please contact Annie Dunne at
7755 Fay Ave, Suite D, La Jolla, CA 92037