About Us

The Grousemont Foundation was created as a private family foundation in the 1980s by Howard S. Wright, and extends a leadership legacy of giving since 1885. The Grousemont Foundation name plays homage to Grousemont Farm, the family farm where many of the family members spent time in their youth. The family continues its support in an open-minded forum of exploration and engagement with these communities in offering resources for social justice, community needs, and the earth.

The Grousemont Foundation honors the legacy of the family members who founded the foundation, and the Board celebrates the opportunity to engage as a family around philanthropic issues with two generations of family members involved. The Foundation also operates with a visioning toward the future, using trust-based philanthropy principles to guide relationships with our community partners. We want our work together to reflect our shared goal of being good ancestors. We believe that by removing burdensome fundraising practices and committing to multi-year relationships with nonprofits engaged in deep community work, we can enable our partners to be nimble and responsive to the direct needs in the community. We nurture this through listening and learning, seeking support and counsel to have proximity to the communities needing support, and funding community-based, community-directed solutions with Staff and Board members directly reflecting the communities served. We center equity and justice in our grantmaking, and ask ourselves, “What is the most direct way to get funding to those who need it?”