Taproot Foundation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Taproot Foundation is a non-profit organization located nationally in San Francisco, California. They are a leading pro bono service provider in fields beyond the legal community such as marketing, information technology, and human resources. The Taproot Foundation currently serves non-profits in the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, Chicago, and Boston.
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[edit] Mission, Vision & Goals
Mission: The Taproot Foundation strengthens nonprofits by engaging business professionals in service.
Vision: Harnessing human capital to improve the human condition.
The Taproot Foundation has had three main goals since it began in 2001:
1. To build the capacity of individual non-profit agencies by helping to develop their infrastructure in such critical areas as marketing/fundraising, information technology, and human resources – infrastructure that is taken for granted in the private sector;
2. To redefine volunteering by giving business professionals the opportunity to apply their existing skills and expertise to deepen the impact of social change organizations; and,
3. To break down barriers between the business and nonprofit sectors.
[edit] History
Aaron Hurst founded Taproot Foundation in 2001, 40 years after his grandfather, Joseph E. Slater, wrote the original blueprint for the Peace Corps. Inspired by his grandfather and the Peace Corps’ ethic that seemingly intransigent boundaries can be crossed when people work together as peers, Aaron created the Taproot Foundation to connect this country's millions of business professionals with nonprofits who need their talents and experience.
Within the Taproot Foundation's first five years as an organization its reach expanded well beyond the Bay Area. A New York office was established in 2003, followed by Chicago and then Boston in 2006. TimeWarner partnered with the Taproot Foundation starting in 2005 with employees from several divisions of the company providing pro bono services in the New York area.
[edit] Impact
To date over 5,700 people have applied to do skills-based volunteer work for the Taproot Foundation. About 400 different non-profits have been served nationally, with the total amount of pro bono services delivered valued at about $15 million.
