Funder Spotlight: How the Kalliopeia Foundation Supports Ecological and Community Regeneration

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We periodically publish quick overviews of grantmakers on our radar, looking at recent developments and key details about how they operate. Today, we’re taking a look at the Inverness, California-based Kalliopeia Foundation, which is “dedicated to cultivating the connections between ecology, culture, and spirituality by supporting initiatives and organizations that uphold sacred relationships with the living Earth” through grantmaking and its in-house educational and storytelling platforms Emergence Magazine and the Global Oneness Project.

I came across the foundation while delving into a relatively small but compelling cadre of funders that fuse philanthropy with spirituality (here’s another). Launched in 1997, the Kalliopeia Foundation provides grants to organizations “that model cultural and ecological renewal rooted in reverent connection to the Earth.” Its name, “Kalliopeia,” means “beautiful voice” and refers to the first of the nine Greek muses. Here are a few things to know about the foundation and its founder, Barbara Sargent.

Its founder aims to join philanthropic and spiritual practice

In 2002, Barbara spoke at the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders in Switzerland on the importance of regular contemplative practice for the healing of the world. While Sargent didn’t explicitly mention philanthropy — she called herself “a program advisor for a small foundation whose mission is to help cultivate a way of living informed through the life of the spirit” — her insights provided a window into her worldview. “To facilitate a lasting effect,” Sargent said, “our outer actions must grow from ever-deepening contact with our inner selves. There is a direct relationship between the two.”

The following year, Barbara Sargent and her husband Tom Sargent formed the New Field Foundation, which provides grants to support rural women in West Africa. Based on its most recent Form 990 for the fiscal year ending December 2021, that foundation disbursed $1.6 million. In 2012, the couple also formed Tamalpais Trust, which provides grants to Indigenous-led organizations. Tom Sargent is the founding principal of the San Francisco-based real estate company Equity Community Builders LLC and president of Investments firm Highlands SRI.

Commenting on the trust at a conference three years later, Barbara Sargent said, “Indigenous peoples know how to be true stewards of our earth and its varieties of life. They know there is no sustainability without ceremonial life or without honoring the spiritual nature of existence. I think this last point is the key in terms of pointing to the most fundamental need of our time.” This perspective has informed the Kalliopeia Foundation’s grantmaking.

Barbara retired from her leadership role at the foundation in 2017, and she and Tom stepped away fully in 2021. The foundation is now governed by an independent board of directors.

The foundation derives from inherited wealth

In the mid-2010s, Sargent participated in a panel discussion where participants explored their relationship with money. Growing up, she lived comfortably but not ostentatiously. “Unbeknownst to me when I was 22,” she said, “a small amount of money came to me from my family’s business, and then over the years, it just grew. I just wasn’t prepared for it.” Sargent’s father told her to put the money in the bank and forget about it, which is what she did.

Sargent’s experience isn’t unique, of course. Countless individuals on the receiving end of the greatest intergenerational wealth transfer in history have found themselves sitting on surprisingly large inheritances. Along with the tech entrepreneurs who experience “sudden wealth events,” they may instinctively pour cash into donor-advised funds (DAFs) — if they dedicate any of it to philanthropy at all — and otherwise postpone robust giving for another time.

For Barbara, “another time” came in her mid-30s. “I started asking questions of myself, and I had some very close friends who helped me,” she said. “Eventually I decided — actually it was during a meditation retreat in which this train came plowing through me, and it said, ‘Just start a foundation!’”

Starting Kalliopeia was “exactly the opposite of any message I would ever get from within my family: ‘It’s just trouble; it’s exposure, endless requests,’” she recalled. This is also a familiar dilemma. While it’s a fool’s errand to paint donors with a broad brush, individuals with an aversion to “exposure” often give through DAFs instead of starting private foundations, which require founders to assemble a board, pay out 5% of assets annually and submit Form 990s to the IRS.

Sargent nonetheless moved ahead with Kalliopeia, driven by the belief that she could carve out a unique niche. “I wanted the foundation to be about our spiritual center, all of us,” she said. “I wanted somehow to begin to use the language of spirituality in the foundation so that maybe it would be picked, or maybe it would just add to the collective consciousness in some way. It was really uncomfortable to do this, to start the foundation, to be the person who was starting the foundation, to use that language and all those things.”

Its grantmaking focuses on “regeneration”

Kalliopeia’s grantmaking prioritizes “land-based projects that regenerate soil, soul and community” and that “have leadership that is both visionary and grounded,” along with projects that “foster leadership in others” and “are well managed, with clear results.”

Its site lists over 80 grantee partners focused on issues like food sovereignty, Indigenous languages, land care, media and storytelling, and women’s leadership. Examples include Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival, the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, New Mexico Next Generation Traditional Farmers Collective, the Texas Tribal Buffalo Project, and the Wilderness Arts and Literacy Collaborative in San Francisco.

The foundation accepts proposals by invitation only and identifies organizations through its existing networks. However, it does leave the door slightly ajar, asking prospective grantees to reach out “if you feel your work is strongly aligned with our mission” via an email address provided on its website. “We read and appreciate each introduction, and while we are not able to respond to every email, we will contact you if we are interested to learn more.”

It’s been disbursing around $6.6 million annually

A look at the Kalliopeia Foundation’s 990s shows it had, on average, $116 million in net assets at the end of fiscal years 2019, 2020 and 2021. It disbursed $6.5 million, $6.5 million and $6.8 million for each year, respectively. Barbara Sargent was the sole contributor in 2019 ($10.6 million) and 2020 ($300,000). She contributed $150,000 in 2021, along with another donor who gave $10,000.

According to a document provided by the foundation, in 2021, it disbursed 105 grants to organizations in 29 states and Washington, DC. The largest gifts included $230,000 in support earmarked for regranting and staffing/capacity building to Callaway, Minnesota’s Honor the Earth; $225,000 in general support to Longmont, Colorado’s First Nations Development Institute; and $220,000 in general support to Fresno, California’s Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival.

The foundation earmarked at least 39% of total dollars as “general support.” This figure puts it comfortably above the recommended 30% threshold set by authors of “Limitless Possibilities: A Guide to Power Shifting Approaches in Philanthropy,” a recent report from the Center for Culturally Responsive Engagement at the Michigan Public Health Institute imploring funders to adopt strategies that share power with recipient organizations. 

The foundation also has two subsidiary LLCs. Spiritual Ecology offers programming and resources in support of building the field of spiritual ecology, the foremost being Emergence Magazine, an editorially independent and award-winning magazine and creative production studio that explores the threads connecting ecology, culture and spirituality. The second, Global Oneness Project, is a free multimedia platform for educators and students in grades 3-12 that offers immersive storytelling and curricula encouraging students to broaden their worldviews while fostering universal human values and respect for the living world.

Editor’s Note: This post was last updated on December 1, 2023 with additional information provided by Kalliopeia Foundation.