Purposeful Giving of Time, Talent, and Treasure
By Gretchen and Jon Jones
We couldn’t be more excited about the mission of our foundation: to help Brighton Jones clients, colleagues, and our community live a richer life through more purposeful giving of their time, talent, and treasure.
The Beginning
In 2013, our family of six made a weeklong stop in Kenya during our trip around the world. We had been looking for philanthropic causes that we could connect with as a family, but had difficulty finding any that were accessible and authentic in the way that they interacted with the local community.
Our friend and Brighton Jones client Bill Longbrake had started Lift Up Africa (LUA) with his wife, and they introduced us to the directors of three schools in Kenya that we were able to visit. We were tremendously impressed with how the schools filled a need in their local communities, doing so with minimal resources or outside support.
During a visit to one of the schools, Kajiado Child Care Centre, we asked the director Daniel what his greatest need was at that time. He pointed to the need for a building that could house skilled, long-term volunteers to serve the roughly 80 children with disabilities who resided at the school. We returned to Seattle and began the planning and fundraising, with help from LUA. In January 2018, we made the first of our client-focused awareness trips and attended the opening and dedication of the Brighton Jones Global Guesthouse.
Today
Shortly after, we agreed to take over LUA. Although we have a new name to reflect our company mission, we continue to support Kajiado Child Care Centre, GRACE Nanana, and the Ruben Centre, in part through our annual awareness trips that we offer to the Brighton Jones community. In addition, we are learning a lot about many different non-profits that our clients and community engage with throughout the world, and using this information to create networks around common philanthropic interests.
Looking Ahead
We want to leverage the Brighton Jones community to make connections with like-minded people, learn from each other’s experiences, and make an impact in the world. We believe that bringing compassionate people together around common philanthropic interests will make an exponential difference—together we can accomplish much more than any one of us individually.
We envision a group of passionate philanthropists coming together to learn from each other and give money collectively to make a bigger impact on the causes they care about. If we can help clients align their time and money with their passions and purpose, we will be fulfilling our mission and making the world a better place.
Gretchen and Jon Jones are the co-founders of The Brighton Jones Richer Life Foundation.