Tamarack Foundation

Tamarack Foundation
Name	Tamarack Foundation
Type	Nonprofit
Founded	1998
Founder	Jonathan Reese
Headquarters	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Region served	United States, East Africa, South Asia
Leader title	Executive Director
Leader name	Maria Alvarez
Revenue	$18 million (2023)

Tamarack Foundation

Tamarack Foundation is a philanthropic nonprofit focused on community development, civic engagement, and public health initiatives across the United States and selected international regions. Founded in the late 1990s, the foundation supports grassroots organizations, policy research, and capacity-building programs through grants, convenings, and technical assistance. Its work intersects with urban planning, refugee resettlement, and climate resilience efforts, and it collaborates with academic institutions, municipal bodies, and international NGOs.

History

Tamarack Foundation traces origins to a 1998 seed gift by philanthropist Jonathan Reese and a steering committee influenced by actors and institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in shaping early strategy. Early partnerships included pilot projects with the MacArthur Foundation-funded community development networks and the Aspen Institute fellowship programs. During the 2000s the foundation expanded operations alongside collaborations with the Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on urban health and digital inclusion pilots. Post-2010 strategic shifts mirrored learning from projects linked to the Clinton Global Initiative, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Brookings Institution on migration policy. Major historical milestones include a 2012 merger with the North Star Community Trust, a 2016 launch of an East Africa regional office modeled after Mercy Corps field hubs, and a 2020 pivot to pandemic response informed by partnerships with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Mission and Programs

Tamarack Foundation’s mission emphasizes strengthening local leadership, improving public health outcomes, and advancing equitable urban systems through grantmaking, research, and convening. Core program areas include community resilience, refugee and migrant integration, civic technology, and climate adaptation. Programmatic examples feature joint initiatives with the Urban Institute, the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Senseable City Lab on data-driven planning; collaborations with the International Rescue Committee, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and CARE on resettlement; and pilot efforts with the Sierra Club Foundation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Environmental Defense Fund on resilience planning. Capacity-building cohorts draw on curricula co-created with the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.

Organizational Structure and Governance

The foundation is governed by a board of trustees composed of leaders with backgrounds from the Minneapolis Foundation, the Minnesota Historical Society, and corporate boards such as Target Corporation and Best Buy. Executive leadership has included alumnus executives from the Clinton Foundation, the United Nations Foundation, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Day-to-day operations are organized into grantmaking, research, and field operations units, with regional directors overseeing programs in the Midwest, East Africa, and South Asia—often coordinating with municipal agencies like the Mayor’s Office of Minneapolis and international field partners such as Save the Children and Oxfam. Advisory councils include experts drawn from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Yale School of Public Health, and the London School of Economics.

Funding and Financials

Tamarack Foundation’s revenue streams combine endowed funds, philanthropic gifts, program-related investments, and government contracts. Major donors historically include the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Omidyar Network, and the Skoll Foundation, while institutional grants have flowed from USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the European Commission. Financial oversight is performed in consultation with accounting firms that have served nonprofits and foundations, parallel to audit practices promoted by the Council on Foundations and the Independent Sector. Financial transparency reports align with benchmarks used by Charity Navigator, GuideStar, and the Foundation Center, and fiscal years have shown diversified portfolios including impact investments aligned with the Global Impact Investing Network and program-related investments compliant with IRS rules for private foundations.

Partnerships and Impact

Tamarack’s impact is measured through partnerships with municipal governments, academic research centers, and international NGOs. Notable municipal partners include the City of Minneapolis, the City of Boston, and the City of Nairobi. Academic partnerships have involved the University of Minnesota, the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre, and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. International collaborators include Médecins Sans Frontières, the World Bank, and UNICEF. Evaluations produced in collaboration with Mathematica Policy Research, RAND Corporation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts have documented improvements in housing stability, employment outcomes for refugees, and community resilience metrics aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals projects. The foundation also participates in multi-donor funds alongside the Global Fund, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Asian Development Bank.

Notable Projects and Initiatives

Prominent initiatives include a Midwestern Transit Equity Fellowship developed with the TransitCenter and the Rockefeller Foundation, an urban heat mitigation demonstration co-designed with the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s applied science teams, and a refugee entrepreneurship accelerator run with the International Rescue Committee and the Harvard Innovation Labs. Other flagship efforts encompass a climate adaptation toolkit produced with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Nature Conservancy, a civic-tech open data platform launched with Code for America and the Knight Foundation, and a public health outreach campaign implemented with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation’s field pilots in Nairobi and Dhaka were evaluated jointly with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the International Institute for Environment and Development, influencing regional policy dialogues at the African Union and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

Category:Non-profit organizations based in Minnesota