Inatai Foundation is committed to building authentic and meaningful relationships with leaders and community organizations across Washington State. We know that building a statewide foundation that is both reflective of and responsive to communities will only happen through deep, sustained relationship building.

Our beliefs about relationship-building

• We believe people most impacted by inequities should be at the center of solutions. We believe in and support community self-determination. 
• We believe that history, context, and legacy are important and should be acknowledged. 
• We know that racism has been fundamental to Washington’s formation. Our institutions will continue to perpetuate racism unless we proactively work to end it. We are committed to antiracism. 
• We believe building trust takes time and we commit to building long-term relationships to develop meaningful partnerships with communities. 
• We believe philanthropy has a responsibility to be transparent and accountable, and we commit to sharing information with our partners. 
• We strive to show up with humility. 
• We recognize our organizational privilege and the structural power that comes with our role as a funder. 
• We believe in centering learning. We commit to learn about and center community strengths. We commit to bringing back what we learn from leaders and organizations so that Inatai Foundation can be transformed by these experiences. 
• We believe community insights can fill in gaps and provide important perspectives on quantitative data. We expect to have the data we gather to be deepened by the lived experience of those most impacted by health inequities. We commit to updating our materials to reflect what we’ve learned.
• We acknowledge that multiple and contradictory truths are real. 

Download Our Approach to Building Relationships with Communities to learn more about our practices for how we show up and priorities for community outreach.