About Us
Our History
“Over the years, a community foundation becomes a collection of many stories. Each tells how people have contributed to their community’s philanthropic history.” – GTCF’s 1983 Annual Report
Every organization has a story. GTCF’s is a collection of many stories from people who believed that every person in Pierce County could thrive, that generosity could be aligned for greater impact, and that problems no one could solve alone could be solved together.
Ann Wiborg watched her father build the Seattle Foundation and knew Pierce County needed the same. She walked into Arleigh Jones’s bank office one day in the late 70’s and asked what he knew about community foundations. He said he didn’t know anything — but he could find out.
By September 1977, Ann, Arleigh, Byron Johnston, and Lawrence Ross started the process to launch an organization that could support the needs and opportunities of their growing community for generations to come. Ann said, “Our goal was to create an active movement – with a continuous flow of financial support and information around civic activity. The more people that you can help get involved, the more things you can do.”
On June 1, 1981, Greater Tacoma Community Foundation (GTCF) officially became operative with $10,000 in assets, and a part-time Executive Director named Paul Bender who never worked part-time a day in his life.
As GTCF enters its 45th year, President & CEO Kathi Littmann has announced plans to transition leadership by the end of 2027. The search for GTCF’s next leader is underway — guided by the same commitment to Pierce County that has defined this organization since 1981.
To honor the many people who have shared a commitment to a thriving Pierce County by working through GTCF, we built this retrospective of the numbers, milestones, and voices. Each chapter looks through the lens of the Executive who guided GTCF’s stewardship and service.
Explore 45 years of Pierce County’s philanthropic story — and find your place in it.
Are there stories about community we haven’t captured? Share your memories of how people came together to build a thriving community using this form.
Catalyzing a Thriving Community
Kathi Littmann brought an unusually wide set of experiences to GTCF when she became President & CEO in 2015. She started as a middle school English teacher, then pivoted to a 27-year career in commercial construction management. Her last project was planning a new campus for DreamWorks SKG. A volunteer assignment helping Los Angeles Unified School District build 175 new schools in the highest-need communities led her to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she ran a national portfolio of education system redesign across 35 school districts. Wanting to put down roots in a community, she came to Pierce County.
“It’s almost like I get to wear all my hats from all my different jobs in this one. Maybe it was all just training for this position.” — Kathi Littmann, 2015
Under her leadership GTCF has sharpened its focus on racial equity, expanded its philanthropic tools beyond traditional grantmaking, and navigated COVID-19 and the most significant shift in federal funding in decades, growing assets to more than $207 million and cumulative grants past $218 million along the way.
First Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy Cohort formed
Board Alumni Committee launched
Wallace Foundation four-year grant for Social Emotional Learning with Tacoma Public Schools. The Whole Child Partnership ultimately delivering nearly $8 million for out-of-school time and SEL for Tacoma students.
Women’s Economic Opportunity Initiative launched through Fund for Women & Girls following a year of research and a published Status Report
First Professional Advisors Breakfast; Thanks for a Greater Community Event at the Foss Waterway Seaport
Census 2020 partnership with Pierce County Auditor’s Office
First Externally Managed Fund offered; GTCF takes full occupancy of 11th floor of Rust Building
$1M in Census outreach funding distributed to 39+ organizations.
Kathi named Philanthropy Northwest Ambassador of the Year
Pierce County Connected emergency response fund distributed $7.9 million to organizations serving Pierce County’s most vulnerable populations during COVID-19. The largest single-year grant total in GTCF history to that point was in 2020.
Kathi Littmann named Nonprofit Business Leader of the Year by University of Washington Tacoma.
Loan guaranty pool for CARES Act funding ensured $32M in federal CARES Act funding could be delivered
Strategic Framework updated with a vision of equity: “A racially equitable, accessible, inclusive Pierce County where all people can shape and activate the systems that affect our communities.”
With loan partner, Elevate Health, GTCF piloted a bridge loan program to support the timely completion of projects, like EFN’s warehouse, that make a major impact in Pierce County.
GTCF contracted with Washington State Department of Commerce to deliver nearly $4.9 million in Community Reinvestment Project funds to Black, Latine, and Indigenous communities.
$780,502 from Field of Interest funds directed to 24 Pierce County networks.
In partnership with KBTC, GTCF hosted a series of Leadership Lesson Panel Conversations about Leading in Challenging Times, Leading for a Thriving Community, and Leadership for a Growing Community
Pierce County Resiliency Hub launched with nearly 40 cross-sector leaders building shared data and trust as federal funding shifts reshape the region. More than $100 million in federal funding to Pierce County government for human services at risk.
Sparking Impact
Rose Lincoln came to GTCF from Safeco, where she managed a program to strengthen neighborliness and community connection. She brought experience across government, private business, and nonprofit sectors plus a clear philosophy: “Small acts can make big things happen.”
Under Rose’s leadership, GTCF more than doubled its assets, introduced Vibrant Community grantmaking, weathered the 2008 financial crisis without reducing its commitment to the community, launched Be the Spark with Bishop Desmond Tutu, and received the largest gift in GTCF’s history. She was, as she put it in her final years, building on the past and setting the stage for the future.
Fund for Women & Girls 4th annual event raises $60,000+; assets approach $500,000
GTCF became first Washington community foundation to earn National Standards Seal from the Council on Foundations, one of only 250 nationwide confirmed in compliance with the highest standards for operational quality, integrity, and accountability.
Ryan Hade Endowment Fund founded. Seven-year-old Ryan Hade was attacked in a Tacoma neighborhood in 1989. Nearly a million dollars raised by the public. Ryan legally affirmed his wish that upon his death those funds would go to GTCF “for the benefit of other abused or disfigured children, in perpetuity.” “He was always helping others.” — Betty Foote, Ryan’s grandmother
Youth Violence Committee convened. Foundation of Art Award established.
Financial crisis hit. Rose Lincoln: “The effects of the current economic slowdown and financial uncertainty will only encourage us to be more innovative and collaborative.” GTCF maintained grantmaking; Community Grants cycle increased.
Vibrant Community grantmaking framework launched, addressing root causes and systemic challenges.
Vibrant Community grant to Oasis Youth Center. Oasis Director Seth Kirby: “The mission of our program is three-fold: to save the lives of youth who need assistance; to help the youth build their community; and through these youth to go out and change the world.” (Seth Kirby is now GTCF’s Chief Impact Officer.)
Youth Philanthropy Board inaugurated.
Be the Spark. Bishop Desmond Tutu came to Tacoma. “Tonight is just the beginning — the spark of something greater.” — Rose Lincoln.
Largest-ever bequest: $15 million from Donald R. and Mary E. Williams
Foundation for Tacoma Schools collaboration launched.
Spark Grants launched: micro-grants empowering everyday people to create change in their neighborhoods. Impact investing program introduced.
Pacific Bonsai Museum and Lakewold Gardens supported as GTCF partner organizations.
Building Community Momentum
Margy McGroarty joined GTCF in 1983 as Director of Development and was promoted to Executive Director in 1987. Over 17 years of leadership, she led a promising young organization into a recognized civic institution.
Margy had a gift for seeing what a community needed before it knew it needed it. During her tenure, GTCF helped feed people during a recession, formed a Task Force to revitalize downtown Tacoma through a $14 million theater project, supported the American Leadership Forum locally, commissioned landmark research on arts and cultural facilities, launched the Fund for Women & Girls, and helped the Tacoma School of the Arts get started.
One of her favorite memories from the Theatre District project was the discovery that one of the balcony pillars in the Rialto had been supported by empty liquor bottles from years ago.
Largest single gift to date: $1.5 million Baker Family Fund; assets reached $7.2 million; Planned Giving Program established
Broadway Theater District project launched. One anonymous donation to renovate the Rialto Theater grew into a five-year, $14 million public-private partnership: Tacoma’s first major downtown revitalization project.
GTCF helped launch American Leadership Forum Pierce County Chapter, and now nearly 300 alumni work collaboratively for the region. GTCF profiled in An Agile Servant as one of eight community foundations of note nationally.
Assets reached $17.6 million; first decade celebrated with Alex Haley as keynote speaker; Rialto Theater renovation completed.
B.E.S.T. (Bethel Education Scholarship Team) launched. Employees donated one day’s pay. By 2005 more than 150 students per year received scholarships.
GTCF sponsored Symposium on Diversity, Multicultural Inclusion. Ten cultural organizations convened at Slovenian Hall. Key finding: “Inclusion is most effective when the relationships are reciprocal and both parties get something out of the interaction.”
GTCF sponsored Tacoma 2010: A Community Dialogue on Cultural Facilities. More than 200 representatives convened; Tacoma City Council adopted recommendations. Research and planning identified as the “early money” barrier for nonprofit capital projects.
GTCF sponsored Study Commission on the Arts in the 21st Century. Thirty cultural organizations assessed; $35.1 million in local economic activity documented. Vision for 2020: Pierce County as an arts destination. (That vision came true.)
GTCF co-commissioned Devolution and its Impact on Tacoma Pierce County Human Services. The report examined the impact cuts to federal funding would have on local communities following 1996’s welfare reform bill.
Fund for Women & Girls founded by Board Chair Kathryn Van Wagenen.
Fund for Women & Girls officially launched, 320 attendees, Betsy Brenner keynote; $235,000 raised in first year
Margy retired after 21 years.
Setting the Future in Motion
Paul Bender was a 24-year military veteran and former chief of staff for Governor Dixy Lee Ray when he was hired part-time in 1981. But Arleigh Jones observed, “Paul never worked part-time. He always worked his job full time and more.”
Paul got GTCF moving with only $10,000 in assets and the support of a community belief that Pierce County deserved an organization that could pool the generosity of many to meet the needs of all.
Ann Wiborg, Arleigh Jones, Byron Johnston, and Lawrence Ross incorporated Greater Tacoma Community Foundation
June 1, GTCF was officially operative with $10,000 in assets and a commitment from a local private foundation to cover first-year administrative costs of $36,000.
Pierce County Emergency Food Network (EFN) created March 1, known as the “Food Banks’ Food Bank.”
- Launched with support from FISH Food Banks, Salvation Army, Tacoma Rescue Mission and others to meet surging demand “by a new group of people in need of assistance because they were out of work, and by those who could no longer depend on traditional sources because of revised federal guidelines and reduced governmental spending.”
- In its first year, EFN received $517,237 in donations and served 33 providers across Pierce County.
- EFN was initially viewed as a temporary augmentation to traditional emergency food resources.
- Educational program launched for high school dropouts
- Fund established to support the Committee for Tacoma’s Future
- First Annual Report published. GTCF described as “the ideal organization to pool gifts from many sources to meet large local needs.”
“The community foundation concept is a recognition of two fundamental facts – first, that certain and constant change takes place in our society and in our attitudes with respect to charity, and – second, that the problems of each generation can be solved better by the best minds of these generations than by those of the past.”
Cleve A. Redig, 1984 GTCF Board of Trustees President, in the GTCF Annual Report
- EFN transferred to Associated Ministries as an independent program, the first of many enduring community efforts catalyzed through the support of GTCF’s resources, connections, and long-term vision.
- GTCF appointed successor trustee to 11 charitable trusts worth $1.2 million
One of GTCF’s earliest grants went to the Fort Nisqually Museum in Point Defiance Park. Supporting a series of upgrades to the exhibit, GTCF granted $500 to furnish the worker’s dwelling/living house on June 16.
