I appreciate this - especially the encouragement for foundations to embrace risk. Foundation funding is an excellent option for challenging the status quo and too often ends up reinforcing it.
I recently met with a small health foundation program officer and discussed “innovative and outside the box” non-clinical mental health supports in schools by integrating more nature connection. She sighed and said, “I love this. And I wouldn’t use the phrases innovative or outside-the-box to describe our board...”
Disappointing. She didn’t give me a hard “no”; instead she suggested I would need to nest the request within the confines of physical well-being (per their funding areas) instead of leading with the increasingly robust case for nature’s protective powers for mental health.
I appreciate this - especially the encouragement for foundations to embrace risk. Foundation funding is an excellent option for challenging the status quo and too often ends up reinforcing it.
I recently met with a small health foundation program officer and discussed “innovative and outside the box” non-clinical mental health supports in schools by integrating more nature connection. She sighed and said, “I love this. And I wouldn’t use the phrases innovative or outside-the-box to describe our board...”
Disappointing. She didn’t give me a hard “no”; instead she suggested I would need to nest the request within the confines of physical well-being (per their funding areas) instead of leading with the increasingly robust case for nature’s protective powers for mental health.
Thanks for holding this conversation.