Headwaters Foundation’s Brenda Solorzano on Trust-Based Philanthropy

“People want the best for their children. Solutions may vary, but at the end of the day, that's really what we're all working towards. And if we get an opportunity to have connection and relationship with people, you learn that we're not that different and that all these different powers that be have started to try to create kind of an us/them mentality . . . and the reality that I've experienced is that it doesn't have to be that way.”

— Brenda Solorzano

Brenda Solorzano is CEO of the Headwaters Foundation, whose vision is a Montana in which all people, especially those most vulnerable, are healthy and thriving. Headwaters is a relatively young foundation and Brenda is a relatively new Montanan. But in a short time, Headwaters has made incredible impact, not only through funding many organizations in need, but also doing so through new paradigms, including a deep commitment to trust-based philanthropy. In this episode of A New Angle podcast, Brenda shares the career path that led her from California to Montana, her practice of “granting trust before getting trust,” and the ways she and her team have centered the community in every element of the foundation’s operations.

Read the transcript here.