Celebrating 20 Years Serving North Tahoe – Truckee

Tags: Collaborations

It all started with a phone call. Just over twenty years ago, an attorney for William Hewlett, co-founder of Hewlett Packard, reached out to local attorney, Jim Porter, with a visionary idea. William was fond of the Sierra. He met his wife Flora as a child here, and they and their five children and grandchildren made happy summer memories here. He wanted to help protect and preserve the place they loved in perpetuity. 

So, William Hewlett offered the North Tahoe – Truckee community a gift of one million dollars, along with a challenge to match another million dollar gift to establish a community foundation. Igniting a dream and a passion to take care of the place we love as well, our community matched that gift and then some. With that, Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation (TTCF) was born.

Since then, TTCF has assisted over 185 donors and organizations to establish family and Field of Interest Funds, and now has nearly $27 million in assets. TTCF has also granted over $25 million in local grants and scholarships. That’s more than $50 million benefiting our community!

Over the decades, the community foundation has evolved from the traditional role of grantmaker to also become a community leader and convener. Some of TTCF’s accomplishments include: Call to Action which raised critical support for basic needs providers during the economic downturn; promoting the Speak Your Peace Campaign for peaceful civil discourse; spearheading the establishment of Community House in Kings Beach; instituting the Give Back Tahoe Giving Season, a year-end collective giving campaign; launching the Mountain Housing Council of Tahoe Truckee; training over 100 local board members in its Board Governance Series; and bringing the Community Collaborative of Tahoe Truckee, a collaborative of forty-five health and human services agencies, under its umbrella. 

This year, TTCF celebrates our 20th year. At 20 years strong, we celebrate the stability and sustainability of our mission. In the coming year, we will reflect and explore the many aspects of who TTCF is through the stories of the individuals and milestones that helped build our organization and the programs we manage. We will also continue to examine our own value in an ever-changing community that is never stagnant and always evolving – like the Sierra itself. As the year unfolds, we look forward to sharing with you the stories and the impact that we’ve already accomplished and that we continue to pursue.

We look forward to celebrating with you, and we invite you to get to know us better. 

Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation connects people and opportunities, generating resources to build a more caring, creative, and effective community. Armed with this mission, TTCF is poised to lead the community fearlessly into the future of the North Tahoe – Truckee region.