Mailee Walker
Executive Director
Our Mission
The Claneil Foundation seeks to support and encourage effective individuals and organizations committed to improving the health of families and communities through advancements in health and human services, a sustainable food system, education and the protection of our environment.
Our History
The Claneil Foundation is a family foundation that works to create healthy communities by supporting organizations that make a difference in the lives of individuals and families. The Foundation is rooted in a history of core values which include a belief in volunteerism, a desire to provide access for underserved populations to quality education, nutrition and health services, and a commitment to sharing the experience and knowledge of effective philanthropy with multiple generations.
For over 40 years, the Claneil Foundation has grown and evolved in response to demonstrated needs in the community and interests of the family members. The Claneil Foundation’s leadership works closely to facilitate continued learning of the family and board around philanthropic and grantee partner issues. “We value our grantee partners, and see our relationship with each organization as a two-way street. We always try to learn from grantee partners in terms of what is happening in their everyday work and trends that they are seeing in the field,” explains Executive Director Mailee Walker. Making family engagement and community impact high priorities has allowed the Foundation to undergo significant growth over the past 40 years, while preserving and perpetuating the family’s philanthropic vision and values.
Core Values
The Claneil Foundation is committed to supporting, trusting and learning from the individuals and organizations in which the Foundation has invested by adhering to the core values below:
- Family: We commit to meaningful family engagement and connection that deepens understanding of and strengthens commitment to the mission of the Foundation;
- Racial and Social Equity: We commit to on-going learning, reflection and action to address the racial and social inequities that permeate philanthropy, the communities we serve, and society-at-large;
- Relationships: We commit to building and sustaining trust-based relationships that go beyond transactional exchanges to make our shared work more deeply impactful;
- Learning: We commit to engaging in continuous and strategic learning relevant to our mission and core values that sharpens skills, deepens empathy, and catalyzes action for a just world; and
- Humility: We commit to practicing humility in our work, understanding that the Foundation’s financial contributions to nonprofits do not make us experts or entitle us to have power over others.
We acknowledge that living by these core values requires ongoing dedication, discipline and intention. In that spirit, we use the Trust-based Philanthropy principles and framework to help us align our core values with our culture, structures, leadership, and practices.