General Fund Grant Proposal
A Founding Investment in the Future of Support for a Green Economy
Hazel Henderson Center
10 Carrera Street, St. Augustine, FL 32084
Executive Summary
The Hazel Henderson Center respectfully requests $80,000 in General Operating Support to strengthen the organizational infrastructure necessary to preserve, steward, and activate the intellectual legacy of Hazel Henderson, one of the world's most influential voices in ecological economics, ethical finance, sustainability, and systems thinking.
Located in Henderson's historic home in St. Augustine, Florida, the Center serves as a living resource dedicated to preserving her extensive library, archives, intellectual property, and collaborative spirit while fostering new generations of leaders, scholars, entrepreneurs, investors, educators, and changemakers.
The requested funding will support the foundational capacities that make this work possible, including stewardship of the Center's historic property, management of its library and archives, organizational operations, strategic project management, communications, technology, governance, and long-term institutional development.
Unlike program-specific grants that support individual initiatives, General Operating Support provides the flexibility necessary to care for the Center's core assets, strengthen organizational capacity, and ensure the sustainability of an institution designed to serve future generations.
Statement of Need
Hazel Henderson's work fundamentally reshaped conversations about economics, sustainability, quality of life, socially responsible investing, corporate accountability, renewable energy, and new measures of human progress. Her ideas anticipated many of the challenges and opportunities facing society today and continue to influence thought leaders across disciplines and sectors.
Following Henderson's passing in 2022, her home, library, archives, writings, and global network of collaborators became a unique body of intellectual and cultural resources requiring intentional stewardship. Today, the Hazel Henderson Center serves as the guardian of these assets and the institution through which Henderson's work can continue to educate, inspire, and inform future generations. While many grantmakers are interested in supporting specific educational programs or events, the organizational infrastructure required to care for these resources often remains underfunded. Yet it is precisely this infrastructure that allows an institution to remain effective, accessible, and sustainable over time.
The Center manages:
A living library of more than 5,600 books.
More than 1,000 journal and periodical issues.
Archival resources connected to decades of scholarship, research, writing, and public engagement.
A historic property that served for decades as Henderson's gathering place for leaders, innovators, investors, and scholars.
Relationships with Ethical Markets Media and an extensive global network of sustainability practitioners and thought leaders.
To steward these assets responsibly, the Center requires ongoing operational support that extends beyond any single program or initiative. Investing in organizational capacity today will ensure that these resources remain available and impactful far into the future.
About the Hazel Henderson Center
The Hazel Henderson Center carries forward the legacy of Hazel Henderson (1933–2022) — ecological economist, futurist, syndicated columnist, author, and a founding voice of the global sustainability movement. For more than five decades, Henderson challenged conventional economic thinking and championed renewable energy, socially responsible investing, ethical markets, corporate accountability, and quality-of-life indicators that move beyond Gross Domestic Product.
The Center operates from Henderson's former home in St. Augustine — a property that served for four decades as a gathering place for scholars, entrepreneurs, investors, educators, journalists, and systems thinkers exploring new approaches to economics, sustainability, governance, and social innovation. Following Henderson's passing, trustees, advisors, collaborators, and community partners established the Center as a nonprofit institution committed to preserving and activating her intellectual legacy. Through leadership residencies, educational programming, research initiatives, strategic convenings, and community partnerships, the Center cultivates the ideas, relationships, and practical tools needed to address the defining challenges of this century.
The Center's key assets include:
A living library of more than 5,600 books and 1,000+ journal issues
Archives preserved through academic partnerships, including the University of Missouri
Residency accommodations, a research library, collaborative gathering spaces, a workshop room, kitchen, outdoor areas, a pool, and parking
An experienced leadership team and Strategic Foresight Advisory Committee with deep expertise in sustainability, ethical finance, education, and community development
Close relationships with Ethical Markets Media and its globally recognized Research Advisory Board, connecting the Center to a broad international network of practitioners, investors, academics, and public-sector leaders
The Hazel Henderson Center is a Florida not-for-profit corporation and a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. EIN: 41-2894661.
The Place
St. Augustine is the oldest continuously inhabited European-founded city in the United States, and the Center sits inside that living history. Its historic district is compact and fully walkable — cobblestone streets, Spanish colonial architecture, Flagler College's gilded halls, and the Castillo de San Marcos, standing guard over the bay since 1672. Within a short walk of the Center: waterfront seafood restaurants, neighborhood wine bars, art galleries, and dining that draws on four hundred and fifty years of layered culinary history. The Atlantic beaches are fifteen minutes away.
This isn't incidental to the program — it's central to it. Hazel chose this home deliberately, and every partner who comes here experiences a version of what she built her life's work around: a place where big thinking and genuine hospitality coexist.
Use of Funds
Preserving the Center's resources requires more than passive maintenance — it requires active stewardship and thoughtful management that ensure accessibility, relevance, and engagement. The Center's mission is therefore not merely preservation. It is activation: transforming these assets into living resources that continue to generate learning, dialogue, research, innovation, and public benefit.
General Operating Support funds will be used to strengthen the organizational foundation necessary to fulfill the Center's mission:
Historic Property Stewardship & Maintenance — supporting the care, maintenance, repair, insurance, utilities, and operational management of the Center's historic property to ensure its continued preservation and accessibility.
Library & Archive Management — supporting cataloging, organization, preservation, digitization planning, collection management systems, and professional services that improve access to the Center's library and archival resources.
Consulting & Project Management Support — supporting specialized expertise in communications, organizational development, strategic planning, fundraising, technology systems, archival initiatives, and project implementation.
Organizational Operations & Administration — supporting governance, accounting, compliance, insurance, office operations, administrative systems, software platforms, legal services, and communications infrastructure.
Capacity Building & Strategic Development — supporting activities that strengthen the Center's long-term sustainability, effectiveness, partnerships, and organizational resilience.
Budget
Total General Operating Support Request: $80,000
| Historic Property Stewardship & Maintenance | $25,000 |
| Library & Archive Management | $15,000 |
| Consulting & Project Management Support | $20,000 |
| Organizational Operations & Administration | $15,000 |
| Capacity Building & Strategic Development | $5,000 |
| Total Request | $80,000 |
The Center welcomes both full and partial funding and can provide additional budget detail upon request.
Organization
The Hazel Henderson Center is guided by an experienced leadership team with expertise in sustainability, education, nonprofit management, ethical finance, and community development:
Dr. Carol Spalding, Co-Trustee
Beth Binns, Managing Director and Co-Trustee
Dr. Paula Seymour, Director of Innovative Studies Programs
Mara Zepeda, Director of HH Legacy Initiatives
Jan McAlpine, Director of Development
Tommy Maletta, Editor, Ethical Markets
The Center also benefits from the guidance of its Strategic Foresight Advisory Committee, whose members include Leslie Danziger, Elsie Maio, Vicki Robin, former U.S. Representative Claudine Schneider, and Jean Gaddy Wilson. A broader network of advisors and collaborators contributes expertise across environmental stewardship, architecture, education, finance, governance, entrepreneurship, and systems change.
The Center's close relationship with Ethical Markets Media and its internationally recognized Research Advisory Board provides the Center's programs with access to a global network of practitioners, investors, academics, and public-sector leaders — significantly extending the professional development and collaborative opportunities available beyond what any single institution can offer.
Impact and Sustainability
The proposed investment will strengthen the institutional capacity necessary to preserve and activate one of the most significant intellectual legacies in the sustainability movement. General Operating Support will enable the Center to:
Preserve and steward Hazel Henderson's library, archives, and historic gathering place.
Improve accessibility to educational and research resources.
Strengthen organizational systems and governance structures.
Build strategic partnerships and collaborative opportunities.
Expand the Center's long-term sustainability and resilience.
Create a durable institutional platform capable of serving future generations.
The ultimate goal is not merely to sustain organizational operations, but to establish a permanent resource for scholarship, dialogue, leadership development, and public engagement focused on building more equitable, regenerative, and sustainable futures.
Conclusion
Hazel Henderson helped shape global conversations about sustainability, ethical finance, responsible investing, renewable energy, and new measures of human progress. The Hazel Henderson Center is ensuring that her ideas remain not only preserved, but actively engaged by future generations of scholars, investors, educators, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and community leaders.
The Center's library, archives, historic gathering place, and growing network of collaborators represent a rare intellectual and cultural resource. With thoughtful stewardship, these assets can continue to inspire research, dialogue, innovation, and practical action at a time when the world urgently needs new models of economic and social progress.
An investment in the Center's General Operating Fund is an investment in the long-term preservation and activation of this legacy. It strengthens the institutional foundation required to care for irreplaceable resources, expand public access to ideas and knowledge, cultivate strategic partnerships, and support the next generation of leaders working toward a more just, regenerative, and sustainable future.
Beyond sustaining current operations, this funding will help establish the Hazel Henderson Center as a permanent resource for scholarship, convening, and public engagement. The benefits of that investment will extend far beyond any single program or year, creating opportunities for learning, collaboration, and impact that can continue for decades to come.
We respectfully invite you to join us as a founding partner in building this enduring institution and ensuring that Hazel Henderson's vision continues to inform, inspire, and accelerate positive change around the world.
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