:: The Cricket Island Foundation ::

The Foundation

About Cricket Island Foundation

The Cricket Island Foundation envisions a world in which young people are empowered, equipped, encouraged, and eager to positively impact the world in which they live. We support the leadership development of young people, as well as efforts to bring about shifts in our society that enable it to embrace young people as change agents and as active decision makers in the communities in which they live. We see young people as partners in creating the solutions to the challenges they face, rather than as simply part of the problem.

The mission of the Cricket Island Foundation is to develop the capacity and commitment of young people to improve their lives and communities, as well as the world around them. We support organizations that offer meaningful opportunities for youth to contribute to positive societal change.

The Cricket Island Foundation was founded in 2001 following the sale of the family business that had been established over 40 years ago by David Welles Sr. He and his wife, Georgia, envisioned the foundation as a collective family enterprise that would share and nurture leadership among multiple generations of family members. The foundation would institutionalize and cultivate the family's commitment to community membership and social responsibility for all those who participate, and would be a manifestation of the family values of fairness and integrity. Most importantly, the foundation would strive to maximize its impact in the world, among grantees, other funders, and society. All family members who are board members have made a financial contribution to the foundation, a contribution intended to empower them as vested board members, not simply descendents of the founders, to define the foundation's direction collectively.

Currently, the board is comprised of three generations of family members, ranging in age from 18 to 79.

We value the knowledge, experience, and commitment of our grantees, and seek out relationships that allow us to deepen our understanding of social issues, so that we become more effective board members and citizens.

We are committed to sharing power and responsibility across generations. We are committed to nurturing and harnessing the voice and the value of young people. It is in this spirit that we have committed ourselves to supporting the leadership development of our nation's young people as they confront and address major problems in their communities.