History
The Orcas Anthroposophical Trust is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501c3 foundation established in 1996 out of the impulse of the Dolphin Bay Waldorf School on Orcas Island in Washington State. The school served students on the island from 1979-1990 and was the inspiration for many adult members of its community to continue study and training. The school closed in 1990 and the proceeds of the property were transferred to the Orcas Anthroposophical Trust. The Trustees invested those proceeds with the Rudolf Steiner Foundation. With the income from this investment the Trust funds various anthroposophical initiatives through grants and gifts.
While supporting the heralding of Waldorf education and other anthroposophical endeavors into the future, the Trust seeks to deepen the consciousness of the spiritual aspects of money for its members and the community at large.
Granting
Since its inception the Trust has made over fifty grants to various initiatives in the Pacific Northwest from Nelson, BC to Eugene, Oregon.
For the first three years grants were made supporting lecture series, various workshops, student scholarships for eurythmy training, conference planning for administrative training, the Waldorf high school in Seattle, and the publishing of two anthroposophical books.
Next, the Trustees decided to focus specifically on educational support for students with learning differences with its grants. During the next three years grants were made to support:
- Master teachers with remedial and Extra Lesson expertise,
- Therapeutic eurythmy and speech therapy
- Several regional conferences for therapeutic education work
- Consultations by an anthroposophical doctor
- Development of care groups
- Faculty training in student assessments
- Spatial dynamics training
Subsequently, the Trust has provided substantial support to the Sunfield School in its goal to purchase property adjacent to the school.
Currently, the focus is on collaborative funding and encouraging community building among schools and initiatives in its granting area.
Gifting
In 1998 the Trustees established the World Gift Fund. From this fund the Trustees make unsolicited gifts to anthroposophical initiatives all over the world. These gifts have ranged from books on Waldorf education for theOrcas Island public library to the Children of Nepal, an orphanage in Nepal, a Waldorf school in the Dominican Republic, and the Alliance for Childhood. The Trustees have also gifted to the Rene Querido Medical Fund and to the scholarship fund for Seattle’s Sound Circle Center Teacher Training program. In 2004, the Trust made a substantial gift to Sunfield Education Foundation, Port Townsend, WA in support of the purchase of their farmland. Other recipients are the Spacial Dynamics program and the Anthroposophical Society Prison Outreach Program.
Goals of the Trust are:
- To promote interest and support of Waldorf Education and Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophical indications.
- To encourage collaboration and community building among Waldorf schools, branches of the Anthroposophical Society, and other anthroposophical initiatives.
- To foster ethnic, cultural and socio-economic diversity within anthroposophical communities.