Giving Compass' Take:

• In this podcast, Tricia Raikes discusses her philanthropic learning journey and the trajectory of the Raikes Foundation. She further explains how everyone can engage in impact-driven philanthropy. 

• What has your giving journey looked like? How has it changed? 

• Check out the Raikes Foundation magazine on Giving Compass, focused on youth homelessness.


In this of Beyond the Blue Badge, host Rich Kaplan visits Tricia Raikes on the shores of Seattle’s Lake Union at the headquarters for North Forty and The Raikes Foundation. Tricia shares why she and her husband Jeff Raikes in 2002 started the foundation, which has given more than $97 million in grants; how the organization’s mission has evolved; and how everyone — at any level — can think about impact-driven philanthropy.

  • How family modeled the art of giving back. Her first role model was working alongside her mother in her philanthropic work in Seattle. Later, Mary Gates and Ann Ramsay-Jenkins served as role models.
  • Start with what you deeply care about.
  • Important lesson: commit to learning and being open to change.
  • How bullying led to a passion for building equitable learning environments
  • How a catalytic moment at the Union Street offramp sparked the Raikes Foundation’s evolution to tackle youth homelessness.
  • Working with partners to address homelessness at the systems level.
  • From Seattle to New York to a little software company in Redmond where she became employee 75 and took charge of building Microsoft’s brand.
  • Using impact-driven philanthropy to address social justice
  • Where to start: Giving Compass gives everyone access to “the set of resources Jeff and I would have loved to have back when we started our foundation.”

Read the full article about impact-driven philanthropy at Microsoft Alumni Network.