Strategic Plan
Mission
To grow community stewardship of the urban forest across Greater Tacoma through planting, education, and advocacy.
Vision
Tacoma Tree Foundation is a leader in the ongoing efforts to make Greater Tacoma a green and
resilient place, where:
Everyone has access to the social and environmental benefits that trees and other plants provide, like beauty, habitat, public health, safety, and sense of community.
Everyone shares the responsibility of caring for the urban forest by planting, maintaining, and preserving trees wherever possible.
Executive Summary
Tacoma Tree Foundation is a non-profit organization whose mission is to grow community stewardship of the urban forest across Greater Tacoma through planting, education, and advocacy.
This strategic plan presents a shared vision for the organization’s role in growing a greener, healthier, and stronger community. The plan sets intentions and provides guidance to leadership, staff, partners, and community members through the year 2030 and beyond.
In the spring of 2025, we connected with a broad swath of community members over a series of strategic questions, covering topics like geography, programming, and what success looks like. We were overjoyed by the response from 238 survey respondents and 8 key partners who took the time to reflect with us and invest their time giving us feedback (summarized in Appendix A). Our staff and board have also been instrumental to shaping the following vision and strategies.
After our first seven years, Tacoma Tree Foundation is moving from a phase of rapid growth into a phase of sustained impact. While we believe that further growth is possible, this plan is focused on sustaining current partnerships and programs and refining our place within the network of people and organizations working together to grow our urban forest.
Values
Social Cohesion & Community Respect
We seek to increase social cohesion and civic engagement through mutual caring and environmental stewardship.
We foster safe, welcoming, and supportive communities alongside people of all abilities, ages, appearances, backgrounds, cultures, genders, and lifestyles.
We listen to and respect our neighbors’ opinions, including their concerns about trees in the urban environment.
Equitable Tree Canopy
All people have a right to live in a neighborhood with healthy tree canopy coverage and easy access to green space.
We understand the lack of tree equity—the inequitable distribution of urban trees and green space access—to be an environmental justice issue with roots in our local history, which includes the displacement of Native peoples, deforestation, environmental contamination, and discriminatory patterns of investment.
Everyone is a steward of our local environment. We promote stewardship primarily through the planting, maintenance, and preservation of trees, especially in neighborhoods where tree canopy coverage is lacking.
Health & Well-Being
Because trees have well-documented public health benefits, we see our work as a way to increase well-being and quality of life.
We understand environmental health to be a key driver of people’s physical and mental health (as detailed by the Washington Environmental Health Disparities Map).
We understand that climate change is ongoing and that it impacts the most vulnerable people in our communities first.
Strategic Plan
Download and read our complete Strategic plan