Call for Support
The Ingrid Rasch Legacy Fund was launched in 2022 to support Earth Economics ability to offer pro bono work to groups whose work aligns with our vision—a future where communities, nature, and industry all thrive together. Together with your support, the IRLF enables us to help organizations understand and communicate the benefits provided by nature-based solutions.
In 2024, we will focus our pro bono efforts on expanding our schoolyard greening efforts. We are currently working with the Trust for Public Lands to assess the benefits that green schoolyards in Tacoma, WA provide to students, teachers, and the broader community. Please help us to increase the number of schools we can include in these assessments.
Generous donor support allows us
to expand our pro bono work
This work builds on our 2023 partnership with Amigos de los Rios, a Los Angeles group focused on improving access to nature throughout the Los Angeles basin. We assessed the social, environmental, and economic benefits of adding trees, pervious surfaces, and a garden to the Watershed Discovery Campus of Mary W. Jackson Elementary. Every dollar invested in greening the Jackson Elementary playground produces at least $3.60 in measured social, environmental, and economic benefits for the students, the school, and surrounding neighborhoods. Students and teachers benefit from the ability of newly planted trees to mitigate temperature extremes, but also from the fresh foods provided by the school’s new garden. Other benefits are shared more broadly—including stormwater reduction, improved drainage and air and water quality.
In its inaugural year, the IRLF supported a project on community gardens for immigrants and refugees:
The Paradise Parking Plots Community Garden of Kent, WA improves food access, builds community, and fosters economic independence among immigrant communities. The project transformed an underused parking lot into a busy green space that offers opportunities to grow culturally important foods, providing both sustainable access to healthy produce and a hub for building community through environmental stewardship. The uncovered soils and green spaces reduce localized flooding and the garden is a welcome retreat on hot summer days. In 2022, Earth Economics assessed the water storage, water purification, flood reduction, and habitat provided this project. By demonstrating the community benefits of such investments, World Relief hopes to expand this model of community-building through environmental stewardship.
Year-end giving in 2020 allowed us to support peacebuilding efforts in Southeast Asia:
PeaceTrees Vietnam is dedicated to addressing the legacies of war by removing explosives and returning the land to safe use, thus promoting peace, and cultivating a brighter future for the children and families of Vietnam. Since their founding in 1995, PeaceTrees has cleared over 4,700 acres of land, removed nearly 140,000 explosive ordnance, planted more than 44,000 trees, and supported communities through education, scholarships, and community-building. In 2023, Earth Economics worked with PeaceTrees to combine environmental and climate change data with mine action data to better inform resilience and adaptation planning, ensuring that this work is meaningful not only for communities today, but also well into the future.