Advocacy Core Principles

COF23 group photo

The Foundation for Tacoma Students envisions a Tacoma where every child succeeds in school, career and life. The Foundation’s mission is to build and strengthen Tacoma’s community-wide movement (Graduate Tacoma) to help every child achieve success from cradle to college and career.

The Foundation for Tacoma Students Advocacy Core Principles:

  1. Robust quality investments must be made in education from early learning through higher education.
  2. Closing opportunity gaps for our most structurally disadvantaged populations will require keeping equity at the center.
  3. Improving educational outcomes for all students must include transparency, accountability, alignment and the use of data/continuous improvement.

Process and Criteria for Evaluating Support:

Process for evaluating policy support

The Foundation for Tacoma Students will selectively address impactful local, regional and state policy issues which help to further our goals of every child in Tacoma achieving success from cradle to college and career.

Any Graduate Tacoma partner or member of the Foundation for Tacoma Students staff or board, may identify an existing proposed policy or community need and submit an application for support to the Policy Advisory Committee – a subset of the Graduate Tacoma community. The application must include the below cover page template as well as any and all public information related to the proposed policy or need. The Committee will review the application in a timely manner and shall request any further information or clarification from the applicant before making a final decision.

Please note, the Foundation for Tacoma Students board or executive staff reserves the authority to review and ultimately approve, amend, or decline support of any proposed policy.

Criteria for evaluating policy support

The proposed policy should:

  1. Have the potential to materially impact the goals being sought by the Foundation for Tacoma Students under its current strategic plan and/or the indicators set forth by Graduate Tacoma.
  2. Have strong support from local, regional and/or statewide cradle-to-career partners.
  3. Include transparent reporting of achievements.
  4. Explicitly address disparities where relevant and provide for the adequate and equitable distribution of resources needed to reduce disparities and;
  5. Reflect input provided by a set of diverse, representative stakeholders most impacted by the policy.

In cases where a policy is determined to materially impact current strategic goals established by the Foundation for Tacoma Students (Criteria #1) but may not meet all of the above criteria, the Foundation for Tacoma Students reserves the option to lend its support while advocating for one or more amendments that would satisfy certain other criteria.


Request for Advocacy Support
Foundation for Tacoma Students

Description of policy request: _______________________________

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First & Last Name of Applicant: _______________________________

Title: _______________________________________

Organization Name: _______________________________________

Organization Address: ______________________________________

Organization Website: ______________________________________

Contact Info (Phone/Email): __________________________________

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Is your organization a Graduate Tacoma Partner:   Y N

List any organizations or individuals who support your proposed policy:

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