What You’ll Learn
- See how Salal Foundation community giving is helping communities expand healthcare access, build clean-energy job skills, and strengthen local support systems.
Salal Foundation supports GRID Alternatives and HealthPoint with significant investments that build long-term capacity, dignity, and resilience.
At Salal, we believe communities are strongest when people have the tools, support, and opportunities they need to shape their own future.
That belief is at the heart of two recent Salal Foundation investments: a $60,000 donation to GRID Alternatives and a $150,000 commitment to HealthPoint’s Tukwila Commons project. At first glance, solar workforce training and community healthcare may seem like two very different things. But both partnerships are powered by the same idea: people helping people by strengthening the systems communities need to thrive.
These investments are about more than meeting immediate needs. They build long-term capacity, expand access, and support community-led solutions that create lasting impact.
Growing Clean-Energy Careers with GRID Alternatives
Our investment in GRID Alternatives goes beyond solar energy. It helps communities build skills, leadership, and opportunity from the inside out.
GRID Alternatives works to advance economic and environmental justice through community-powered clean energy. With support from the Salal Foundation, GRID is expanding a workforce development model that trains community members to become solar installers. Even better, the program also trains local leaders to teach future cohorts themselves.
In other words, it’s truly for the community, by the community.
That train-the-trainer model creates a ripple effect. Community members gain useful green-energy job skills. Local trainers are equipped to keep the work going. More people can access the benefits of renewable energy. And over time, the program becomes less dependent on outside organizations.
This same model is already operating within a local Indigenous community, showing how clean-energy training can be adapted, owned, and led by the communities it serves.
Expanding Whole-Person Care with HealthPoint
HealthPoint is a nonprofit community healthcare network that provides care and support to people and families across the Puget Sound region, regardless of income, language, or health status. Its services include medical care, dental care, behavioral health, pharmacy services, social services, case management, and other resources that help remove barriers to better health.
The Salal Foundation has also committed $150,000 to HealthPoint’s Tukwila Commons project, distributed through three annual installments of $50,000.
HealthPoint’s Tukwila Commons is designed to be a one-stop community health hub, bringing together medical, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy services, childcare, and community supports in one location. The goal is simple: make it easier for people and families to get care and resources under one roof. This approach could have a real impact in Tukwila, one of the most diverse cities in Washington and a community facing a range of social needs.
This new investment builds on Salal’s long-standing relationship with HealthPoint. Years ago, Salal helped seed what became HealthPoint’s unrestricted assistance fund. Unlike grants tied to one specific program, these flexible funds allow HealthPoint staff to respond quickly when everyday barriers stand between a person and their health.
That might mean helping someone get a ride to an appointment. Replacing a dead car battery so they can keep working. Or helping a grandfather get a functioning refrigerator to safely store insulin.
Those needs may not always look like medical expenses. But they can be the difference between instability and access. Between missing care and getting support. Between getting by and getting back on steadier ground.
Investing in the Power of Community
Thanks to the support of Salal members and Salal Foundation donors, these investments are helping community-led organizations create lasting change. Together, we’re supporting clean-energy career pathways, expanded healthcare access, and stronger foundations for the people and communities we serve. That’s Power in Together in action.
