Our mission: Educate and empower youth to appreciate, preserve and protect nature.

Our vision: Children and youth in our communities will become the new generation of environmental stewards with an active understanding and love for the natural world in which they live. Our unique program of funding and developing hands-on environmental programs is designed to encourage innovative projects that inspire, educate and empower children and youth to appreciate, preserve and protect nature.

We accomplish this…

• through the hard work of dedicated volunteers, Docents and teachers,
• with the help of our many partners, from individuals and governments to local nonprofits and corporate donors,
• and by using an inclusive and collaborative approach to program development and staying true to our six unique core values.

Core Values
What drives us to success? Our commitment to respect, integrity, stewardship and lasting results.

As indispensable to the Foundation’s success as our unifying mission, vision, goals and measures are our unique values—the distinguishing attributes that characterize how we conduct ourselves in our drive for results. These attributes are not mere platitudes but deeply held convictions manifested by all who represent The Santa Rosa Plateau Nature Education Foundation.

Integrity Beyond Reproach:
We will meet the highest ethical and professional standards in all of our organizational endeavors and, in doing so, we hold ourselves accountable to our mission and to the public.

• Be honest at all times.
• Be accountable to each other, to the mission, to our donors, members, partners, and to the public.
• Earn trust by building relationships, being competent, and following through on all of our commitments.
• Maintain the highest standards of excellence and accountability including prudent use of finances with fair, accurate and honest disclosures of information.
• Provide truthful information about our program activities, use of donations and finances.
• Be accessible and responsive to our members and the public who inquire about the affairs of the organization.

Respect and Dignity
Enduring nature education success depends on the active involvement of people and partners whose lives are linked to the natural systems we seek to educate our students about. We respect the needs, values and traditions of open space lands, local communities and cultures connected to these special places, and we forge relationships based on mutual benefit and trust.

• We respect the dignity, uniqueness and intrinsic value of every person – the people we serve, the donors, our volunteers, staff and the public.
• We value respectful, reasoned dialogue with one another when we disagree.

Accountability
We recognize that the true measure of our success is whether the youth and the communities we serve change for the better as a result of our programs. We strive to produce measurable outcomes through program evaluations and we recognize that developing and maintaining sound financial management is an important element of our accountability.

Care and Loyalty

• We comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations.
• We as individual Board members are informed and participate in Board decisions in good faith.
• We do not use our position for individual personal advantage.
• We keep the interests of the youth and community we serve in mind as we look for opportunities to become partners with those working in the private and public sectors.

Stewardship

• We are able to accomplish our mission through the generosity of others.
• We are vigilant with respect of a donor’s intentions and restrictions on the use of their gifts is.
• We promote responsible stewardship of the resources entrusted to us for the accomplishment of our work.

Excellence

• We believe in striving to be the best in our volunteer efforts, our relationships, our staff, our ideas and in our service and program delivery.
• We value and uphold the highest ethical and professional standards in all working relationships.