Trust for Mutual Understanding

**Trust for Mutual Understanding** **The Trust for Mutual Understanding awards grants to organizations to support collaboration in the arts and the environment (and the intersection of the two) under the umbrella of culture between professionals from** the United States and Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. At TMU, we are concerned about the rapid decline of direct people-to-people connections across geographies and cultures. We continue to believe strongly in the conviction of our donor, Sandra Ferry Rockefeller, that supporting international, person-to-person contact and collaboration supports global harmony. We believe these relationships, rooted in trust, are increasingly urgent to combat isolationism. We embrace the possibility that through an interwoven fabric of culture, long-standing connection, understanding, and mutual respect can be developed and a more peaceful world can prosper. Our grantmaking focuses specifically on how the arts and the environment, and the intersection of the two, relate to culture. **Culture** The Trust for Mutual Understanding defines culture as: an expression of identity, meaning, and shared values; a shared understanding of how a global community can live and work together. We support those who share an international, inclusive, non-nationalistic, contemporary worldview and are working to solve common problems and create common solutions. We support leaders and organizations that share our values of international collaboration and the importance of building relationships across borders and boundaries. **In the arts**, we support contemporary dance, music, theater, visual arts, and language and cultural preservation. **In the environment**, we support the stewardship and resilience of lands and waters, including the protection of threatened land- and sea- scapes. **In both the arts and the environment**, we support collaborations activated by Native and Indigenous traditional knowledge. We advance work that seeks to build, foster, and sustain long-lasting, trust-based relationships. We prioritize organizations and programs that are tied directly to local communities and cultures. **Values** The Trust for Mutual Understanding works in many diverse geographies and cultures. We value the distinctive and varied ways in which diversity, equity, and justice can combat exclusion and isolationism. We believe in the fundamental value and dignity of all individuals and pledge to grow an environment that respects diverse traditions, heritages, and life experiences. In our work with Native and Indigenous grantees and philanthropic partners, we commit to uphold, incorporate, and value the principles of free, prior, and informed consent as stated in the [United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples](https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf). We believe in the fundamental value and dignity of all life. We are committed to the principles of ecological justice—recognizing that humans and all other species and natural systems on Earth have intrinsic value and are inextricably interlinked and interdependent. We believe that Native communities—and Indigenous ways of knowing and being—possess a richness of wisdom and centuries of expertise regarding the inherent worth and interconnectedness of life and ecologically just stewardship.