Our Philosophy

The Lodestar Foundation was created to put into practice a set of five interrelated sequential principles:

• First, the basic goal of all humans is happiness.
• Second, happiness can only be found by identifying and striving to achieve a meaningful purpose for one's existence.
• Third, one meaningful purpose is to endeavor to help one’s fellow man.
• Fourth, although there are countless ways to help, ultimately the ability to help is limited by one’s time, money and other resources.
• Fifth, by identifying and adopting a mission that is not focused on any specific field of interest and focusing instead on leveraging resources (that is, providing the most help with the most effective and efficient use of resources), those resources can maximize the impact of helping others and thereby create a greater opportunity to achieve happiness.

These principles form the basis upon which Lodestar’s mission has been developed.

For interesting commentary on the relationship between happiness and philanthropy click here .

(One specific way in which happiness and philanthropy are linked may relate to limiting the life of a foundation. The Beldon Fund and its founder, John Hunting, have advanced this proposition persuasively. Visit http://www.beldon.org/content/spend-out-strategy for more information.)

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We invite you to learn more about who we are, our mission, funding philosophy, and more
The Lodestar Foundation is a supporting organization of the Arizona Community Foundation .