Our Story
Since John and Carrie Morgridge co-founded the Morgridge Family Foundation in 2008, they have supported hundreds of projects and impacted millions of lives. They began their giving close to home, first to improve their children’s schools and then to bring technology and training to teachers in rural communities across Colorado. As they learned more about the root causes of long-standing societal issues, they branched out to giving in other sectors, and to making larger gifts. Through their experiences, successes, and failures, they found their identity and their passion to disrupt and transform. Today, they surround themselves with leaders, funders, policy makers, and people with lived experience who create solutions rather than become stuck on why things don’t work. They always take a positive approach.
Carrie and John in the Grand Canyon, on a trip with American Rivers, an MFF partner.
The seed capital for MFF came from John’s parents, John P. and Tashia Morgridge, who are avid philanthropists. As CEO of Cisco Systems, John P. helped create the Cisco Net Academy, which upskilled more than 17 million learners in 190 countries and was the forerunner to online education as we know it today.
Now, John and Carrie’s children are the third generation of the Morgridge family to commit their lives to generosity and impact. Michelle Morgridge and her husband Nate Angell direct much of their support to the conservation and education sectors and helping communities thrive, while John C. Morgridge and his wife Hillary support children with disabilities and their families with grants designed to “make childhood magical.” With these perspectives, the Morgridge family—and the Morgridge Family Foundation—becomes even stronger.