Our Mission.

We established this Foundation to, first and foremost, honor Thatcher’s life.

He was beloved by all who crossed his path and while his time with us was short, his spirit and passion for life was such that we want nothing more than to create a permanent way to memorialize his life. As such, the guiding principle for the Foundation is to “Be Like Thatcher.” To that end, the Foundation will focus its efforts on creating a lasting impact to better the community for children in Chicago, where Thatcher lived for his entire life.

Thatcher believed that every child should have access to a wonderful education, a comfortable home in which to live, and a really fun place to play.

Our mission is to make this happen.

Chicago Children’s Museum - Castle Exhibit - In fall 2022, the Foundation focused its efforts on creating the most wonderful place for kids in Chicago to play. To that end, the Foundation has collaborated with the Chicago Children’s Museum (CCM) to sponsor the Castle exhibit. Thatcher loved to engaged in imaginative play and was well-known amongst his family and friends for his elaborate stories about vivid characters and secret worlds. He also spent many, many weekends weaving his way through everything CCM has to offer. The Foundation’s sponsorship of the Castle exhibit is a truly beautiful way to pay tribute to Thatcher in one of his favorite places. Castle includes secret passage ways, dress-up stations, bridges to climb and a special potion station, among other features that were created to help spark creative play. We anticipate that thousands of children will be able to enjoy the exhibit and have the kind of playtime experience that was so special to Thatcher. In addition, as part of this collaboration, all families with young children who have worked with Digs With Dignity and those families that receive scholarships through the Thatcher Swanson Grant for Diversity and Inclusion at Catherine Cook School – the Foundation’s two other community partners – will receive passes to CCM, so they can also be part of the fun.

Digs With Dignity Collaboration - The Foundation works with Digs With Dignity to help provide dignified homes to children and families in Chicago who are transitioning out of homelessness. Digs designs homes from top to bottom, so every shelf will have books and knick knacks, every bed will be made, every child will have toys that meet their individual interests, and every home will reflect a style that will inspire the family each day. Digs is an organization that was very important to Thatcher, so much so that he donated his tooth fairy money to help ensure that every child in the Digs program received a “stuffie,” as he believed that this would help their new space truly feel like a home. Our Foundation sponsors quarterly moves in Thatcher’s honor with an emphasis on helping families with young children. And, yes, the children receive their very own stuffies as part of these moves, just as Thatcher would have wanted.

The Thatcher Swanson Grant for Diversity and Inclusion - In September 2021, our Foundation began sponsoring a scholarship to Catherine Cook School, where Thatcher was a second-grader at the time of his death. Thatcher dearly loved his teachers, friends and experiences he had at Catherine Cook. It was the place where Thatcher really started to come into his own, as it was there that he discovered his love of math, made some of his best friends, and started to dream about who he might become.  We hope other children will benefit from the phenomenal education that Catherine Cook offers, as we had hoped for Thatcher. This scholarship goes beyond just the costs of tuition to more fully support the recipient and the recipient’s family during their tenure with the school, and includes costs associated with materials, technology, supplemental learning, and additional programming. The Foundation’s scholarship is part of Catherine Cook’s larger diversity and inclusion program, which was renamed in Thatcher’s honor.

We will continue expanding our programming with each year focusing on those three areas Thatcher wanted most for others, as our mission states.