Partner with us to bring greater emotional and relational healing—to a world in need—by advancing the practice of Self leadership.
A charitable gift of any amount makes you a Friend of the Foundation and supports our strategic goals.
TOWARD COLLECTIVE HEALING & RENEWAL | The Next Campaign
Together, we can help individuals, groups, and communities navigate conflicts and crises with greater fortitude, wisdom, and hope… through the paradigm and practice of Self leadership.
Context. During these challenging times and heightened societal tensions, there is a lot to be done to foster healing and well-being, both within the psychotherapy clinical space and beyond. The Foundation for Self Leadership’s objective is to facilitate deeper listening, respect, and fearless compassion across everyday interactions—i.e., inspiring interactions to become more authentically humanistic. Such a shift could transform how people and communities engage with each other, and could calibrate social, business, and political systems for the greater good.
Click the button below to make your secure credit card or ACH donation. Click here if you prefer to use your PayPal account to the Fund for Self Leadership.
For assistance in making a donation through this form, send an inquiry to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Strategic Priorities
The Foundation's efforts seek to redefine what leadership means. Externally facing leadership is effective, only when it is fully anchored in one's ability to recognize and harness one's vast, inner capacity to become the best version of oneself in the face of external conditions—sensing one's own emotions and thoughts; trusting in one's ability to lead them the way an executive successfully empowers her team or a parent lovingly guides his child.
Beyond that, our collaborative initiatives endeavor to address, in tangible ways, a growing epidemic of loneliness, disconnect, anxiety, trauma, and substance-use dependency, especially among young adults. Concerned about mounting stress, burnout, and conflict within school communities, we intend to assist schools in becoming safer and more supportive environments for student learning and growth.
We will do all that is possible to provide the next generation of citizens, parents, educators, executives, and other professionals with what they need today to be ready to lead better lives and a thriving society in the future.
Aside from sustaining a lean and effective operation as a catalyst or incubator for IFS applications, the Foundation has established three society-facing strategic priorities and launched a funding campaign to achieve this ambitious vision:
- Underwrite and develop resources to support independent, scientific research that expands empirical EVIDENCE on the efficacy of IFS.
- Catalyze proof-of-concept, applied projects that provide ACCESS to Self leadership, particularly for at-risk populations.
- Expand the visibility of the IFS model through ADVOCACY, including outreach and open-access resources.
Together, we will realize the promise of IFS.
Evidence | Access | Advocacy | Operations
ADVANCING RESEARCH | EXPANDING EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
The best way to foster wider use of IFS is to enhance the credibility of the model through empirical evidence; with that in mind, the Foundation for Self Leadership supports a community of researchers and funds, where feasible, rigorous research into IFS—across various disciplines, for various conditions, and in various settings.
- Sustaining the Post-Doctoral, IFS-based Research Fellowship Program
The Foundation for Self Leadership has a record of funding research that has contributed over the last 10 years to the scientific literature on IFS. To ensure that this continues for the next decade, we have established a quasi-endowed fund that will support this fellowship. This will help grow teams of independent researchers. The first two Richard C. Schwartz Research Fellows were appointed in Fall 2023 and Fall 2025 and have been significantly active to date in securing external funds and producing publishable research. Learn More.
TOTAL STILL NEEDED: $525,000 USD ($150,000 per two-year stipend) - Supporting New Study on IFS & Enhanced Suicidal Care
A new study is being planned on the efficacy of IFS "parts-work" with suicidal parts and unburdening underlying psychological wounds—to enhance discernment and management of suicidal risk and defuse the pain creating that risk. The study will train 72 psychotherapists in IFS Level 1, randomly assigning them to control or treatment groups, to expand the research foundation for IFS suicide intervention and examine its impact on therapist countertransference, comfort, working alliance, and suicide behaviors.
Learn More.
TOTAL NEEDED: $425,000 - Developing & Expanding Multiple Research Resources
The Foundation has assembled and developed numerous resources for researchers (including an online searchable citations database and validated scales) and endeavored to catalyze an active research community. Maintaining these efforts is critical.
TOTAL NEEDED: $125,000 USD annually
SERVING SOCIETY | BROADENING ACCESS
A recent study by the National Council for Behavioral Health cites "lack of access" as a root cause for the emotional health crisis in America. There is a need to broaden the collective understanding of what this means, in a practical sense, beyond the clinical space through alternative settings like schools, veteran centers, under-served communities and the workplace.
- Designing & Launching Emerging-Leaders Pilot Programs
Building on our experience designing and running an inaugural 2023-2024 cohort of IFS Leadership Fellows, the Foundation is working on its next programs for young adults (both selected from among university students and those within their first five years in the workplace). The Programs will consist of an integrated experiential approach that combined notions of IFS and Self leadership and other aligned leadership models.
TOTAL NEEDED: $700,000 USD (per two cohorts of 24) - Scaling the IFS-in-Schools Initiatives
Several years ago, pilot projects at schools in Minnesota and Connecticut (USA), made possible through Foundation funding, launched an IFS-in-Schools movement, which has since involved numerous schools, educators and leaders. We will now attempt to scale this up to a district-wide, K-12 approach by partnering with one urban and one rural district (in the US). Teachers, counselors, staff and administrators will take part in an immersive IFS-oriented experience and will weigh in on the appropriate change strategies to be adopted. An independent evaluation of teacher engagement and student outcomes will be conducted in a parallel track.
TOTAL NEEDED: $750,000 USD (including matching by district)
SHIFTING PARADIGMS | PURSUING ADVOCACY
IFS was developed more than four decades ago; yet the paradigm and practice are still not widely known even within the broader therapeutic community. There is abundant experiential evidence of its positive effects; the empirical evidence continues to build out. We are called upon to move these insights and experiences out into the world, inspiring greater emotional healing and well-being, far and wide.
- Growing the Online Magazine
PARTS & SELF, a new online, open-access magazine, published by the Foundation for Self Leadership, highlights thought-leadership and cutting-edge practices. Through it, we share stories, analyses and perspectives from practitioners, news about emotional-healing approaches, and other resources with the international IFS community and beyond.
TOTAL NEEDED: $75,000 USD annually - Expanding the reach of the New Podcast
The Foundation launched in Q2 of 2025 a new podcast, Facing the Moment, to share insights and practicable action on how to face a multitude of crises we face as individuals and communities, in the US and elsewhere around the globe. The intention is to expand viewership/listenership among communities of young adults, counselors and educators.
TOTAL NEEDED: $60,000 USD annually - Nurturing communities of practice
The Foundation intends to continue hosting conversations within and beyond the IFS community of practice to generate society-facing affinity groups and active collaborations for systems-level impact. Areas of interest may include executive leadership, health coaching, medicine, faith-based practices.
TOTAL NEEDED: $25,000 USD annually
Partner with us on the life-changing work ahead.
ENHANCING EFFECTIVENESS | SUSTAINING OPERATIONS
The Foundation needs to sustain its operation in order to run its programs. Since its inception, the Foundation's operation has been very lean (never exceeding 3 FTE's in staffing) and is currently supported by associates engaged for the equivalent of two full-time staff. Adequate systems and processes have been built according to the highest standard in the industry in the financial, data-protection, governance, and fundraising spaces. For the third year in a row, the Foundation's independent, external audit has affirmed the financial statements presented and identified no material findings.
TOTAL NEEDED: $250,000 USD annually