John S Kiewit Memorial Foundation

The Foundation

John S. Kiewit Memorial Foundation is a Santa Barbara-based non-profit that provides grants to further protect the lands and other natural resources of the California Central Coast and neighboring regions from the effects of development. Land preservation, agricultural preservation, and environmental education are the focuses of the granting foundation.

In their words:

“The John S. Kiewit Memorial Foundation was established in 2000 by Ralph and Oralee Kiewit, of Malibu, California, in memory of their son John S. Kiewit.

The Foundation’s primary purpose is to make grants “to protect the land and other natural resources of the California Central Coast and or neighboring regions of California from the effect of development, by means such as purchase, conservation easements, education or other methods, in order to preserve the open and agriculture character of the priceless assets.”

What We Did & Why

For over twenty years, the foundation was a fully offline organization. When the organization determined it wanted to move its application process to the web, we were contacted to create its first website.

The primary requirement was to function as a grant application portal and support granting systems. It was also important that it become the foundation information center, a story-telling vehicle, and John Kiewit photo galleries and archives.

John Kiewit’s photography is stunning, so we were thrilled to have the opportunity to help the organization and to work directly to create a place where the public can view some of his art and journal entries. This is a link to his book,  Gone to Sanctuary: From the Sins of Confusion. It’s a stunning group of photos that capture the Old West not relying on nostalgia and quite moving. The images are paired with notes from his own journal and quotes from writers that are associated with the West: Steinbeck, Abbey Kerouac, Muir, and other inspirations from Buddha, the Bible, Thoreau, Whitman, and Emerson.