Nancy Nordhoff’s Philanthropy Leaves Lasting Impact on Whidbey Island

Nancy Skinner Nordhoff, whose focused philanthropy and environmental advocacy helped shape South Whidbey’s civic landscape for decades, died Jan. 7 at age 93. Nordhoff’s donations and organizational leadership supported a range of local efforts — from the Hedgebrook Writers Retreat and Greenbank Farm projects to Whidbey Camano Land Trust acquisitions and salmon and wetlands restoration — leaving institutions and projects that continue to influence community life.

The day after Nordhoff’s passing, Goosefoot Community Fund respondents remembered her role as a founder and guide for local philanthropy. “I was thinking of Nancy this morning,” said a teary Rose Hughes at the Goosefoot office. In an email to supporters, Goosefoot’s staff and board wrote that they were “deeply saddened by the passing of Nancy Skinner Nordhoff yesterday,” and noted that as co-founder of Goosefoot in 1999 she instilled “tenacity, humility, vision and generosity” that still shape the organization’s decision-making.

Nordhoff’s philanthropy has had concrete institutional effects. Goosefoot incubated Island Roots Housing, a program that has led to the creation of Generations Place, a housing development now under construction that is intended to provide homes for workforce families. That project illustrates how private giving and nonprofit incubation have been channeled into tangible responses to Island County’s pressing affordable housing needs.

Her contributions to land conservation and environmental restoration supported acquisitions by the Whidbey Camano Land Trust and funded projects intended to protect wetlands and salmon habitat. These investments have reinforced the county’s natural-resource stewardship and helped sustain the ecological systems that underpin local fisheries and recreation.

Nordhoff also backed economic-development initiatives and nonprofits that provide essential services to residents, strengthening the nonprofit sector and local institutions that deliver housing, arts and environmental programs. Hedgebrook, the women’s writers retreat she helped found, praised Nordhoff’s philanthropic efforts and said she died peacefully at home; the organization credited her work with helping make the island “a kinder, greener and more equitable place.”

National recognition accompanied her local influence: she was designated a Women’s History Month honoree by the National Women’s History Month Project and is the subject of a public biographical entry online. Nordhoff is survived by children and grandchildren and by the array of nonprofits and programs she inspired. For Island County, her legacy is embedded not only in named institutions but in ongoing projects and service organizations that continue to shape civic life and public stewardship.