The Willowell Foundation is a not-for-profit organization created in 2001 and located in Monkton, Vermont. We are dedicated to supporting local and global initiatives for sustainable ecological land use and serve as a resource for area students, teachers and community members. Programs of ours such as Wren's Nest Forest Preschool, Pond Brook Middle School, Walden High School, and summer camps integrate the sciences, arts and humanities into place-based and outdoors education. As of 2025, we now also offer The Institute for Place-Based Education, a credit-bearing certificate program working in partnership with Vermont State University.

Our programs explore ways to use the local environment to enrich student understanding and to help teachers make connections between local places and their K-12 educational experience, as well as to explore sustainability and environmental issues facing youth growing up in the 21st century.

The Willowell Foundation’s ongoing place-based education programs and land stewardship efforts provide opportunities for experimentation in place-based and outdoor education methodologies and ongoing land and community visits for schoolchildren that allow education rooted in place to be part of daily life, rather than isolated events. Through classroom visits, field investigations and alternative education programs, we reach to make authentic, alternative education rooted in a culture of respect available throughout our region.