A 501(c)(3) public charity building scalable structures for individual flourishing.
Recreation Foundation was incorporated as an Illinois not-for-profit corporation on October 20, 2024, and recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) public charity on November 6, 2024. Our Employer Identification Number is 33-1567485.
We operate exclusively out of scalejoy.org — a name chosen to communicate the organization's purpose directly: scaling joy, scaling thriving. The foundation was formed to give a durable institutional home to a body of pilot programming that began informally in 2023 and has run weekly since the fall of 2024.
Recreation Foundation, Inc. is registered with the Illinois Secretary of State and files Form 990-N annually with the IRS.
Modern life takes place within fully built-out systems of distraction and a loneliness epidemic. The foundation exists to build the equivalent infrastructure on the thriving side of the mental health spectrum — an alternative to algorithmically-fed isolation.
Our model is structurally inspired by Alcoholics Anonymous: decentralized, member-run, fully self-sufficient autonomous groups. We're philosophically grounded in Aristotelian friendships of virtue and bell hooks' definition of love. Our working belief is that purpose and belonging are co-requisite for thriving and that both are best built in small, regular, peer-run groups rather than delivered by experts to clients.
The foundation is governed by a four-person volunteer board. All directors serve without compensation.
Recreation Foundation, Inc.
1512 Florence Ave, Evanston, IL 60201
tony@scalejoy.org
stay in touch
tony@scalejoy.org