Building What Was Missing

Showing up: AAAA and SEEDS

In early May, we sponsored the AAAA fellows conference. Pro bono. We didn't pay a dollar for that sponsorship, and I want to be transparent about why.

I've spent real time building a relationship with AAAA's leadership, and I volunteer as a fundraiser for causes we share. This spring that meant helping a group of Florida attorneys fighting an anti-surrogacy law put together their fundraising strategy. That campaign raised over $50K. So the free sponsorship wasn't a favor. It's what happens when you show up for people before you ask them for anything.

A few weeks later, SEEDS brought 300+ professionals to Atlanta — my hometown — for the first time. We wanted to be good hosts, so we brought the whole village: Alexandra, our co-founder; Jill Segal, our third board member, at her very first conference; Mariam, our fractional CMO; and more.

As a member of the conference committee, my job ranged from producing panels and running registration to stuffing 300 swag bags and, yes, picking up sandwiches from my favorite spot so the committee could keep working. That's founder life. One minute you're launching a national program, the next you're carrying lunch. I wouldn't have it any other way.

And the hosting didn't end when the conference did. Right after SEEDS, we opened our home for Porchfest, our neighborhood block party, and folded in Hatch's leadership and our Hatch Grant winners, Brittany and Tyler Luskin. The Luskins drove up from South Carolina and showed up with custom cookies including our logo, Hatch's logo, and two more just for my kids. That's the part that sticks with me. This work isn't a transaction, we are building a TSF family.

National Surrogate Alliance: built by surrogates, for surrogates

This one started with a question nobody had a good answer to.

Back in August 2025, at our very first Magic Makers collective meeting, the room named a real gap: surrogacy was taking a beating in the media, and there was no unified, prepared response. Then in November, at SEEDS, someone asked out loud, "Why is there no group of surrogates out there advocating for surrogacy?" Kayde Mason and I locked eyes across the room. We both already knew. That was the moment.

Six months later, the National Surrogate Alliance is real. Kayde leads it. TSF helps build the team and funds the work. Eventually, it will live on its own. At SEEDS in Atlanta we launched the community and ran pro bono media training with Baden Colt of Not My Tummy and four of our founding surrogates. The response was bigger than we planned for, people want in.

Here's why it matters to me. The surrogate's voice has been missing from her own story. Surrogates get framed as people being taken advantage of, when the truth I hear over and over is the opposite: they describe surrogacy as one of the most meaningful things they've ever done. Meaningful enough to do again. National Surrogate Alliance exists so the people who actually live this can speak for themselves. We'll keep growing the advocacy and media arms, but the heart of it is community.

On a personal note: this isn't theoretical for me. Just recently, after a family trip, Alexandra, Tanner, Addison and I stopped by our surrogate Taylor's home and had dinner with her family. Years past the journey that made our family, we're still at each other's tables. That's the relationship surrogacy can build when it's done right, and it's exactly the truth the National Surrogate Alliance exists to tell.

Grant applications open July 1

We open applications on July 1, and every year we do the same thing first: we sit with the notes from our 20+ person grant review committee and we make the process better.

This year that means getting louder, and putting flyers in the hands of professionals who can pass them to the parents who need help. It means adding questions that give our reviewers a clearer read on every applicant. And it means updating our rubrics to match how decisions actually got made, not how we assumed they would. The goal hasn't changed: keep this grant as objective and as open as we can. If you know a family who should apply, mark the date.

A new look, and values we actually live

If this page looks different, that's on purpose.

We've refreshed the TSF brand, rebuilt the website, and rewritten our values. When we became The Surrogacy Foundation in 2024, we did it with our eyes on building a national nonprofit. Two years later, we've done a lot, and more than anything, we've listened and learned. The old brand told you who we wanted to be. This one reflects who we've become: a foundation with a track record, in a voice that's more human, more raw, and more real.

That's not a cosmetic choice. Surrogacy goes mainstream when people can understand it, see themselves in it, and trust the people building it. Design and honesty are how we get there.

So go read the new values. Then tell me what you think. I mean it.

That's the quarter. We built something that was missing, showed up for people before asking anything in return, and got more honest about who we are.

If you want in on what's next, the doors are simple: come see the new site, share the grant when it opens July 1, and join the village.

That's the update. As always, every bit of this is possible because of the people reading this. You are the village.

Zach