Hidden Leaf is a small family foundation established in the 1980s explicitly to promote the integration of wisdom awareness practices into work for systemic social change. Hidden Leaf was founded by David Brown and is now governed by David and his three daughters: Karie Brown, Tara Brown, and Kristen Stinnett-Brown. The foundation is directed by Tara.

— The Myth of Hidden Leaf, the Name and the Mission —

This name, Hidden Leaf, was revealed as an expression of the values of the founders. Those values being love, family, humor, progressive good works and confidence in deep intuition. A leaf symbolizes a rich nurturing process that joins light — an invisible wave form coming from the heavens — with matter, creating nourishment and sustenance for life. A similar process is hidden deeply within our beings.

Hidden Leaf Foundation’s mission is to assist individuals and organizations, with values similar to ours, move closer to this mysterious process that the leaf symbolizes. The closer we come to this inner source, the Hidden Leaf, the more we can live into our full and potent power.

The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inner freedom to which we may have grown at any given moment. Our chief energy, therefore, must be concentrated upon achieving change from within.
— Mahatma Gandhi