It seems fitting that the bulk of Meyer’s $936,460 in June grant awards support housing advocacy. At the same time those awards were made, Oregon’s 2017 legislative session was drawing to a close, offering some forward momentum to support affordable housing and unfinished business and remaining opportunities to create communities where every Oregonian has a safe, decent and affordable place to call home. At Meyer, we believe that housing is key to a flourishing and equitable Oregon and understand that public policy is the primary driver of housing equity.
Our June housing advocacy awards — 12 grants totaling $717,000 — were made following a request for proposals issued in February as part of our Housing Opportunities’ Affordable Housing Initiative (AHI). This is the third year of housing advocacy awards made through our AHI. These awards support community-driven public policy advocacy and community organizing aimed at policy and systems changes that will expand the availability of affordable housing to low-income Oregonians. While all of this year’s awards advance the same broad goal, they reflect a range of strategies and opportunities such as reforming Oregon’s mortgage interest deduction in support of more equitable public investment in housing, identifying specific needs and community-driven housing solutions in rural communities, and building capacity of people living on low-incomes , faith communities, social justice organizations and housing providers to engage as housing advocates, just to name a few.
Additional Meyer June grants support:
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Three key statewide conferences that build capacity of housing-related organizations — Neighborhood Partnerships’ RE: Conference and Oregon Opportunity Network’s fall and spring industry support conferences. Meyer funds will help to support conference participation by members of rural nonprofits, small budget organizations and communities of color who would otherwise face barriers to attending.
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Conservation capacity and organizational resiliency of Greenbelt Land Trust, a nonprofit leader in the Willamette Basin and key partner in the Willamette River Initiative (WRI).
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Technical assistance to Children First of Oregon, an organization that works to create conditions in which all Oregon children thrive, in advancing internal diversity, equity and inclusion objectives.
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Participation of Oregon Environmental Council, Malheur Education Service District Region 14 and the Housing Development Center in Meyer’s Capacity Builders Learning Collaborative.
Finally, as part of Meyer’s commitment to advancing the national field of philanthropy, modest awards were made to the Council on Foundations for an upcoming summit on achieving equity in the workplace and to the Center for Effective Philanthropy, an organization that helps philanthropic funders better define, assess and improve their effectiveness and intended impact.
You can find a list of all of our June awards, here
In other Meyer news, we have completed Inquiry Application decisions for our 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity. This year — the second round under our new funding structure — we accepted applications through all four of our portfolios and had an enthusiastic response to the first open opportunity under Equitable Education. In total, we received 608 inquiries requesting more than $73 million. Nearly half (47 percent) were submitted to Building Community, over a quarter to Equitable Education (27 percent) and the remaining split evenly among Healthy Environment (13 percent) and Housing Opportunities (13 percent). For 16 percent of applicants — 99 organizations — this was the first application to Meyer and another 14 percent — 87 organizations — had submitted at least one application in the past but have not yet received Meyer funding. Nearly half the requests were for capacity building or operating support.
Following close review, thoughtful discussion, a bit of angst and some difficult decisions, we invited 213 applicants, with initial requests totaling over $27 million, to continue in the process. Organizations invited to move forward indicate that work supported by the requested Meyer grant dollars would include specific strategies designed to serve and/or benefit the following populations*:
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People of color (67 percent)
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Immigrants and refugees (37 percent)
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People living on low incomes (78 percent)
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People with disabilities (28 percent)
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People who identify as LGBTQ (19 percent)
In addition, 46 percent of applicants indicated that their proposal would benefit rural communities.
*note that one application can serve multiple populations
As anticipated, proposals that rose to the top in our review process demonstrated a clear opportunity to advance Meyer’s portfolio goals and communicated a commitment to equity (both internally and externally), with some earlier on in their equity journey. Successful proposals demonstrated that their work was meaningfully informed by, engaged with and/or would be led by community. Most of these proposals also drew a connection between the organization’s work and broader policy and systems change. Finally, clarity about the role and importance of Meyer funds, a clear implementation plan, and organizational readiness were key considerations in our teams’ decisions and recommendations.
As always, we encourage applicants who were not invited to move forward to contact our portfolio staff for feedback and conversation. We also hope that if you submitted a request you responded to our applicant survey to help us identify how we can better communicate what we are looking for in proposals and to share your ideas about improving our processes. We made a number of changes last year in response to your feedback and continue to be open to and value your ideas.
We are excited about the innovation, collaboration and community, policy and systems change aspirations embedded in the proposals we received. The commitment to and enthusiasm for building community, increasing housing opportunities, cultivating a healthy environment and creating an equitable education system are both inspiring and palpable. We continue to be humbled and inspired by your work and the possibilities ahead of us — and we are deeply grateful for your partnership in shaping an Oregon where all who live here can truly thrive.
— Candy