In the midst of our exciting 2017 annual funding opportunity, Meyer Memorial Trust continues to make awards to organizations driving equity solutions in Oregon.
Since January, Meyer has made 106 grants totaling more than $8.8 million to 100 nonprofit organizations, including nearly three dozen under our fall Nonprofit Social Sector RFP and nine under the Affordable Housing Initiative’s Rural Manufactured Home Repair RFP. We’re excited that all of these awards support social change, innovation, diversity, inclusion, leadership and capacity building, along with equitable practices and outcomes.
View the full list of grant awards by viewing this PDF. And, as always, you can view our full awards database here.
Here’s a little bit more insight into what we've funded so far this year:
Building Community throughout the Nonprofit Social Sector
In Meyer’s Building Community portfolio, Meyer made 37 awards totaling nearly $3 million to organizations changing systems and improving conditions for communities of color, people living in poverty, and other marginalized populations. Awards included 32 grants to organizations that applied under our fall Nonprofit Social Sector RFP for leadership development and building capacity of capacity builders.
Leadership development
As part of our program restructuring, we committed to continuing our support for programs that develop and support leaders and networks from Oregon’s diverse communities. We believe that powerful institutions continue to struggle for authentic engagement with marginalized populations and that positions of power remain limited or unsustainable for people of color, immigrants and refugees, and other marginalized populations. Through our leadership development strategy, we aim to build equity and inclusion at community and policy decision-making tables. Salem Keizer Coalition for Equality, for example, was awarded an $85,000 grant to organize, train and empower Latino Spanish-speaking parent leaders on social justice in education and civic representation. In all, we made 22 awards totalling $1.5 million to advance leadership development.
Building capacity builders
Meyer also made awards investing in strategies that support capacity builder core work, advance equity and effectively strengthen the broader social sector. With Meyer’s focus on equity, it has become clear that organizations need capacity building services such as generalized training and consultation to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion strategies within their organizations. These grants will support this. The Coalition for Community Health Clinics, for example, was awarded $136,000 to provide technical assistance to 14 member clinics to design and implement equity-focused community health improvement strategies within health care settings. In all, we made 10 grants totalling $1.4 million to build the capacity of organizations that help build the capacity of others.
Learn more about our Leadership Development and Capacity Builder awards here.
Nurturing a Resilient Natural Environment
In our Healthy Environment portfolio, Meyer made 13 awards totaling $140,500 to organizations that are advancing equity throughout the state, and five awards, totaling $513,215, to organizations improving the health of the Willamette River, the watershed that more than two-thirds of Oregonians call home. Among those grants was a $15,000 operating support grant to Crag Law Center, which provides free legal services and low-cost legal aid to protect wild places, climate and livable communities across Oregon, and a $20,000 grant to Ecotrust for an effort to recruit and train diverse community members for careers in the green workforce.
Advancing Affordable Housing Opportunities
In our Housing Opportunities portfolio, Meyer has made 25 awards this year totaling nearly $2.8 million to organizations exploring innovation, supporting systems change and leveraging resources to meet the housing needs of all Oregonians. All of the awards but one, a $125,000 grant to Mercy Corps Northwest, for a center that helps formerly incarcerated individuals find their way back to stable lives, were made under two Affordable Housing Initiative strategies:
Manufactured Housing
Last fall, Meyer asked nonprofits and housing authorities to submit plans to build the capacity of rural manufactured home repair programs. With a strong field of proposals, Meyer funded nine projects totaling $630,000 over two years and across the state. Umpqua Community Action Network in Josephine County was awarded $100,000, for example, for home repairs in its 50-space manufactured home park in Roseburg, to be maintained as permanently affordable housing, prioritizing households with children. Read more about that batch of grants here.
Sustaining Portfolios
Meyer’s Sustaining Portfolios Strategy couples flexible funding with technical assistance to help ensure the long-term sustainability of Oregon’s existing affordable housing. In the last two years, Meyer has awarded two-year grants to 19 organizations through two rounds of funding. Six grants awarded in February, totaling $380,975, provided a third year of funding to organizations in the first group of grantees, such as Columbia Cascade Housing Corporation in The Dalles and Farmworker Housing Development Corporation in Woodburn.
Advancing Equitable Education
Meyer made 7 awards totaling $1.4 million to continue our support for equitable education while we have developed this portfolio. See our new framework for equitable education in this blog post from portfolio director Matt Morton.
Meyer-Directed Awards
Beyond our portfolio specific awards, Meyer occasionally makes grants to respond to timely needs and opportunities during these changing times. This winter, we’ve made 15 such awards, totaling $930,000, including grants awarded in March to Catholic Charities and Lutheran Community Services Northwest, to provide emergency bridge funding to maintain critical refugee resettlement services.
— Candy