The Building Community portfolio was pleased to receive 284 applications as part of Meyer’s 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity. Applicants came from rural and urban parts of the state and collectively represented more than $31 million in requests. Following our review process, 66 organizations were recommended to receive approximately $6.6 million available for grants. Among these, nine organizations received their first grant from Meyer.  

The entire Building Community team is grateful for the applicants’ time and effort to apply. Like last year, we are available to provide feedback on applications that were not funded. You’ll find the full list of Building Community 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity grantees here. If you are interested in having a conversation with a member of our team, please contact us at questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org).  

FUNDING BY GOAL AREAS

Much like last year, 44 grantees (or two-thirds of the entire portfolio) came through our Goal One: Dismantle inequities and create new opportunities to advance equity. The grantees in this goal area are working to advance diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and we have highlighted three grantees doing this work: On-The-Move Community Integration, Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, and Relief Nursery. Working on DEI can take many forms. For some organizations, it involves building internal capacity while for others it is about programming and services. In many cases it takes shape as a combination of both.

Having offered funding through this portfolio for two years, we are learning more about how different organizations think about advancing DEI. Among this year’s applications, we observed a few forms of such work, including:

• Programming that deepens work with culturally specific communities;
• Projects to build internal capacity for DEI work; and
• Culturally specific organizations deepening their work in DEI.

Deepening Connections With Culturally Specific Communities

A number of organizations provide programs and services to the general public or a broad cross-section of Oregonians. These organizations work on creating access to healthy foods or advocate on behalf of working families. This year, some of these broadly focused organizations received grants from Building Community to deepen their work with culturally specific communities. Although not shifting from a focus on the general public, these groups identified the need to build or strengthen connections with communities that might be underserved or not connected to their work. Program Officer Carol Cheney writes about Relief Nursery, an organization that is linking its work to the Native American community in an intentional way.

Internal Focus On Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

In contrast to an externally focused effort at advancing DEI, many groups in this year’s applicant pool recognized the need to devote attention to their internal or operational work. Groups applied for funding to better understand their own biases, build understanding of historical oppressions, and create policies and practices that put them in a stronger position to carry out their mission in a way that is attentive to equity. Program Associate Erin Dysart describes work underway at Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette.

Culturally Specific Communities Deepening Their Work in DEI

While some organizations support the general public, others are organized around a specific and culturally defined community that represents their primary focus. These include organizations that work with an ethnic or racial group, with youths or elders, or with other historically marginalized populations.  
These organizations may have a deep understanding of their particular cultural group, but many also recognize that work in DEI involves other, often intersecting dimensions. In this funding round, we saw culturally specific organizations interested in creating stronger connections with other cultural groups or providing their staff or board with training on some topic that advances their ability to keep a focus on equity. Program Associate Violeta Rubiani writes about how On-the-Move Community Integration is deepening its work in DEI.   

Through the work outlined in their proposals, Relief Nursery, Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette and On-the-Move Community Integration all approached DEI in ways that were a match with current needs and in support of their mission. Moving forward, we hope to pass along what we learn from groups like these and how our thinking on DEI continues to evolve.

Civic Engagement and Arts and Culture Initiatives

A smaller portion of grants were made under our other two goal areas including Goal Two: Strengthening civic engagement and public participation in democratic processes. We funded 10 grantees, mong them, the Umatilla County Board of Commissioners. It is receiving funding for consulting support to create an “Equity Framework” for delivering public health services as part of a statewide effort to modernize public health.

In Goal Three, Support for arts and culture initiatives that create inclusive communities, we funded 13 grantees, including The August Wilson Red Door Project, which seeks to continue production of Hands Up! and to deepen engagement with the Portland Police Bureau through the development of a new play, Cop Out!?

If you applied for a grant  this year but weren’t funded, we invite you to questions [at] mmt.org (contact us) to receive feedback on your application. And if you applied for support around implementing DEI within your organization, check out our self-assessment tool, which we hope will help groups think about where they want to focus. Let us know what you think!

— Dahnesh

While Meyer was busy this fall finalizing awards under our Fall 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity (193 grants totaling $22.7 million), we also had other important work in motion.

$1.6 million in grant awards

Our hearts have been with communities throughout the state following a summer of devastating forest fires. As one way of offering our support, we provided Crag Law Center with a $32,000 grant to engage the public and environmental organizations in recovery efforts related to the Eagle Creek fire in the Columbia River Gorge. We recognized the time sensitive importance of ensuring an inclusive and well-informed recovery planning process. This work directly advances the priorities of our Healthy Environment portfolio.

Through the Willamette River Initiative’s Basin-wide Impact Fund, we funded 14 grants totalling $996,044 million, which will support work to address systemic Willamette Basin issues. Interesting and impactful work is being supported that will have benefits throughout the basin. Another nine grants, totalling about $239,158, supported participation in diversity, equity and inclusion training. You can find a list of awards and read more about these projects in my colleague Kelly House’s blog here.

We are continuing to fund organizations to address crucial and time-sensitive issues facing immigrants and refugees in Oregon. Through our partnership with MRG Foundation, Collins Foundation and Oregon Community Foundation in the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative, Meyer contributed $113,000 toward proposals coming through the collaborative:

• $23,000 to CAPACES Leadership Institute to increase the capacity of participants in the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program to organize their networks to advocate for permanent and just immigration policy solutions.

• $50,000 to Immigration Counseling Service of Oregon to support a collaboration among Immigration Counseling Service, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees and Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services to assist immigrant communities with removal defense information and legal representation.

• $20,000 to Muslim Educational Trust to respond to the current and imminent bias threats by engaging Oregonians to help build informed, united, resilient communities that can challenge racism and bigotry.

• $20,000 to Voz Workers' Rights Education Project to support this Portland-based social service organization's direct actions in protest of immigration enforcement incidents.

Among other fall grants were several awards for technical assistance support, including $55,300 to Greater Oregon Behavioral Health to develop and assist in adoption of model codes for accessory dwelling units and tiny home villages for rural Oregon jurisdictions that lack such codes and $40,000 to Innovative Changes for planning, implementation and communication of an organizational merger. Grants will also support grantees’ diversity, equity and inclusion work, such as a $10,000 technical assistance grant to Homeplate Youth Services to advance internal equity and program evaluation to better serve youths experiencing homelessness in Washington County.

You can learn about all of our fall awards, within the 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity and in our batch of 36 October 2017 awards.

Beyond Grantmaking

As we redesigned Meyer programs, we were clear that we wanted to offer value to our partners beyond the grants we make. As we continue to build out what this looks like, we have hosted a series of convenings and events over the past few months to engage with grantees from across the state through learning collaboratives and grantee cohorts. Here are a few examples of how this is unfolding:

• Organizations funded through last year’s leadership development RFP gathered with us in Woodburn in early October where we discussed Oregon’s nonprofit racial leadership gap, among other timely topics. This was our second multi-day learning collaborative meeting.

• I was honored to join a convening of capacity builder grantees in October in Hood River for their second gathering centered on building their own and other nonprofits’ capacity to advance diversity, equity and inclusion.

• Organizations receiving housing advocacy grants through Meyer’s Affordable Housing Initiative came together with Oregon funders to share their experiences, successes and challenges in important areas of housing policy. Not only did this convening offer an opportunity to learn together and support each other, it also offered funders a view into opportunities to step into funding housing advocacy.

• Nonprofit housing providers came together in our annual convenings to share data and learnings about trends, needs and solutions for sustaining affordable housing portfolios.

• In June, a group of Willamette River Initiative model watershed grantees and funders came together in Eugene with our partners at the Nonprofit Finance Fund to explore the intersection of mission, money and organizational health.

• Meyer provided three grantee workshops (in Portland and Eugene) about the power of social media in advancing nonprofits’ missions, communications and fundraising.

We greatly value these opportunities to build relationships with and among nonprofits and to learn together as we seek to increase our collective impact for a brighter Oregon future. We learn so much from each other to help us do our work better and to work better together. We look forward to continuing to create spaces to build and deepen our connections.

— Candy

When Meyer redesigned our grant programs two years ago, we had a clear vision of the grant investments we would make to accelerate change in Oregon — the changes we believe are necessary to create a place where all Oregonians can be part of vibrant communities they help to shape and where they feel valued, represented and seen. An Oregon where every child has true opportunity to thrive in school and pursue dreams. A place where our amazing natural environment is nurtured and resilient and supports the well-being of our diverse cultures and communities. And an Oregon where every single person has a safe, stable and affordable place to call home.

Today, we are so excited to announce the results of our 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity — 193 grant awards, totaling $22.7 million, each of which will carry our vision of change forward in communities throughout Oregon. These grants — made through our Building Community, Equitable Education, Healthy Environment and Housing Opportunities portfolios — will support nonprofits in breaking down inequities through local and statewide policy and systems change. They will support organizations creating affordable housing for people living on low incomes, including many who experience additional types of marginalization and oppression. They will fund a variety of work to build inclusive and diverse communities and to grow organizations where Oregon’s diverse people see themselves reflected at all levels. These grants will also support pathways for people most impacted by decisions to sit at the tables where those decisions are made and to help build wealth in communities that have long experienced income disparities.

The organizations leading this work are inspiring, dedicated and share our vision. We are honored and excited to partner with them.

As we reflect on the grants made, we are pleased that this second round of Meyer’s new Annual Funding Opportunity will:

• have statewide reach, providing funding to every region in Oregon

• overwhelmingly benefit people and communities that are marginalized and experience disparities — around 85 percent of grantees have specific strategies to reach one or more of Meyer’s priority populations and the remaining grants will further portfolio goals and strengthen capacity to advance diversity, equity and inclusion for all Oregonians

• will fund approximately 40 organizations for whom this is their first Meyer grant, and several other new-to-Meyer organizations will receive funds through a collaborative or fiscal sponsor

• provide capacity-building or operating support to nearly half of grantees.

Take a look at the full AFO list, or if you prefer something more visual, spreadsheets of the 193 grants, broken down by portfolio and goal.

And here’s a look at each portfolio:

Through our Building Community portfolio, we made 66 grants totaling $6.65 million to dismantle inequities, advance equity, increase civic engagement and build inclusive communities through arts and cultures. Funding through this portfolio will support community building in many forms: from a collaborative, led by Neighborworks Umpqua, working to establish a rural advocacy platform to Native Arts and Cultures Foundation’s collaborative artist-led projects on tribal reservations that address pressing social issues while sustaining culture to building Virginia Garcia Health Foundation’s work advocating at all levels to ensure health care equity and access for populations who experience barriers. Diversity, equity and inclusion were the common threads through this portfolio. The majority of awards support culturally specific organizations in their work, build connections with and among culturally specific communities, and strengthen internal organizational capacity to advance diversity, equity and inclusion.

You can learn about all of our Building Community awards here and stay tuned for portfolio director Dahnesh Medora’s blog about the batch in the next month’s Meyer Mail newsletter.

The first round of funding under our new Equitable Education portfolio includes 49 grants totalling $7.2 million to support work focused on achieving equitable outcomes for Oregon students who experience the greatest educational disparities. These grants include compelling policy and systems change and movement building work, such as a grant to Children’s Institute to engage crucial community leaders in shaping and delivering a statewide education advocacy agenda; funding for Better Together Central Oregon to build an education data system that aligns community and education organizations’ efforts to improve student outcomes in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties; and support for Unite Oregon to train parents in communities of color in Multnomah County’s David Douglas School District in cross-cultural leadership development. We are excited to see the momentum and commitment across Oregon for changing our public education system so that all our young people have the opportunities that a quality education can open up and communities are engaged in shaping the system to best serve their needs and aspirations.

Learn about all our Equitable Education 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity awards here, and read more about this first year’s awards from portfolio director Matt Morton’s blog.

Our 39 Healthy Environment portfolio investments, totaling $3.85 million, simultaneously support healthy natural systems and the health and vitality of all Oregon’s diverse communities. The work funded through these grants comes in many shapes and flavors, all of which will advance environmental equity. In Eastern Oregon’s high desert, the Oregon Natural Desert Association will strengthen partnerships with tribes, including integrating conservation practices that reflect traditional knowledge with science-based practices to conserve and restore ecosystem health. In Portland, a collaborative, led by Ecotrust, will pilot a green workforce development program that recruits and trains African American and Native American individuals for careers in the green workforce. And CUB Educational Fund will build a base of diverse stakeholders to engage in a statewide energy system reform effort designed to increase energy efficiency, reduce carbon and provide consumers with reliable and affordable clean energy. These are just a few examples of the work we are supporting that will contribute to environmental justice, healthy natural systems, an inclusive environmental movement and community well-being across this remarkable state we call home.

More information about the Healthy Environment’s Statewide Program grants can be found in portfolio director Jill Fuglister’s blog and in this awards list.

The 39 awards, totaling about $5 million, made in our Housing Opportunities portfolio reflect our vision for every Oregonian to have a decent, safe and affordable place to call home and our belief that housing — and the stability it offers — helps to build better lives and strengthen communities. Funding is directed to benefit low-income communities, with an additional lens on communities of color, rural communities and other marginalized populations.

This year’s awards will contribute to the creation of 490 units of affordable housing, including many much-needed family-sized units, and preservation of 54 additional units. A grant to the Housing Authority of Washington County for construction of a 120-unit affordable housing project in Hillsboro that is expected to serve a significant percentage of people of color is one example of nine affordable housing capital projects funded.

Our housing grants go beyond construction dollars. Community Alliance of Tenants was awarded an operating support grant to sustain and grow tenant leadership by strengthening programs for education and empowerment of tenants in Southern Oregon, the Willamette Valley and Portland’s Southwest Corridor — a great example of our investments in advocacy and leadership development. And a grant to the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation for a collaborative project to develop a non-subsidized replicable model of affordable housing with health-related and social services for rural older adults in the Columbia River Gorge is one way we are investing in innovative solutions.

Learn more about our Housing Opportunities awards from portfolio director Theresa Deibele’s blog here and see a list of all the Housing Opportunities awards here.

We are so grateful for the leadership and contributions that all the 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity grantees and our many other partners are making to bring us closer to an Oregon where everyone has genuine opportunity to feel valued and thrive.

We will be sharing more information about our 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity awards next month, and we are already preparing for our 2018 Annual Funding Opportunity that will open in March.

We anticipate making some changes in our application and guidance based on your feedback with the primary goals of clarifying “what fits” and making the application process even smoother. Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to our applicant surveys. We appreciate hearing about your experience and your ideas so we can continue to improve our approach to work better for you. As we launch our third round of funding under this program in 2018, we also look forward to connecting with you in the spring through community visits across the state and virtual outreach sessions.

You can stay up-to-date with our 2018 Annual Funding Opportunity, other future funding opportunities from Meyer and our outreach plans when you subscribe to our e-newsletter here. Interested in Meyer’s other fall grant awards and other program happenings? Learn about them here.

With continued appreciation,

— Candy

Meyer’s Willamette River Initiative (WRI) this fall awarded 24 grants totaling $1.3 million to support a wide range of efforts to improve the health of the Willamette River system and the communities it touches.

Through the initiative’s Basin-wide Impact Fund, WRI awarded $996,000 to support efforts with the potential to broadly benefit river and watershed health. Among this year’s 14 funded projects: a youth development program that connects watershed councils with underserved students, the creation of a streamlined monitoring framework to track progress in restoring the Willamette River floodplain, development of the business case for water resource protection in the North Santiam watershed, and several other ambitious, interconnected efforts to improve our river.

As part of the Healthy Environment Portfolio’s annual funding opportunity, WRI awarded $213,958 to a collaborative project by conservation groups in the Upper Willamette Basin to engage in learning, relationship-building and planning to advance diversity, equity and inclusion through their work. The project includes the Long Tom Watershed Council, Coast Fork Willamette Watershed Council, McKenzie Watershed Council, McKenzie River Trust, Middle Fork Willamette Watershed Council, Calapooia Watershed Council and the Friends of Buford Park and Mt. Pisgah.

Finally, WRI awarded eight small grants totaling $25,200 to support Willamette Basin conservation groups’ participation in a two-day diversity, equity and inclusion training last month with the Center for Diversity and the Environment. The training kicked off a year of ongoing learning to increase current WRI grantees’ understanding of equity issues in river health, including disproportionate benefits and impacts of river health and different perspectives and values about the river, and support them in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion within their work. 

Explore the list of grants here and the spreadsheet of grants here. Learn more about WRI's grant programs here.

— Kelly

This year, WRI funded projects included a regional communications campaign to reduce water pollution and a youth development program that connects watershed councils with underserved students, plus several other worthwhile efforts to improve river health.

“With thoughtful giving, even small sums may accomplish great purposes.”

Those are the final words of the will established by our founder, Fred G. Meyer, in 1976. As Meyer Memorial Trust makes grants to help move our mission of a more equitable and flourishing Oregon, we take that philosophy to heart. We know that the investments made in our Annual Funding Opportunity process are just a fraction of the support provided by our public and private sector partners.

How, then, can we make the most of limited funding to meet our mission? For the Housing Opportunities portfolio, it means looking for the pressure points — “acupuncture philanthropy” as described by Rip Rapson of The Kresge Foundation — that will launch, test, propel, deepen, leverage and evaluate efforts to bring safe, decent and affordable housing to all Oregonians.

Rather than investing in a single building or a single approach, we deploy our housing funds in a way that addresses a variety of needs across the state, in close collaboration with our nonprofit partners, public funders and leaders from other sectors, and in a way that improves conditions so that all people can reach their full potential.

In this year’s annual funding round, the Housing Opportunities portfolio received 78 applications, down from the 106 received last year. We moved 43 to the second step of the application process and ultimately awarded 39 grants (a 50 percent funding rate).

Digging into the details of these Housing Opportunity grants, we see:

• Funded projects are spread across the state, with the majority serving rural regions, another 16 serving non-rural regions, a handful serving tribes and tribal reservations and other grants serving diffuse statewide efforts.

• Some grants serve multiple purposes or regions

• Seven projects are led by collaboratives

• Organizations that have never applied to Meyer, or never previously received a Meyer investment, comprised 20 percent of our portfolio grants

• A majority of grants were made to large-budget organizations (over $1 million budgets are not uncommon in the housing world) and 10 percent were to smaller organizations with budgets under $200,000

• The grants total just over $3.5 million for the first year and about $5 million over three years.

Meyer has publicly committed to improve conditions where all people can reach their full potential — what we call “equity.” Using this lens in our grantmaking involves tracking outcomes and disaggregating data to understand inequitable systems and practices, prioritizing underserved populations, and lifting up the voices and leaders of communities working to overcome bias and oppression.  

In this batch, equity shows up in many different ways, highlighted below:

• Helping tenants and affected populations to advocate for themselves
  Community Alliance of Tenants, Neighborhood Partnerships, Community Partners for Affordable Housing

• Exploring targeted and new ways to provide affordable housing for specific disadvantaged populations
  Jessie F. Richardson Foundation, Polk Community Development, Helping Hands Re-Entry Outreach Centers, The Wallace Medical Concern, Bridges to Change Inc., Neighborhood Partnerships, Horizon Project  

• Supporting housing retention and anti-displacement strategies
  Hacienda Community Development Corporation, Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, Policy Consensus Initiative, Umpqua Valley Habitat for Humanity, Community Action Team, Our Coastal Village Foundation, Albertina Kerr
   

• Building affordable housing in a high opportunity and/or or transit-oriented neighborhood  
  Home Forward, Housing Authority of Washington County, REACH Community Development, Community Development Partners  
   

• Educating landlords about screening tenants in ways that are fair and effective
  Multifamily NW
   

• Supporting tenants with housing access, stabilization and eviction prevention services
  Clackamas Women’s Services, Mid-Columbia Housing Authority, Community Partners for Affordable Housing, Nancy Devereux Center, The Wallace Medical Concern, Northwest Pilot Project
   

• Pushing for equity in contracting, especially on capital projects
  Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives and other capital projects
   

• Building capacity in smaller and more rural organizations and fostering alliances to face housing challenges in rural communities
  Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, Northwest Coastal Housing, North End Senior Solutions, University Park United Methodist Church, Sabin Community Development Corporation, Proud Ground, Housing Oregon, Coos Bay Area Habitat for Humanity, Housing Development Center
   

• Supporting partners’ work to advance diversity, equity and inclusion internally
  Community Action Team, Bridge Meadows, Willamette Neighborhood Housing Services, Rebuilding Together Washington County, Oregon Community Warehouse
   

Clearly, there is no “one size fits all” approach to dismantling  barriers to opportunity, even in the housing sector. Yet these 39 grantees share a common vision of housing stability as a foundation to reaching one’s potential and a commitment to advancing equity in their organizations and communities.

We encourage you to review the list of Housing Opportunities grants here for more details on these grants, and we invite your observations and feedback on our work to address housing inequities with this slate of grantees. Are we achieving “thoughtful giving” that will allow our partners to achieve great purposes?

— Theresa

It strikes me that grantmaking in Meyer’s new program structure is similar to putting together a winning team every year but without the trophies or the neat and tidy closure you get when the season ends. Instead, the team we are helping form has a much bigger lift than winning a single tournament, and it doesn’t end when the grants do.

Supporting healthy natural systems and the health and vitality of all Oregon’s diverse communities is a long-term endeavor. It’s about changing the status quo. It’s about creating nurturing relationships with nature and people and undoing the dominant culture, extractive relationships that drive much of how we engage with natural systems and each other. It’s about building a team of grantees to work toward aligned outcomes and in partnership with Meyer to dig into this challenging work.

Clearly, this is no small task, and it requires a talented and passionate “team” to work together across a broad and diverse physical, political, social and cultural landscape.

When we launched the Healthy Environment portfolio's Statewide Program two years ago, we envisioned a program that would strike a balance between supporting work that would directly benefit underresourced and historically marginalized populations in rural and urban communities — including low-income communities, communities of color, Oregon’s indigenous communities and Tribes, and immigrants and refugees — and supporting work for healthy natural systems by organizations that demonstrate meaningful commitment and progress toward equity, diversity and inclusion priorities.

We are excited to say that this year’s grants achieve this balance and complement the grants we awarded in 2016.

Before diving into some of the details of this year’s Healthy Environment portfolio's Statewide Program grants, we know that many of you are also curious about how it all played out in Meyer’s three other portfolios as well. To read more about that, please check out Candy Solovjovs’ blog.

This year we received 80 inquiry applications requesting over $8.1 million to advance the statewide program’s goals. After the inquiry stage, 44 applications moved forward, and we ultimately awarded 39 grants, totalling just under $3.9 million.

What are some notable characteristics of the 2017 grantees?

All on-board for equity. First off, they all share a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. Some may be just getting started, and we have a number in this category, including a half-dozen who asked for training and planning support to build their organization’s equity lens. Every one of the grants awarded includes at least one strategy for advancing diversity, equity and inclusion at the organizational level, and many include other equity outcomes specific to their funded projects.

Deepening work with tribes. We funded a number of organizations, most of them working in rural areas, to build stronger relationships with tribes and partner with them on land conservation and repatriation projects that also incorporate cultural dimensions. Strong proposals demonstrated an understanding that these partnerships are a way to support tribes in protecting and exercising their rights to land and natural resources, rights that continue to be compromised, whether related to fishing, hunting or gathering in waters and on lands included in their traditional territories. They also demonstrated an understanding that relationships matter and co-creating projects in partnership with tribes is a more authentic and effective approach to partnership rather than trying to recruit them to join into a project that the grantees designed. Funded projects also often included grant resources for tribal partners to support their participation.

Collaborations and coalitions are key to advancing the systems change we need to achieve the Healthy Environment portfolio's Statewide Program Goals. This year’s awards included a number of collaborative planning grants, all focused on creating partnerships to work on new approaches to landscape scale restoration, trails management, water management and more. In addition, we awarded a half-dozen grants to advance the work of existing collaboratives. Examples include a collaborative that is establishing community forests in coastal drinking water source areas and an effort to establish a green workforce development program to serve African American and Native American individuals.

Supporting multiple approaches to our environmental and environmental justice challenges. When you review this year’s list of grantees, you will notice that our grantmaking does not reflect a commitment to a single approach. Some funders only support public policy work and not on-the-ground conservation. Others may only support “technical expert organizations” or groups that do community organizing. We support all of these. We also support groups working for the adoption and expansion of voluntary and incentive-based approaches to environmental protection and those that push for greater regulation. We recognize that place-based work looks different than statewide advocacy and that different approaches can make valuable contributions to reforming or scaling up environmental protection and restoration in different communities across Oregon.

We are grateful to welcome and partner with the portfolio’s 2017 Statewide Program grantees. We hope to continue building the team with grants to new organizations as well as existing ones in future annual grant rounds. Please check out Meyer’s awards database to gain more insights about what we are funding as you consider future applications. As always, we welcome your reflections, ideas and questions.

— Jill

Ten months after Meyer launched the Equitable Education portfolio, the first Annual Funding Opportunity has concluded, offering 49 grants across Oregon, totalling more than $7.2 million over three years.

The education portfolio began with the vision that all students have an opportunity to access meaningful public education. We sought to invest in inclusive opportunities designed to afford Oregon students the chance to realize their goals of increased academic achievement and remove disparities at all levels of the education continuum, from students entering kindergarten ready to succeed to planning for post-secondary and career success.

In service to this vision, we focused on three key goals:

• Building a unified movement to advance equitable education.

• Creating systems- and policy-level impact.

• Improving student achievement and college and career readiness.

Out of 167 competitive applications, we invited 57 nonprofits to submit full proposals. You’ll find the full list of Equitable Education 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity grantees here.

Our new grantees reflect a mix of rural and urban organizations offering a vision and approach to directly address educational disparities so that all students in Oregon have the opportunity to obtain a meaningful public education. Of crucial importance is their collective belief that for Oregon to flourish, each student — regardless of race, ethnicity, family income, geography, disability or language — must have the opportunity to succeed in school.

Among the education grantees in the 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity, a few key themes emerged.

A number of grantees will demonstrate their commitment to mobilize individuals and organizations toward a common movement to advance equitable education. UniteOregon and Salem-Keizer Coalition for Equality, for example, will leverage their relationships and community credibility to mobilize the power and potential of students, families, communities and organizations toward unified action, meaningful change and education opportunity for all.

Other grantees will bring their experience to the systems and policy area. KairosPDX, Better Together Central Oregon and Douglas Education Service District all recognize that in order for education equity to be take hold, Oregon’s leadership, priorities and policies must better reflect the diversity of needs and the rich array of cultures and traditions of Oregonians.

Acknowledging the need to balance long-term system and policy impact with the urgency to address and improve achievement and college and career readiness for today’s students, groups such as Building Healthy Families, Central Oregon Community College and Southern Oregon Child and Family Council will focus their efforts on key transitional moments to boost student readiness and/or achievement. Additionally, organizations such as Building Blocks to Success, REAP and Hood River County School District committed to expanding programs that strategically target priority populations while introducing innovative solutions to address persistent and deeply rooted barriers to student success.

The Equitable Education portfolio team is grateful for the time and thoughtful intention of our applicants throughout this process. Like you, we believe that to advance change in both institutions and outcomes, we must challenge mainstream assumptions and practices, focusing on the needs of students most affected by educational disparities. While doing so, we reaffirm our collective commitment to meaningful public education for all. Thank you for joining us in taking another step toward our new, shared vision for equitable education in Oregon.

— Matt

The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) named Groundswell Fund and three other grantmakers — Foundation for Louisiana, Solutions Project and Meyer — as recipients of the 2017 Impact Awards for efforts to fight against injustice, inequities and hate in our communities. 

Groundswell Fund received the ‘Smashing Silos’ Impact Award for their philanthropic leadership in reproductive justice and intersectional approach to supporting women of color, low-income women and LGBT people as grassroots activists.

Here is LGBTQ Weekly's coverage of NCRP's awards ceremony in Louisiana:

“We dedicate this award to our grantees who transgress issue silos every day, the radical queers in Arizona working for health care and immigrant rights, the Black women in Pittsburgh fighting for environmental justice and abortion care, the Native women on the reservation demanding contraception access and birthing justice,” said Groundswell Fund’s executive director, Vanessa Daniel.

Learn more about the Groundswell Fund and why they're being honored for their leadership in supporting these efforts, here.

I am a dedicated day hiker. Last year I logged more than 300 miles. I am on a trail most weekends and have been known to tap vacation days to get in a few mid-week summer hikes. The mountains, the gorge, the coast, the desert ... anywhere I can be enveloped in nature and solitude. The vast majority of the time, I am invigorated, motivated, at peace and in awe. But I admit that occasionally it feels like a slog. Will I ever reach the top of the ridge? Will the trail ever end? Will the rain ever stop? Somehow I press on and am rewarded with a breathtaking view, a sense of accomplishment and feeling thankful that I didn’t give up.

These feelings have followed me off the trail the past couple of rough months. As I began composing this blog announcing our July and August grant awards, I stepped out of the slog to feel a renewed sense of hope, determination and gratitude. In the midst of anger and grief over the continued blatant racism and oppressive national policy environment, I am humbled and inspired by so many in our communities who are taking a stand for justice, getting involved, reaching out to understand and support each other, and innovating and advocating to build a flourishing and equitable Oregon. Many of you did amazing work during Oregon’s legislative session and in local communities to help pass policies that move us closer to equity. You are working within your organizations and in your communities to meaningfully advance diversity, equity and inclusion. And you are lifting up and celebrating the diverse strengths and beauty of the many communities and people who call Oregon home. I am immensely grateful.  

We see your work, determination and progress, and we continue to explore how we can best partner with you every day. Meyer’s 24 summer grant awards, totaling $1.5 million, showcase those meaningful efforts. I am happy to share these highlights of funding opportunities and collaborations with the field.

Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative/Meyer Grants

Our community’s response to the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative has been inspiring. This collaborative — a partnership of MRG Foundation, Collins Foundation Oregon Community Foundation and Meyer — is designed to address crucial and time-sensitive issues facing immigrants and refugees. In July and August, Meyer made five awards totaling $213,109 through this partnership:

• $100,000 to Causa of Oregon, lead applicant for a collaboration with Innovation Law Lab and Lewis & Clark Law School, to support the Immigrant Inclusion Plan, which will provide the infrastructure needed to mesh community-based organizing, immigrant defense work, immigrant rights policy development, and public discourse on immigrants in Oregon to affect inclusion throughout the state.

• $19,000 to Centro Cultural de Condado de Washington to support the Esperanza Deportation Relief Fund, which offers financial assistance to families that suddenly lose an income-earner in the household.

• $19,109 to Bienestar to provide assistance to families that have been impacted by anti-immigrant policies and the increase in anti-immigrant sentiment.

• $25,000 to Northwest Employment and Education Defense Fund to support efforts to protect low-wage contingent and immigrant workers from exploitation.

• $50,000 to Portland Community College Foundation to support the launch of a DREAM center at PCC Rock Creek Campus' Multicultural Center, which will help undocumented students fulfill their dreams for postsecondary education.

You can find out more about the collaborative and how to apply here. And be sure to check out our awards database to learn about the other ways Meyer is supporting the important work of these and other grantee organizations working for immigrant and refugee rights.

Portfolio and Meyer-Directed Grants

Over these past two months, a handful of grants were made through our Building Community, Equitable Education, Healthy Environment and Housing Opportunities portfolios, as well as other Meyer-directed and mission-aligned awards.

Two technical assistance grants were made through our Building Community portfolio:

• $18,500 to PHAME Academy to support the transition of executive leadership of this organization serving adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

• $19,250 to Willamette Valley Development Officers for internal diversity, equity and inclusion assessment and planning.

One award was made through our Equitable Education portfolio to Foundations for a Better Oregon for continued support of The Chalkboard Project ($630,000). Meyer has been a long-standing partner in this philanthropic collaborative working to unite Oregonians to make our public education among the nation's best.

Through our Healthy Environment portfolio, Meyer provided:

• $100,000 to the Portland Harbor Community Coalition to build capacity and develop tools for impacted communities to benefit from Portland Harbor Superfund cleanup and redevelopment. Earlier this year, my colleague Kelly House wrote a great blog about Meyer’s prior investment in this coalition, its impact and the personal stories of some of its members — be sure to check it out.

• $15,000 to the Oregon Environmental Council to organize partners in developing a community-based transportation plan for the Portland area that focuses on emerging technologies to ensure optimal mobility and environmental health benefits for local residents, particularly benefits for lower-wealth neighborhoods. We see this as a timely opportunity to bring community voice into local transportation planning and Department of Environmental Quality rulemaking to ensure that lower-income communities are not negatively impacted or left behind.

• $50,000 to Craft3 to pilot a food and farm business loan program that supports economic, ecological and family resilience outcomes and helps strengthen the Pacific Northwest regional food system. The program will prioritize serving communities of color and indigenous communities and Tribes.

From our Housing Opportunities portfolio, we made a $49,000 award through our Affordable Housing Initiative to Earth Advantage to promote adoption of the Life-Cycle Cost Analysis tool to support more sustainable and cost-effective affordable housing.

Other Meyer-directed awards included $252,535 to Philanthropy Northwest to support a second cohort of Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellows to prepare professionals from underrepresented communities for successful careers in the philanthropic sector. We also awarded a $145,000 capacity building grant to the Native American Youth and Family Center.

A complete list of our July and August awards can be found here.

In other news:

2017 Annual Funding Opportunity Update

I have heard from many folks lately wondering where we are in our 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity decision-making process. Our portfolio teams will soon complete more than 200 site visits and are beginning to develop funding recommendations. We are excited about the rich opportunities to partner with so many organizations that share our vision of a flourishing and equitable Oregon! The vast majority of funding recommendations and decisions through this program will be made in October, but this year a small percentage of decisions, primarily for technical assistance grants, will be made in August and September. Stay tuned — we will be announcing all the 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity awards in our November newsletter. Are you signed up to receive our newsletters? It just takes a sec!

You might also want to put a note in your calendar that our 2018 Annual Funding Opportunity will once again be open for applications mid-March through mid-April. More details to come.

Open Funding Opportunities

While we round the bend on the 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity awards and begin reviewing proposals to our recent Affordable Housing Initiative Systems Alignment: Housing+Services RFP, we are pleased to offer an additional opportunity to apply for funds:

• Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative. Organizations working to address critical and time-sensitive issues facing our community’s immigrants and refugees can continue to apply for funds through this funder collaborative. No deadline. Access the application through any of the participating funders (MRG Foundation, Collins Foundation, Oregon Community Foundation and Meyer), or click here.

Finally ... Not to Miss!

Meyer has stepped up the strategic use of our voice to take a stand and advocate for mission-critical issues. We have also prioritized funding work that leads to policy and systems changes, and we have created a specific opportunity to apply for funding for collaboratives, coalitions and networks working on systems change. You have provided a lot of positive feedback about these changes ... and you’ve asked a lot of great questions!

We are excited to support two upcoming opportunities for nonprofits and funders to learn more about advocacy, lobbying and working in and resourcing networks.

• Critical Connections & Critical Mass: Supporting Movement Networks for Change with Elissa Sloan Perry of Management Assistance Group, in Portland on Sept. 19. Grounded in the belief that “to change everything it will take everyone,” Meyer is also sponsoring this workshop that will explore what it means to work collaboratively in coalitions and movement networks and the implications of resourcing this strategy. Willamette Valley Development Officers is hosting, and Meyer, along with other Oregon funders, will be participating. Scholarships are available. You can find out more and register here.

• Alliance for Justice is offering two advocacy and lobbying workshops in Portland on Sept. 28. At Meyer, we believe that all nonprofits and funders have a responsibility to understand the public policies and inequities that are connected to their mission and have a role to play in advocating for change. We are excited to be sponsoring two upcoming Alliance for Justice workshops on advocacy and lobbying, one for nonprofits hosted by Nonprofit Association of Oregon and one for funders hosted by Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington. I look forward to seeing you there!

And with that, we wish you a smooth transition into fall and offer our continued appreciation for all the energy you are contributing toward making Oregon a welcoming place where everyone has true opportunity to thrive.

See you on the trail.

— Candy

The view along McNeil Point Trail in Mt. Hood National Forest and Candy’s favorite Oregon mountain hike. Photo courtesy of Candy Solovjovs

Our partners have consistently emphasized to Meyer the urgent need for better coordination and alignment between affordable housing providers and services that help people stay housed and thrive. We are once again offering a Request for Proposals from innovative and impactful efforts working to overcome barriers to collaborating across systems.

Lessons from 2015 Projects

Projects funded in 2015 illustrate the breadth of systems that benefit from a stronger connection with affordable housing.

• Catholic Community Services of the Mid Willamette (Marion County) linked housing assistance and foster care diversion, along with the local Early Learning Hub.
• Columbia Gorge Health Council (Hood River and Wasco counties) piloted a “Pathways” model of paying for outcomes including housing, health care and other social services.
• Community Action Partnership of Oregon, in partnership with ACCESS and Klamath-Lake Community Action Services (Statewide, with a focus on Jackson, Klamath and Lake counties) created better coordination between housing resources and the Department of Human Services, with a focus on foster care diversion and child welfare.
• Enterprise Community Partners (Portland Metro) piloted a fund mirroring Medicaid flexible benefits for housing-related costs to show housing and health benefits.
• REACH/Housing With Services (Multnomah County) incorporated health, nutrition and other social services in affordable housing buildings downtown.
• United Way of Lane County (Lane County) integrated housing issues in the local Early Learning Hub and brought early learning and health programs to affordable housing.
• Worksystems Inc. (Multnomah and Washington counties) linked housing and employment support.
   

Each of these projects reinforced the growing mountain of evidence for the connections between housing stability and other issues that make the difference between thriving and not:  strong families, good health, and success in education and employment. We also learned quite a bit about the barriers to effective collaboration from talking with these grantees and reflecting on their progress and challenges — barriers such as legal and privacy challenges around data sharing, overcoming inertia and turf issues, and misaligned incentives and basic  risk-aversion.

The New RFP

As in 2015, Meyer is taking a broad approach to the challenge of systems alignment, welcoming proposals from both new coalitions and more established collaborative efforts, aiming to improve the connection between affordable housing and other systems, especially for populations with specific and difficult housing challenges (including survivors of domestic violence, young adults aging out of foster care and ex-offenders re-entering society).

These grants are not meant for fairly straightforward work bringing a specific service to an affordable housing project (important as that work can be, it’s a better fit under our annual Housing Opportunities funding round). Rather, by supporting focused collaborative efforts engaging specific issues across multiple systems, Meyer expects to assist the broader fields of affordable housing and supportive services by:

• Highlighting replicable models of successful collaboration, identifying specific strategies to promote effective cooperation across systems or service providers
• Identifying and addressing significant policy or systems barriers to better coordination
• Documenting the potential to deliver better outcomes (including cost savings or other opportunities to better leverage scarce resources) through effective collaboration
   

More detailed information on the RFP is available here: mmt.org/rfp

— Michael