It’s an exciting time of year for us at Meyer — our Annual Funding Opportunity is now open! We relish the chance to learn about the interesting and passionate work our partners are doing to strengthen communities and ensure every Oregonian has a safe, decent and affordable place to call home.  

Details of our application process are available on our website, and general updates regarding the Annual Funding Opportunity are outlined in this blog by Candy Solovjovs, Meyer’s Director of Programs.  

Since we announced the first group of awards under the new Housing Opportunities portfolio, the Meyer housing team has been taking time to reflect on the process. We had a plan for how the process would go, and on the whole, it panned out as we expected. Where we saw reality diverging from our expectations, we knew there was room for simplification, clarification or both.   

We’ve also weighed the survey feedback from the 2016 applicants, who were frank in their assessments of what worked smoothly and, even more importantly, of what areas needed attention.

As a result, we have made changes to this year’s Annual Funding Opportunity. The changes are fine-tuning, rather than sweeping. Here are some answers to questions you might have about the changes:

 

Will Meyer’s goals for the Housing Annual Funding Opportunity change?

No. The core funding goals of Housing Opportunities remain the same:

1. Preserve and increase the number of affordable housing rental units.

2. Support the housing stability and success of Oregonians living on low incomes.

3. Strengthen the housing sector by building capacity, diversity, equity and inclusion, and collaboration.

You’ll see some refinements in the wording of the funding goals. We hope these will add emphasis and clarity about the types of proposals we are hoping to fund. Everything else from last year’s funding call stands.

 

What did we learn from last year’s Annual Funding Opportunity?

We funded 39 exciting projects in the 2016 annual funding call. In my November blog, I noted that the batch of proposals was extremely diverse, encompassing both solid and proven approaches and new, innovative efforts to address affordable housing needs across our three funding goal areas. The slate of awards reached many corners of the state, and over 20 percent of awards were made to organizations that were new to Meyer or had never been funded before.

We also learned of some challenges in our process, leading us this year to reconsider our process and seek clarification. Some observations from the Housing Opportunities team:

• We seemed out of sync with the state’s Local Innovation and Fast Track (LIFT) Housing Program. Many of the potential LIFT projects that applied to Meyer were early in the process, not quite fleshed out, and did not fare well in our funding.

• Several proposals under Goal 2 were challenged to show how they would, beyond an indirect way, lead to greater housing stability and success. For example, we saw proposals that would help people gain more income. This could translate into housing stability but only if the project was intentional in helping participants to overcome other housing barriers — and if it measured housing stability.

• It was challenging to align a project with complicated financing — especially those using tax credits — with our annual funding call. Some projects came in quite late and asked Meyer for “top off” funding, while others were quite early in the process.

• Our process did not take into account some of the more complicated mixed-use housing developments.

• Although many proposals included specific diversity, equity or inclusion (DEI) activities, few proposals were focused overall on DEI.

Incorporating what we’ve learned, what has changed in this year’s Annual Funding Opportunity?

 

Goal 1: Preserve + Increase the Number of Affordable Housing Rental Units

• At a basic level, we know Oregon has a chronic shortage of affordable housing, making support of both preservation and new development a crucial part of the portfolio’s goals.

• Because the initial batch of LIFT awards has been announced, we expect to see applications that are farther along and likely more competitive. Projects that were eligible for LIFT but were turned down last year are encouraged to apply again if their project has secured LIFT funding and they meet Meyer guidelines.

• We expect the uncertainty of potential federal tax reform to continue to have an effect on tax credits and to challenge current developments in the pipeline. To the extent possible, applicants to this goal area should anticipate and consider other plans for pulling together the necessary financing.

• We gave guidance last year that any mixed-use projects should seek Meyer’s support for just the affordable housing portion of a project. We will be more flexible this year and are willing to fund other aspects of a mixed-use project when crucial to project completion. If this situation applies to your project, you’ll want to have a conversation with our housing team staff.

Goal 2: Support the Housing Stability + Success of Oregonians Living on Low Incomes

• The description of Goal 2 was modified to focus on housing stability and success. To be most competitive here, projects should not be structured to help people succeed  generally, but rather to have a more direct connection to housing. We expect to see projects that propose to track or measure the actual experience of people to access or retain housing, advance toward housing stability or mitigate displacement pressures.

Goal 3: Strengthen the Housing Sector by Building Capacity, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Collaboration

• We described this goal last year as strengthening the housing sector by building capacity and long-term health. Yet the outcomes we were hoping to see focused on building capacity, fostering collaboration and increasing diversity, equity and inclusion across the sector. The phrasing of the goal now better aligns with the outcomes here.

• Meyer supported several projects with some DEI-focused technical assistance, but we also want to consider longer and deeper equity work. We will, therefore, be offering general operating support grants to organizations that do the majority of their work in affordable housing and have DEI strategies as a meaningful part of their work plans for the grant period. These grants are expected to be more competitive, and if you are interested, please carefully read the guidelines on general operating grants.

Once again, Meyer will be offering a series of general information sessions around the state. In addition, three Housing Opportunities Information Sessions will be conducted by phone March 24, March 31 and April 6. You can sign up for the Housing Information Sessions on our website. If you have questions around your specific project, feel free to contact us at questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org) or 503-228-5512. We’ll route the questions to our team members for a prompt reply.

We were thrilled last year to receive a range of interesting, complex and creative proposals, and we have no doubt that this year’s proposals will be equally impressive. Know that your partnership is invaluable: Meyer couldn’t do its work if we didn’t have front-line practitioners sharing their experience, learning and perspectives.

We look forward to another opportunity to work with you in the coming year.

—Theresa

Meyer’s 2018 Annual Funding Opportunity opened on March 15, 2018 with Initial Applications due on April 18, 2018 at 5 p.m. Our team invites you to connect with us to learn more about these opportunities and Meyer’s priorities at in-person and virtual sessions.

Although we've completed our in-person information sessions for 2018, check out our virtual sessions with staff members from Meyer Memorial Trust’s Building Community, Equitable Education, Healthy Environment and Housing Opportunities portfolios to answer questions and share insights about our grantmaking.
 

Virtual Information Sessions

This series of virtual information sessions will be held by video to share information and answer questions about Meyer's 2018 Annual Funding Opportunity. In addition to a general session, each portfolio team will facilitate portfolio-specific virtual information sessions. RSVP information coming in February! 

COLLABORATIVE PROPOSALS INFORMATION SESSION

When: Monday, April 2, 2018

Time: 10-11 a.m.

Facilitated by: ALL PORTFOLIOS

RSVP: Here
 

BUILDING COMMUNITY

When: Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Time: 3:30-4:30 p.m.

Facilitated by: Building Community portfolio team

RSVP: Here

 

When: Friday, April 6, 2018 — (Special focus on arts initiatives)

Time: 10:00-11:00 a.m.

Facilitated by: Building Community portfolio team

RSVP: Here

 

EQUITABLE EDUCATION

When: Friday, March 23, 2018

Time: 1:30-2:30 p.m.

Facilitated by: Equitable Education portfolio team

RSVP: Here

 

HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT

When: Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Time: 2:00-3:00 p.m.

Facilitated by: Healthy Environment portfolio team

RSVP: Here
 

When: Thursday, April 5, 2018

Time: 10:00-11:00 a.m.

Facilitated by: Healthy Environment portfolio team

RSVP: Here
 

HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES

When: Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Time: 3:00- 4:30 p.m.

Facilitated by: Housing Opportunities portfolio team

RSVP: Here

The cost of new affordable housing in Oregon has been a topic of intense scrutiny. The need for affordable housing continues to outpace the current system’s ability to deliver additional units. There is immense pressure to stretch the scarce public funds dedicated to affordable housing as far as possible.

Meyer’s Cost Efficiency strategy was developed in direct response to public, private and nonprofit community partners’ call for Meyer to spark and test innovations to address the high cost of affordable housing development and to influence policy and systems changes supporting different approaches.

As part of the the Affordable Housing Initiative, Meyer convened a group of experts to define problems and potential solutions. The final report of the Cost Efficiencies Work Group, The Cost of Affordable Housing Development in Oregon, was completed in October 2015 and has received wide attention from public funders, elected officials and the affordable housing industry.

As a continuation of that work, Meyer began funding five innovative pilot projects last year (with predevelopment grants under a Request for Proposals that elicited 17 proposals overall), focused on trying new approaches to reduce the cost of affordable housing development. The sponsors of those five projects were recently invited to request capital grants to support further development of their projects, depending on how well the projects were furthering the goals and criteria outlined in the 2016 RFP.

While each of the five predevelopment pilots ran into challenges (both expected and not), four of the five proposals appear to be moving ahead, and we are pleased to support these projects with significant capital grants approved in January.

Northwest Housing Alternatives ($400,000) — Building a replicable, efficient small project that is not reliant on 9 percent Low Income Housing Tax Credits for funding

This project, underway in Oregon City, will draw on and develop lessons from several other NHA projects around the state at different stages of development (in Hermiston, Hillsboro and Florence). In addition to rigorously focusing on cost-efficiency in design, NHA (working closely with its contractor Walsh Construction) will compare the feasibility of using factory-built modular housing with the most cost-efficient approach to site-built housing.

REACH CDC ($400,000) — Adapting “Lean” manufacturing to affordable housing on a large project in Southeast Portland.

Lean planning and coordination, typically associated with manufacturing processes, depends on an intensely collaborative and iterative approach to design and execution. The Lean approach taps into the collective expertise of the project team, identifies waste and inefficiencies, and focuses on continuous learning to improve workflow. By working closely from the outset of the design process with the general contractor (Walsh Construction), subcontractors, architect and other project partners, REACH hopes to achieve significant cost savings over a more typical affordable housing development.

SquareOne Villages ($200,000) — Developing a new tiny-house village in Cottage Grove, with an emphasis on assisting other grass-roots efforts at low-cost housing.

SquareOne is building upon its recent successes in Lane County (with Opportunity Village Eugene and Emerald Village Eugene) in providing basic, extremely low-cost housing drawing on grass-roots support. As it begins work on its latest project in Cottage Grove, SquareOne will distill what it has learned to date into a Toolbox and training kit meant to help other small Oregon communities with fewer local housing resources replicate the approach.

Transition Projects Inc. ($500,000) — Piloting efficient and flexible modular housing designs.

At the core of TPI’s proposal is an innovative modular approach to design and construction that can be combined and configured in a variety of ways, including some single-room occupancy units with shared bath and kitchen facilities. Like the NHA project, TPI will work closely with its partner on this project (Housing Development Center) to compare and evaluate whether factory-built modules can be cost competitive with site-built versions of the units. This “kit of parts” approach will be piloted on an unusually shaped property in North Portland that would be difficult to develop with a conventional apartment building. HDC hopes to then partner with Northwest Oregon Housing Authority (NOHA) to replicate this approach to pilot low-cost workforce housing on the north coast.

The fifth predevelopment project (creation of a new rental housing community using manufactured homes in East Portland, led by Innovative Housing Inc.) is not proceeding as originally proposed but has surfaced important lessons for when and where manufactured housing might be a good choice for affordable developers.

This slate of grants represents different strategies and housing types with real potential to push the envelope in the affordable housing space in Oregon. Even though three of the four projects are located in the Portland region, the four approaches cover a mix of common housing challenges. Their hard-earned experience will benefit developers creating affordable housing across the state.

As part of our emphasis on shared learning and informing the field, we will collect and disseminate detailed lessons learned from all five projects (including the one not going forward), and we are actively engaging partners around the state (including developers, funders and regulators) about the best venue and format for continuing the cost efficiency/innovation discussion. We have a commitment from the project teams to document the lessons they learn and to actively share these lessons broadly with the affordable housing industry. We expect a high level of interest from a variety of public, private and nonprofit partners.

Lessons Learned So Far

Although these projects are still in early stages of development, the core conclusions of the 2015 report seem largely validated.

• There are meaningful opportunities to shave down both soft costs and hard costs. The best way to identify and exploit these opportunities is to challenge development teams (in a thoughtful and nuanced way) to deliver at a lower cost.

• All partners in affordable housing — funders, lenders, investors and local jurisdictions to name a few — have a part to play in lowering costs.

• Some approaches — including new rental communities with manufactured homes and building with factory-built modular units — have turned out to be more complex or costly than originally expected, at least for the pilot projects.

• Radically lower costs probably come with unacceptable tradeoffs in terms of quality, durability, neighborhood acceptance and other important factors that developers must wrestle with.

This is an inherently complex set of issues, and there is still a lot of work to be done (see sidebar). We hope these projects will inspire and inform affordable housing developers who are genuinely interested in lower cost development, as well as funders who are exploring ways to support and encourage lower costs without compromising other crucial aspects of housing development.
 

Other Meyer Efforts Around Cost Efficiency

The 2015 report listed a number of recommended next steps to advance work around lowering development costs. Along with our partners in the field, we’ve made some headway on many of these.

• We continue to meet with a wide array of stakeholders — including public funders, decision-makers and influential private sector groups —regarding the lessons of the Cost Efficiency report.

• Following up on the identified need for more flexible funding, Meyer has convened some fruitful early conversations around identifying potential sources of new private funding for affordable housing.

• Good work is under way (led by Earth Advantage and supported by HDC) to adapt a framework for lifecycle cost analysis that can help evaluate the long-term cost savings of specific energy-efficiency related strategies in housing development.

• We continue to engage public funders and decision-makers, as well as the industry at large around how to achieve lower costs without compromising on other goals and on messaging and communications around these issues.

Transitions Projects: Low-Income Single Adult Housing (LISAH) concept

Meyer’s Affordable Housing Initiative has always prioritized the distinct and urgent needs around affordable housing in rural Oregon. The stories of Oregonians living in manufactured housing are particularly moving, both because of their vulnerability to dislocation and because so many people live in older, substandard homes with few resources to address housing issues that impact their health, utility bills and basic housing stability.

Although we’re still interested in strategies for the cost-efficient replacement of older manufactured homes, Meyer has been persuaded by partners around the state to support repair programs helping low-income residents of manufactured homes with urgent repair needs, weatherization and accessibility improvements. By addressing urgent repair needs that homeowners can’t afford themselves, small grants and loans for crucial repairs can help homeowners avoid costly and difficult relocation, help people live in better comfort and health within a community, and even prevent homelessness.

Last fall, Meyer released a Request for Proposals to build the capacity of rural manufactured home repair programs, and we encouraged nonprofits and housing authorities to submit proposals for up to $50,000 per year for up to two years (no more than $100,000 total). With a strong field of proposals, Meyer funded nine projects totaling $630,000 over two years:

ACCESS (Jackson County) $50,000
Benton Habitat for Humanity (Benton County) $100,000
Community Action Team (Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook counties) $50,000
Community in Action (Harney and Malheur counties) $100,000
Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln County (Lincoln County) $30,000
NeighborImpact (Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties) $50,000
Neighborworks Umpqua (Douglas County) $100,000
Umpqua Community Action Network (Josephine County) $100,000
Yamhill County Affordable Housing Corporation (Yamhill County) $50,000

The nine grants cover a wide swath of rural Oregon, from the coast and southern Oregon to the central and eastern part of the state. In each case, the proposals described in detail the need for this work in the community, how the agency would carry out repairs, and how the agency would prioritize which households were assisted (most commonly, seniors, people with disabilities and households with veterans were defined priorities). Each program actively seeks out ways to leverage other resources, including donors and volunteers, weatherization funds and other local resources. In most cases, Meyer funding will help programs reach homeowners who can’t be assisted with other, less flexible funding.

We know that these grants will only address a fraction of the statewide need. We intend to document the impact of this work and hope to demonstrate the value of these programs to other funders, public and private. We believe that small repairs can make a huge difference in rural Oregon.

Support for Housing Stability

Last fall, the Network for Oregon Affordable Housing (NOAH) was awarded a two-year Meyer grant to support a statewide steering group including public, private and nonprofit partners wrestling with supporting long-term affordability and housing stability in manufactured home parks. We are pleased to see them take on this important convening and coordinating role and will be interested in their progress identifying opportunities, resources and supportive policies to maintain manufactured homes as an affordable housing option for Oregonians.

For more information, contact Rob Prasch at NOAH: 503-223-3211

In the months since our momentous November 2016 award announcements under our issue-focused, equity-based portfolios, Meyer Memorial Trust has made an additional 27 grants totaling more than $3.5 million to a variety of tax-exempt organizations. These awards were made through RFPs, technical assistance, collaborations and other Meyer-directed funding to advance our vision of a flourishing and equitable Oregon.

View the full list of Fall grant awards by viewing this PDF. And, as always, you can view our full awards database here.

• In our Housing Opportunities portfolio, we made nine grants totaling $1,616,000.

• In our Healthy Environments portfolio, we made five grants totaling $443,377.

• In Equitable Education, we made six new grants totaling $568,000. Read about the new Equitable Education framework, including our goals and strategies for this work, in this blog post by Matt Morton, Meyer’s Equitable Education portfolio director.

• In our Building Community portfolio, we made four awards totaling $370,000.

• Additionally, we made three Meyer-directed equity grants totaling $560,000.

Stay tuned for two upcoming Requests for Proposals:

Affordable Housing Initiative: Advocacy Mobilizers and Campaign Leaders

• We will open this RFP for applications on Tuesday, February 28, 2017

• Proposals are due on Wednesday, April 5, 2017 by 5pm

• Grants are expected to range from $20,000–$50,000 per year for up to two years. The lower end of the range is dedicated to advocacy mobilization efforts and the higher end reserved for more focused campaign leaders

• Total funds available: up to $600,000 in grant funds this cycle

 

Spring Funding Opportunity

• We will open for applications on March 15, 2017

• This year’s opportunities will include all four portfolios — more details to come.

• Stay tuned on the Meyer website for a schedule of March information sessions about these opportunities.

Stay in the loop by signing up to receive our general e-newsletter, Meyer Mail, as well as portfolio-specific e-newsletters.

It’s simple: The hostile rhetoric leading up to and including the president’s executive orders issued this past week has been hateful and inexcusable and runs counter to the principles of our republic.

Following two executive orders targeting immigrants and refugees, on Friday, Jan. 27, just a week after his inauguration, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that bars refugees and immigrants from a number of Muslim countries from entering the United States. It’s clear we are at the beginning of a long, hard fight.

It’s surreal to stand at this historical moment. This early action has already divided families and engendered fear, anxiety and hopelessness. Muslims, immigrants and refugees are the targets today, but so many are at risk if we head down this road. What comes next? We must stand for the rights of all people of color, people with disabilities and the LGBTQ community.

I have personally been heartened by the response from the citizenry. We have seen millions urgently take to the streets and airports in response. This past weekend, thousands showed up at Portland International Airport to support refugees and immigrants affected by the action.

In my last blog post, I made it clear that in the face of our new political realities, Meyer will “be nimble by remaining open to time-sensitive instances where our established program strategies are not positioned to respond." This is one of those moments.

In response, Meyer is providing grants to five community-based organizations on the front lines of ensuring the security, safety and civil rights of all people in our community. Although we currently fund these organizations, now more than ever their human and financial resources are being tested by the great work before them. And we need them to be strong in this fight. So in solidarity and support of their important work, we are making the following supplemental grants:
 

• American Civil Liberties Foundation of Oregon:  $20,000 general operating support
• Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization: $20,000 general operating support
• Unite Oregon: $20,000 general operating support
• Immigration Counseling Services: $20,000 general operating support
• Muslim Educational Trust: $20,000 general operating support

 

Our message is clear: To private citizens, we urge you to exercise your rights by using your own resources and voice to put pressure on power. Attend a rally. Call your representatives at every level of government. Show support to your neighbors. Use the rights you have. Go beyond what you think you can do. These are extreme times.

To other philanthropic organizations and corporations, we urge you to use your considerable resources and loud voices to stand up for what is right and to resist oppression and injustice to all members of our community. This is the time to speak up.

Meyer is determined to join others and help lead this fight by using our resources and our voice to respond to these inexcusable challenges to our most basic civil liberties. We pledge to continue to look for opportunities for rapid responses and swift impact. In addition, we will soon be announcing our 2017 spring funding opportunities, which will continue our work toward a flourishing and equitable Oregon.

— Doug

 

(Photo: John Rudoff/Polaris Images)

The Portland Business Journal's Andy Giegerich marked the announcement of Meyer's first round of equity-focused awards.

The PBJ piece points out that the 151 awards announced Nov. 16 came at the end of a lengthy process of strategic redesign, listening and consideration:

After a two-year hiatus from grantmaking, Meyer Memorial Trust has returned to the gifting fold in a big way. The group has awarded $17.3 million to Oregon groups after a restart of sorts. The Portland organization reexamined the ways it can maximize its collective impact.

The Portland Business Journal website requires a subscription but your first three stories are free!

To explore the full story, and to support local journalism, click here.

Inside Philanthropy posted a quick story following Meyer's latest batch of awards. Interestingly, the focus was on how Meyer fits in the mold of national funders who have taken on inequities, most notably the Ford Foundation.

Here's their take:

Now, the Meyer Memorial Trust, one of the largest private foundations in Oregon, is rolling out a new strategy to create a more "equitable Oregon."

This change comes after a two-year journey of rethinking how it gave grants. Meyer went about this in the same way that other funders around the country have been: embarking on listening tours and talking with nearly 2,000 nonprofit leaders. After all that input, Meyer emerged with four new priorities: solving inequities in community building, the environment, affordable housing, and education. (The best way to understand Meyer’s new approach is by reading the latest blog by Candy Solovjov, its director of programs.)

As with the shift by Ford and other foundations that have zeroed in on equity, Meyer's new strategy hardly amounts to a dramatic dethroning of its past approach—since this progressive funder has long worried about equity issues in Oregon.

You can read the whole story here.

The Building Community team received more than 400 applications from the first funding call under Meyer’s new grantmaking structure (please take a look at Candy Solovjovs’ blog post which describes this in more detail). After months of careful review and many difficult decisions, we are excited to announce 65 grants under the Building Community portfolio, totalling $7.4 million over three years.

From raising up Latino voices in Oregon’s North Coast region to supporting an inclusive arts community among people with disabilities in Portland, the quality and breadth of work underway across Oregon that supports an equitable state for all impressed us.

In many respects, this was a very competitive pool of applications. Applicants that were advanced past the initial letter of inquiry phase were able to show a link between their strategic goals and the goals of this funding opportunity.

Although the full slate of grantees — viewable here — includes a broad range of projects, several themes did emerge.

Many grantees responded to Meyer’s interest in addressing systems change. Some organizations — including the American Civil Liberties Union, Oregon Justice Resource Center, Partnership for Safety and Justice, Red Lodge Transition Services and Central City Concern’s Flip the Script Project — are trying to address inequities in the criminal justice system, for example.

In other cases, the work was less about a specific issue area and more about understanding interconnectedness with others within a system to become more effective advocates. A number of grantees — including  Oregon Center for Public Policy, Rural Organizing Project, State Voices, Unite Oregon and Western States Center — promote equity and fundamental change by addressing a range of issues and employing a variety of tactics.

Recognizing that solutions to complex social issues cannot be created and carried out without community input and participation, a number of grantees are intentional about applying what they learn from those they serve. Groups such as The Next Door, Inc. in Hood River and the Health Care Coalition of Southern Oregon in Medford utilize innovative approaches to addressing health equity by relying on the lived experience and wisdom of community members.

By directly involving people with disabilities in program design and implementation, groups such as Families and Community Together, PHAME Academy and On-the-Move Community Integration are creating different paradigms that challenge notions of equity and inclusion. To amplify the voices of low-income families, grantees such as Multnomah County and Central City Concern/TANF Alliance are creating new programs aimed at achieving equitable outcomes while also influencing the way in which government services are delivered and received.

What these and all Meyer’s grantees and applicants show us is that the nonprofit sector is rich in solutions and passion and not shying away from addressing vital needs. Sincere thanks to all the time and intent put forward by applicants to the Building Community portfolio.

In an effort to continue to meet those needs, we are excited to jump back into grantmaking with two new opportunities designed to bolster the strength of the nonprofit sector through leadership development and support for capacity builders across all our portfolio areas. Both opportunities are open until December 7.

In the aftermath of this recent election, we are as committed as ever to promoting equitable outcomes for all Oregonians. Our work continues.

— Dahnesh

It’s a wrap!

Eight months after Meyer launched new grant programs in April, the first official funding round of the Healthy Environment portfolio is complete. We know that many of you are curious about how it all played out — and not just in the Healthy Environment portfolio but in the other new portfolios as well. To read more about that, please check out Candy Solovjov’s blog.

Before I share some reflections on the Healthy Environment portfolio grants batch, I need to acknowledge that I started drafting this weeks ago and am struggling to situate it in the aftermath of the election. It’s impossible for me to not acknowledge that the results have fanned the flames of racial bias, white privilege, sexism, misogyny and other forms of oppression that are deeply entrenched in our nation’s dominant culture. It’s also impossible to ignore that this same extractivist mindset not only systematically harms certain groups of people more than others, but it also drives the depletion of nature and degradation of environmental health.

When I consider where Meyer and its equity mission sit within this context in Oregon, I see one of our roles as speaking up for the values of inclusion and opportunity for all. It’s also our responsibility to support and amplify the efforts that aim to uproot all types of oppression and extractivism, and particularly where these intersect, that operate in communities across Oregon. We must support efforts to unify our communities. This takes long-term commitment and vigilance.

Today, more than ever, there is a troubling shadow over the outlook for progress on environmental protection and conservation. Clean energy policies and climate agreements may be repealed or defunded. We may see rollbacks on clean air and water protections as well as efforts to undermine the progress we have made on public lands management and protection efforts. Progress toward self-governance by Oregon tribes associated with protecting first foods and natural resources may be at risk. Organizations that have made steady progress blocking the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure in the Pacific Northwest and fossil fuel transport by rail may soon be facing new expansion proposals.

Despite this, Oregon groups will still forge ahead on climate justice and clean energy solutions at the state and local levels as well as conservation and protection of environmental health. Diverse interests will continue to gather at collaborative tables to tackle a range of ecosystem restoration and management challenges. We and the organizations we have the privilege of supporting understand that the big issues we are tackling are not won or lost during a presidential or congressional term. We take the long view, and we are resolved to move forward.

A key intention behind Meyer’s new Healthy Environment portfolio is to better connect the foundation’s support of a healthy environment with its equity mission. The portfolio’s vision, goals and strategies, which were informed by the hundreds of individuals who participated in the survey and listening sessions we did in 2015, reflect this intention. However, when we launched our new programs last spring we didn’t know how nonprofits would respond or what sorts of proposals we would get.

So what did happen?

First of all, we received a mountain of requests — 160 Healthy Environment inquiry applications requesting over $21.7 million — that aimed to advance the portfolio’s goals. After the inquiry stage, 56 applications moved forward, and we ultimately funded 47.

Based on what you submitted, we can see that you heard us. We said that we wanted to bolster work that simultaneously supports healthy natural systems and the health and vitality of all of Oregon’s diverse communities. Your proposals reflected this.

What did we fund?

If I were to try to summarize what characterizes the work that was most successful in securing funding, I would call it “change work.” As Doug Stamm wrote in his announcement of the new funding approach, “inequity is a pernicious obstacle to the flourishing and equitable state Oregonians deserve.” This means that the status quo isn’t working, so we must direct our energy and our resources toward change — changing hearts and minds, changing how we operate, changing institutions and changing systems. And we must double down on this work now more than ever.

Breaking it down further we saw some clusters of change-focused work that acknowledge this context.

We are pleased to make so many grants that align with the portfolio’s goals for environmental justice and diverse environmental movement goals, both of which sit at the center of the portfolio’s vision. Although there are a relatively small number of organizations in Oregon that define their work as being focused on environmental justice, we made a number of grants that support place-based work to advance environmental justice in both rural and urban communities as well as in state policy. These include efforts that are led by and designed for the benefit of communities of color and other populations experiencing disparities. They are tackling issues such as climate justice, forest workers rights, air toxics reduction and more. In addition, we made several grants to support planning for the integration of environmental priorities into the work of organizations whose missions focus on social justice.

The largest number of applicants requested support for work to advance the portfolio’s triple bottom line goal. We wanted a broad entry point for many organizations doing work for a healthy environment in communities across Oregon, and this goal helps create this doorway. However, we also noted that the highest percentage of applications that were declined fell under this goal area because many projects did not demonstrate a strong connection to our priorities. The most successful applications demonstrated clear environmental, social and economic impact — not based on their organization’s mission or values but based on the outcomes of the proposed work to be funded. Proposals that demonstrated measurable impact in all three areas were most successful.

The first round of portfolio grants also support a range of policy and systems change efforts focusing on water, air and land conservation at the local and state levels. Applicants are using a number of proven approaches — grassroots organizing, coalition building, strategic communications and participating in key policy making committees — to advance policy and systems change for healthy environment improvements. There are examples of organizations trying to take advantage of timely opportunities or a unique context for change and others who are doing the time-consuming, but oh-so-necessary, work of ensuring that newly adopted policy is actually implemented.

To advance change, we must innovate and try new ideas. There are a number of grants that are testing new approaches or scaling up new programs that deliver on the goals of the Healthy Environment portfolio.

We were not surprised to receive a number of applications that requested support for diversity, equity and inclusion training and planning. The environmental field lags behind in equity as compared with many other fields in the nonprofit sector, and there is a clear need for this foundational work to get started. 

These are a few of our initial reflections about this first round of grants and the kind of work the new Healthy Environment portfolio was designed to support. We hope that you will check out Meyer’s awards database to gain more insights as you consider future applications. We know that we will learn more as we work with this first set of grantees and support new ones in the future. We welcome your reflections, ideas and questions.

— Jill