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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
We are thrilled to share the Housing Opportunities portfolio’s grant awards for the 2016 funding round. All 39 awards support our vision for every Oregonian to have a decent, safe, and affordable place to call home. And all align well with our equity mission, either by working to reduce the disparities faced by marginalized people, supporting vulnerable populations or strengthening the many dedicated organizations working to bring stable housing to every Oregon community.
Beyond those common elements, we see the batch of awards as extremely diverse. It contains both solid and proven approaches and new, innovative efforts to increase stability and success for residents and address affordable housing needs. Some awards centered on bold approaches and others much more subtle.
Before looking at the grantees, we’ll explore a few notable themes evident in this batch of awards:
Equity is most prevalent in the populations served
The projects in the Housing Opportunities batch are all aimed to reach people living on lower-incomes. Our requirement was generally 60 percent area median income, but many projects reached populations at much lower-incomes, from zero to 40 percent area median income. The capital projects reached a variety of vulnerable populations and those most affected by the housing crisis: seniors, people with severe physical, developmental or behavioral disabilities, foster youth, pregnant and parenting youth, formerly incarcerated people, veterans and people of color. Other projects are designed to serve formerly homeless families and individuals, survivors of sexual assault and Latino seniors.
This funding batch also reaches several culturally specific organizations and some other culturally responsive organizations serving predominantly communities of color.
Equity also showed up in how projects are carried out.
All capital projects reflected a commitment to use minority-owned, women-owned and emerging small business contractors. (See more in our blog, Focus on Contracting). And where projects needed help to secure minority contracting, technical assistance support was awarded. Similar technical assistance was awarded for some projects that included equity components or for which we saw that equity training would be an important step for the organization.
Some goal areas reflected better geographic diversity of applicants than others
Most of our larger capital projects are concentrated in the seven largest municipalities in the state, and only one reaches outside of the I-5 corridor. Smaller and more rural communities were better reflected in our Goal 2 and Goal 3 areas. We were less successful in reaching some more remote parts of the state, including eastern Oregon, Tribal reservations and many parts of the coast. In the coming months, we will investigate methods to better reach more rural and tribal communities.
We saw several common themes emerge across the thirty-nine awards:
Awards cover a wide range of the housing stock continuum. From those exiting homelessness into supportive housing, rental housing, manufactured housing and single family homeownership options.
The awards reflected energy and creativity around finding and retaining housing in a tight market. Several models of housing are reflected in this batch, such as house sharing, tiny houses, accessory dwelling units and intergenerational housing.
Projects often straddle systems of care. Housing is often paired with other significant systems of care, including child welfare, foster care, domestic violence, mental and physical health, or civil and criminal justice.
Leverage opportunities are prevalent. Many projects directly leverage large public investments, which often come from restricted funding sources (e.g., tax increment financing that must be spent on capital in a certain neighborhood region) and philanthropy can play a role in helping to fund the staffing and support services needed to deploy such funds.
Several projects center on evaluation and data. These are often structured as pilot programs, prototypes or demonstration projects that are designed to give tracking and evaluation data to support future funding from public sources or other private sources.
Grants went to both new and experienced organizations. Nearly a quarter of the awards — 23 percent — were made to organizations that had never before received Meyer funding. This batch also includes our first award to a for-profit housing developer. Pacific Crest Affordable Housing LLC, based in Bend, is contributing much needed affordable housing development capacity in central Oregon.
The influence of the Affordable Housing Initiative (AHI) is clear in this batch. AHI’s strategies include funding advocacy, access to private market units, broader systems alignment and larger-scale preservation work through targeted investments. Those efforts continue parallel to this funding opportunity. Several projects here either deepen, further or complement the work of initial investment made in AHI. We expect to see the continued interplay of AHI and the statewide housing work.
Summary of awards
The 39 awards were spread across the three overarching goals of the Housing Opportunities portfolio:
Goal 1: Preserve and increase the number of affordable housing rental units
We anticipated that this goal would receive the largest demand for grant dollars and it did. Of the nine awards made, three are for preservation of existing affordable housing units, many with federal rental subsidies attached (Human Solutions, Caritas Community Housing Corporation, Catholic Community Services Foundation). Collectively, these projects will result in a total of 123 units of preserved affordable housing stock.
Goal 2: Support the stability and success of affordable housing residents
This pool of awards reflects a wide variety of approaches to accomplish the goal of increasing resident stability and success:
Four awards are aimed at removing a barrier to housing and/or employment or building up assets that can lead to housing and/or advancement: Oregon Law Center, Housing Works, ASSIST and Casa de Belen;
Goal 3: Strengthen the housing sector by building the capacity and long-term health of housing organizations
Two awards under this goal have equity prominent in the project design. California Coalition of Rural Housing’s will build diversity in rural housing organizations with an internship program and Community Partners for Affordable Housing seeks consulting to build a resident advisory committee for its properties. Other awards contain equity components, such as diversity, equity and inclusion training for staff and board.
For an overview of all 151 awards Meyer made this month, please see this blog by our Program Director, Candy Solovjovs.
Final words of gratitude
In the end, we are very pleased with how this group of awards aligns with Meyer’s equity mission and vision of systems change. Each grant stands well on its own, with special characteristics and different approaches to advance our goal areas. And together, they complement and accentuate each other, providing many opportunities for us to see leverage, innovation and learning play out. We appreciate the feedback you’ve given so far and look forward to hearing from all applicants in Meyer’s upcoming survey. We can wait to see how the work of our partners will contribute to an equitable and flourishing Oregon.
In the most recent round of grants, the application for Housing Opportunities portfolio funding posed a new question to applicants seeking capital support: What is your goal on this project for Minority-Owned, Women-Owned or Emerging Small Business participation? We have asked the question before but not consistently or as part of an application.
The responses were surprising.
Meyer has not set any particular bar for equity in contracting. That’s partly because we understand that contracting opportunities may not look the same in Grants Pass as they do in Gearhart or Gresham. But we do ask all capital applicants to consider their contracting policies and set a project target.
The nine capital projects funded in this latest batch all reflect a commitment to use minority-owned, women-owned or emerging small businesses for between 10 percent and 50 percent of their contract dollars. And where a project needed help in navigating minority-owned, women-owned or emerging small business contracting, Meyer added technical assistance support from expert consultants, Metropolitan Contractor Improvement Partnership (MCIP).
We were especially pleased to see MCIP receive an investment from the Building Community portfolio to expand its work. This will involve analyzing barriers to hiring minority contractors; providing training to industry partners; identifying policy improvements to ensure fairness in procurement; increasing the size and visibility of minority-owned, women-owned or emerging small businesses; and providing more one-on-one mentoring and capacity building services to these firms.
Meyer is also considering sponsoring training or learning groups focused on how to start or enhance minority-owned, women-owned or emerging small business contracting in nonprofits, with a focus on housing developers. What do you think? Would you be interested in attending such a training? If so, please enter your information in this google form.
For additional information on minority-owned, women-owned or emerging small business contracting for your organization, check out these resources:
Metro’s Annual Minority-Owned, Women-Owned and Emerging Small Business Report (includes a list of best practices)
Housing issues in rural Oregon have always been central to Meyer’s Affordable Housing Initiative. Both in the initial AHI launched in 2007 and in the second phase (underway since 2013), Meyer has responded to emphatic and persuasive testimony from stakeholders around the state that rural Oregon has distinct and urgent needs around affordable housing.
In particular, our trustees were moved by the housing needs of Oregonians living in manufactured housing,* both because of their vulnerability to dislocation and because of the huge numbers of Oregonians living in older, substandard homes with few resources to address housing issues impacting their health, utility bills and basic housing stability.
Since 2007, Meyer has supported a network of amazing partners focused on these issues, around two broad categories: preventing displacement by helping residents form cooperatives to buy their own parks and identifying ways to leverage a variety of resources to improve the condition of manufactured homes around the state.
Resident-owned cooperatives
Across Oregon, rising land values are putting some manufactured home parks in the cross hairs of redevelopment. Residents of investor-owned parks are vulnerable to rents rising beyond their means, even as some owners may not be keeping up with basic infrastructure repairs and other ownership responsibilities.
Oregon has become a nationally recognized leader in the resident-owned cooperative movement, largely thanks to the pioneering work of CASA of Oregon, based in Sherwood. Owners of manufactured homes in a typical privately owned park are vulnerable to losing their homes and even potentially slipping into homelessness if the owner decides to close the park or increase space rents beyond what residents can afford.
It might appear that the homeowners could simply move their homes, but in many cases that’s not a real possibility. It may cost as much as $10,000 to move and install a home in a new location — and only if one is available (and often parks won’t accept an older home even if the owner can afford to move it). It’s not surprising that homeowners often will walk away from a home if they can’t afford to move or can’t find a park that will accept it.
More than a decade ago, CASA set about developing an alternative that provides long-term stability and affordability, helping the residents of a park form a cooperative to pool resources and get help to buy their park, make necessary improvements and control costs going forward. It’s complex, difficult work and doesn’t work for every park, but when it does come together, it provides more than housing stability — it preserves often irreplaceable communities where people have lived for many years.
With support from Meyer, Network for Oregon Affordable Housing, the state of Oregon and other partners, CASA has assisted the formation of nine manufactured home co-ops around the state, covering nearly 600 mostly low-income households.
CASA has also been instrumental in important policy initiatives at the state level to help protect the interests of park residents, including legislation requiring notification one year before a park closure, relocation assistance to residents of parks being closed and even right-of-first-refusal allowing residents an opportunity to buy their park before any sale.
Another approach to helping maintain housing stability and affordability in manufactured home parks is nonprofit ownership. On this front, St. Vincent De Paul of Lane County and NeighborWorks Umpqua in Douglas County have stepped in to purchase and manage parks in their communities to help improve the physical infrastructure, stabilize rents and address other issues in parks, often after years of neglect by prior owners.
Addressing substandard manufactured housing
Although there is a definite stigma attached to manufactured homes, advances in manufacturing and federal codes regulating their production have led to dramatic improvements in the quality, durability and energy efficiency of manufactured homes.
Unfortunately, many Oregonians are living in homes built before those changes and have no choice but to tolerate leaking roofs, drafty windows and, in some cases, structural, plumbing or electrical issues that are truly unsafe. When homeowners struggle to manage the upkeep of their aging homes, they may turn to nonprofits such as NeighborWorks Umpqua, St. Vincent De Paul of Lane County and sometimes local Habitat for Humanity chapters to help with basic repairs or even replacement of older homes.
Cost-effective replacement of homes has long been a key priority for advocates working with owners of older homes. Meyer supported an effort led by NeighborWorks Umpqua on the southern Oregon coast to pilot home replacements leveraging energy savings. And under the AHI, Meyer also seeded a research project including NeighborWorks Umpqua, St. Vincent De Paul of Lane County, CASA and Network for Oregon Affordable Housing to better understand challenges and opportunities around replacement.
The challenges are formidable. A clear path to replacing older, seriously substandard homes has been obstructed by some foreseeable issues (the high total cost of replacement and a lack of dedicated subsidies for this purpose) and some less obvious ones (owners’ attachment to their homes and strong resistance to taking on debt). But there is hope on the horizon. The Rural Development branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is exploring ways to open its existing housing programs to manufactured home buyers and owners, and Energy Trust of Oregon is leading an effort to leverage the energy savings from replacing older homes, which can have shockingly high utility costs, with new, energy-efficient homes. HUD’s Oregon office has been actively engaged in manufactured home efforts around the state, and Oregon Housing and Community Services remains a committed and vitally important partner. We are happy to continue to engage with these partners and believe that solutions will be found soon that will retire many of the worst homes around the state.
In the meantime, we have continued to explore cost-effective repairs of older manufactured homes, drawing on the grants described above and on a recent Meyer-commissioned study of the work of Habitat for Humanity of Benton County on repairing manufactured homes under its Home Repair Initiative. Repairing manufactured homes raises its own thicket of issues, but we’ve become convinced it’s an important tool in the affordable housing toolbox.
Although putting several thousand dollars into an older structure that probably has negative value as a financial asset may not look like a good investment, it makes sense to see this through the lens of homelessness prevention. Talking with partners around the state convinced us that repair can be a cost-effective way to help people remain in housing they can afford and prevent a slide into a much worse situation. To that end, we recently launched a new Request for Proposals for grants to support repair programs (available here — the application deadline is 5 p.m. December 5).
Equity in the manufactured home context
Not all park residents are especially low-income, but there is a strong equity dimension to this work, especially in rural parts of the state where parks may represent a large share of the existing housing affordable to very low-income people. Even if Oregon manufactured home park residents in general may be less diverse in terms of race and ethnicity than the state as a whole (NeighborWorks Umpqua and Portland State University are currently surveying park residents around the state, which will give us a clearer sense of these demographics), there are opportunities to target Meyer’s support to communities that need it most, in line with Meyer’s commitment to equity as a core value. We will continue to foreground equity in our work with partners on these issues.
Next up
Two other projects recently supported by Meyer deserve mention here: Innovative Housing Inc. (IHI), a Portland-based nonprofit, received a pre-development grant under our “Innovation in Affordable Housing Design, Finance and Construction” RFP early this year as part of our efforts to support pilots around lowering the cost of affordable housing development. IHI’s proposed innovation is really a variation on the familiar manufactured home park: in their case, brand-new homes in a community developed and managed by Innovative Housing Inc. as affordable rental housing. We look forward to seeing what lessons can be drawn from the effort to build a new park intentionally as permanently affordable housing.
And just this fall, Network for Oregon Affordable Housing was awarded a two-year Meyer grant to support a statewide steering group including all the 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.
Resources
What do we mean by "manufactured housing?”
Factory-built homes, commonly referred to as "mobile homes" in the past. (Corporation for Enterprise Development has a great fact sheet here).
Manufactured homes represent an important part of non-subsidized or "naturally occurring" affordable housing in Oregon, with over 65,000 homes spread across the state, both in the state’s 1,300 manufactured home parks and on privately owned land.
We have been building toward this moment at Meyer Memorial Trust for more than two years: the first grants from our issue-focused, equity-based portfolios. Today we announce 151 grant awards totalling $17.3 million made under our spring 2016 funding opportunity through our Building Community, Healthy Environment and Housing Opportunities portfolios. These grants are an important milestone in our transformative, organizational evolution. Coming at this particular moment in history, when communities that have experienced disparities face ever greater threats, the work and organizations these awards support are tangible investments toward the equitable Oregon we envision.
Making decisions about where to direct our limited funding was no easy task, especially considering the robust response to our funding call. We received 675 applications requesting $95 million. The partners and work we are supporting are impressive, inspiring and dedicated to advancing equity for and inclusion of Oregonians who experience disparities because of race, ethnicity, income, gender, sexual orientation, disability or other oppressions.
How we got here
Over the past two years, we have sharpened our focus because we have learned from our nonprofit partners, expert staff, philanthropic peers and leaders in the state that housing, education, the environment and building community are the four key areas where the biggest barriers to equity exist. The data were unequivocal: Deep disparities and inequities are barriers to our vision of a flourishing and equitable Oregon and what communities across our state say are important Oregon values. We knew that to have the greatest impact in Oregon, we must work to close gaps created by these inequities.
We knew we couldn’t do this in isolation, and so we set out to listen.
We listened to leaders in marginalized communities, which taught us more about their visions and priorities, such as having seats at the tables where local and state policies are set, addressing poor housing conditions for tribal members, and ensuring access to clean air and water. We learned that rural and urban communities share similar concerns about climate change, want Oregon to be welcoming and safe for immigrants, need more affordable housing, and want inclusive schools, health care and other systems that support diverse Oregonians in reaching their full potential.
We surveyed nearly 2,000 nonprofit leaders, who informed us of the importance of Meyer’s flexible funding for changing policies and systems, building organizational capacity, supporting general operations and launching innovations. And we listened to peer funders, government leaders, academics and private sector experts to learn about their ideas for the role of philanthropy as partners in building our shared Oregon future.
What we learned helped transform Meyer as an organization, and it naturally led us to redesign our grantmaking. We know that inequity is experienced throughout our communities every day and in many ways, and it is a pernicious obstacle to the flourishing and equitable state Oregonians deserve.
The grants we announce today are investments in removing barriers and advancing equity through policy and systems changes, coalition building, on-the-ground programming, strengthening organizational capacity and, in very specific situations, building capital assets.
Four Focused Priorities
Meyer has sharply focused on areas where inequity gaps are the largest.
The 65 grants made through our Building Community portfolio aim to improve conditions for communities of color, Oregonians living on low incomes and other marginalized populations. These grants will work to accomplish that. They will strengthen leaders, networks and organizations that break down barriers and build the power of Oregon’s diverse communities. They will increase civic engagement. And they will build inclusive communities through arts and cultures.
Awards include capacity-building grants to organizations such as Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, Artists Repertory Theatre and Rural Organizing Project. They also include grants that support the operations of Basic Rights Oregon, Miracles Theatre and the Black United Fund of Oregon. And lastly, they include project-support grants to On-the-Move Community Integration, Central City Concern, Multnomah County and CASA of Oregon.
Learn more about these and all of our Building Community awards here.
Our 47 Healthy Environment portfolio investments are grounded in our belief that a flourishing Oregon depends on healthy ecosystems and clean water and air for all. Grant awards prioritize efforts to protect and improve the health of the environment while addressing underlying disparities that affect communities of color, people living in low-income neighborhoods and agriculture and forest workers.
Grants will support organizations advancing environmental justice, including Beyond Toxics, Voz Workers’ Rights Education Project, Northwest Forest Worker Center and OPAL. Many awards advance work to build an inclusive and diverse environmental movement, such as grants to the Center for Diversity and the Environment, Climate Solutions, Nature Conservancy and Vocoform. And grants to further triple-bottom-line work and support healthy natural systems were awarded to a range of organizations, from Lomakatsi Restoration Project to Oregon Environmental Council to Our Children’s Trust.
More information about these and all of our Healthy Environment awards can be found here.
The 39 awards 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 under-resourced, low-income communities, including communities of color, underserved rural communities and other marginalized populations.
Grants made in this round complement our advocacy and other investments made through our Affordable Housing Initiative, and they include capital investments to preserve and expand affordable rental housing.
Grants to organizations such as Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives, Caritas Community Housing Corporation, Bridge Meadow, Luke-Dorf and Neighborhood House will result in more affordable homes for people living on low incomes, including people who have been displaced by gentrification, people in rural Rogue River communities, foster children, seniors, veterans and people living with mental illness. Funds to support the success of residents — including low-income people at risk of displacement, youths aging out of foster care, low-income people with criminal records, and Latino seniors — were awarded to organizations such as the Native American Youth and Family Center, El Programa Hispano Catolico, Oregon Law Center and Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation. Awards also strengthen the housing sector, including grants to Community Partners for Affordable Housing, Fair Housing Council of Oregon, Farmworker Housing Development Corporation and SquareOne Villages, among others.
Read more about these and other Housing Opportunities awards here.
We are finalizing the framework for our Equitable Education portfolio now and will announce details in early 2017. Meyer plans to emphasize strategies that improve student achievement and close gaps in educational opportunities and outcomes in Oregon, specifically focusing on underserved communities.
Read more about our emerging vision for Equitable Education here.
Bound by common themes
Recurrent priorities surfaced throughout the many conversations we had with Oregon’s nonprofit, public and philanthropic leaders in the course of our redesign outreach and planning. You may notice several of those themes threading across our portfolio awards.
Equity and inclusion are crucial: Investments directly impact issues of race, class, sexual orientation, disability and other forms of oppression and inequity. Community leadership, community voices and meaningful community partnerships are reflected in funded projects. And staying true to our intention to support organizations that are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion but who may be early on in their journey, a number of grants support nonprofits to develop their own capacity for diversity, equity and inclusion, both internally and externally.
Policy and systems change work is vital: We heard loud and clear throughout our community outreach and planning that policy and systems change investments — and Meyer’s willingness to support bold efforts to advance equity — should be elevated. This is perhaps one of the most visible shifts in our funding. Over the past year, Meyer has deepened our understanding of how philanthropy can support policy and advocacy work and expanded investments in advocacy, policy and systems change.
Collaborations and coalitions build strength: We also heard from our nonprofit partners about the important role Meyer can play in supporting and encouraging groups to align their efforts — and that you wanted this highlighted in our funding. To that end, we created a distinct door for collaborations to apply for funds, and we encouraged applications from groups working statewide in partnership with local partners and communities. Among our awards are many grants that involve various forms of collaboration and partnerships.
Innovation fosters creative solutions: Meyer is known for our interest in supporting innovation, and we heard from our partners that this support is highly valued. We looked for programs that are creative and have new models or applications of proven strategies to reach desired outcomes.
Impact matters: Meyer staff worked with applicants to understand the potential for impact. We will continue to work to better identify outcomes of our investments. We are also restructuring how we track, assess and report the impact of our grants.
Building capacity and supporting operations are essential: We believe that investing in organizations is crucial to advancing equity. Almost half of the grants awarded in 2016 are for capacity building or general operating support.
Isolation carries risk: One of the risks in our new portfolio model is the potential to create artificial silos, despite the many ways that housing, environment, education and community intersect. We are pleased to fund a number of proposals from organizations working in the heart of these intersections, and our staff will partner internally to stay engaged with and learn from these investments.
Refining and learning continues
As mentioned earlier, we were struck by the large volume of requests for these initial funding opportunities. We recognize that many were strong, compelling proposals for work that promised to make life better in Oregon in a variety of ways. It was difficult to say to those organizations, “No, we simply can’t fund your efforts this round.”
We also received proposals that were an excellent match with our goals but were not quite ready in terms of what we look for in a strong request. Other proposals reflected good work, but the applicant organization's understanding of and commitment to advancing equity within its organization and community were not clear. And in some cases, we received proposals that would have been considered strong under our former grant programs but were not a good match with our focused funding goals.
In the end, we could not be more impressed with the ideas and opportunities our nonprofit partners put forward to advance equity in Oregon. Thank you! And thanks to all of the applicants who took the time to give us thoughtful, candid and constructive feedback on our new process through our recent survey. Your perspective and experiences are so important to us and help us learn what we need to fine-tune our process to be a better funding partner when we release our 2017 funding opportunities next spring.
At every step in our awards decisions, our vision, mission, values and goals served as our North Star. As we implemented our redesign, we held close the core values of our founder, Fred G. Meyer: staying relevant as times change, meeting the needs of our community, being innovative and entrepreneurial, and demonstrating boldness and courage in calculated risk-taking
We believe Mr. Meyer would be proud of our new approach and of these awards for work that seek to bring us all closer to a flourishing and equitable Oregon.
You can stay up-to-date with future funding opportunities from Meyer when you subscribe to our e-newsletter here.
September always brings change: weather shifts from hot to cool, busy autumn mornings replace leisurely summer afternoons, days grow incrementally shorter. Here at Meyer Memorial Trust, in a year filled with changes, the month offers a moment to reflect on where we have been and on where we are heading.
Six months ago, we suspended our responsive grantmaking programs to refocus what we do to make a greater impact. We accepted our last batch of grant applications then, over 300 requests in all. The spring and summer have been extremely busy and productive. Since April, we have done due diligence on the requests, awarding 188 grants and loans, totaling nearly $16 million, to nonprofits in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Last year, Meyer awarded more grants than ever before — 515 grants and loans just over $46 million; we are again on track to make the largest payout in the foundation’s history.
But we haven’t only been making grants this year. While we wound down our Responsive and Grassroots grants programs and worked through our pipeline of applications, we began outreach in several of our four priority focus areas — housing, education, the environment, and supporting a vibrant nonprofit sector. More than 1,000 nonprofit leaders from across the state have taken part in surveys, interviews and listening sessions aimed at helping us shape the strategy of our new programs. We’re grateful for the input and guidance. It is helping us get closer to our goal of new programs that highlight the best of responsive grantmaking and initiative-based funding, all in the pursuit of achieving greater impact.
It’s also allowed us to learn more about the equity work being done in the community so that we can support it and also use our leadership to expand its impact.
As summer ends, Meyer continues to make awards focused on affordable housing under our Affordable Housing Initiative, to support watershed restoration efforts under the Willamette River Initiative and to underpin education work through the Chalkboard Project. And those initiatives have been busy working on special projects in support of their fields — look for the release of a cost efficiencies report on October 1st that helps identify opportunities to reduce the costs of developing quality affordable housing in Oregon and the first Willamette River report card, set for release later in October.
And we continue to listen to our stakeholders on housing, the environment and the resilient social sector portfolios. Groundwork for our education portfolio has begun but will get underway in earnest in the coming weeks.
We are on track to announce Meyer’s overarching framework for our new programs in December. It will be a high-level outline of our general funding strategies and direction. Look for additional information, including details, application criteria and timelines to be announced early in the new year. We anticipate opening the first opportunity to apply for grants under our new programs late in the first quarter of 2016. Our education portfolio may roll out a bit later due to the sequencing of the work.
While Meyer restructured its grantmaking last year, it wound down its two main grant programs. But the work of the Affordable Housing Initiative (AHI) continued at full steam — and it was a very busy year of work for the AHI team, which offered six Requests for Proposals (RFPs), processed 108 applications and approved 61 grants, totaling $5.42 million. In this article, we’ll share an overview of the work of the Affordable Housing Initiative over the last year.
The AHI is structured around three broad goals: to strengthen the foundation, foster innovation and secure the future, and uses multiple strategies to reach those goals.
Most AHI strategies were funded over two years. In the coming year, we do not expect AHI to issue any additional requests for proposals. However, Meyer will be releasing information soon about its new funding opportunities, which will include some affordable housing work under the broader Housing Opportunities portfolio.
STRENGTHENING THE FOUNDATION
Under this goal, we aim to preserve federally rent-subsidized stock at risk of being lost and maintain manufactured housing as a viable housing stock for many rural communities around the state. We funded four specific strategies, described below.
Sustaining Portfolios Strategy. Meyer Memorial Trust invited applications from organizations for flexible funds and technical assistance to support the development and implementation of property-specific portfolio preservation plans to help ensure the long-term sustainability of Oregon’s existing affordable housing. We received thirteen proposals; nine were ultimately funded. Each organization was awarded $150,000.
Capacity Building Technical AssistanceStrategy. Meyer received seven applications from affordable housing organizations for support with capacity building and technical assistance to strengthen rent-restricted affordable housing portfolios. This opportunity was targeted at culturally-specific organizations and organizations that have a portfolio that serves at least 50 percent under-resourced rural communities and/or communities of color.
Each organization was awarded $50,000 (except where noted):
Preservation Strategy. Meyer made one grant to the Network for Oregon Affordable Housing to further the Oregon Housing Preservation Project, a program to preserve expiring contracts for federal rent subsidies at affordable housing properties throughout the state.
Total Amount Awarded: $300,000 (over two years)
Rural Manufactured Housing Strategy. This grant opportunity was made to Community and Shelter Assistance Corporation to support the conversion of manufactured home communities into resident-owned cooperatives statewide.
Total Amount Awarded: $220,000 (over two years)
FOSTERING INNOVATION
Under this goal, Meyer strives to catalyze innovative strategies to increase availability of affordable housing and support residents’ stability and success. This year, Meyer funded three strategies under this goal.
Innovations in Affordable Housing Design, Finance and Construction Strategy. Meyer convened a panel of experts to dive deep into the cost drivers of affordable housing development. After publishing a report of the findings, we invited proposals that would test new cost-efficient approaches to providing more affordable housing in Oregon. Of the seventeen competitive proposals received, Meyer funded a total of five.
Innovative Housing - $149,138 (Multnomah County): To create a new rental housing community in East Multnomah County comprised of high-quality and energy-efficient new manufactured homes.
Northwest Housing Alternatives - $70,385 (Clackamas, Lane, Washington and Umatilla counties): To compare and evaluate strategies for lowering the cost of new rental housing construction on small-scale projects, with an emphasis on design concepts and financing strategies for rural and suburban infill.
REACH Community Development - $150,000 (Washington County): To pilot building larger, more cost-effective affordable housing projects by combining two kinds of federal housing tax credits, and by adopting design and construction strategies focused on reducing costs.
SquareOne Villages - $148,200 (Lane County): To pilot an improved version of the tiny house village model in a small community with fewer local resources, and to promote very basic, extremely low-cost housing through the development of a toolbox and training kit focused on replicating this approach in other Oregon communities.
Transition Projects, Inc. - $150,000 (Multnomah and Clatsop counties): To pilot a flexible, cost-efficient modular approach to housing development in partnership with Housing Development Center, Holst Architecture, and MODS PDX, a Portland-based manufacturer of modular housing. A second pilot is planned for the Oregon coast led by Northwest Oregon Housing Authority.
Total Amount Awarded: $667,723 (over one year)
Private Market Strategy. The Private Market RFP sought proposals to increase access by low-income renters to quality private market housing units in communities of their choice. Of the 17 proposals received, Meyer funded seven projects over a period of one to two years.
ACCESS - $80,500 (Jackson County): To develop a pilot project to use flexible rent assistance and a landlord risk mitigation fund to increase access for Jackson County families leaving residential addictions treatment with open Child Protective Services cases.
Community Action Program of East Central Oregon - $50,000 (Umatilla, Morrow, Gilliam and Wheeler counties): To develop a Housing Navigator position and setup a landlord risk mitigation fund for low-income Latino families in Umatilla, Morrow, Gilliam and Wheeler counties.
JOIN - $84,990 (Multnomah County): To co-fund, along with the Portland Housing Bureau, development of a homeless systems landlord retention and recruitment toolkit and training program for service providers.
Multifamily NW - $149,850 (Statewide): To fund the Housing Choice Educational Partnership to develop educational material and a training toolkit about fair housing laws.
Northwest Housing Alternatives - $149,510 (Clackamas County): For a pilot project aimed at increasing low-income renters' housing access in Clackamas County by using flexible funding tools to encourage private landlords to relax screening criteria.
Northwest Oregon Housing Authority - $80,000 (Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook counties): To fund a collaborative to develop a security deposit loan pilot project aimed at providing case management for private market renters in rural Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook counties.
Northwest Pilot Project - $130,000 (Multnomah County): For a pilot project to prevent the displacement of low-income residents from Inner Portland neighborhoods, using permanent rent assistance (S8) to help seniors [EH6] of color remain in their communities.
Total Amount Awarded: $650,000 (over two years)
Systems Alignment Strategy. Meyer invited proposals from collaboratives proposing to better align affordable housing with services that contribute to residents’ stability and success. We received 21 excellent projects looking to align housing with several different systems and funded nine projects over one to two years.
ACCESS - $24,000 (Jackson County): For piloting and documenting close collaboration between housing and other services in Southern Oregon to better meet the needs of families involved with child welfare and TANF programs.
Catholic Community Services of the Mid Willamette - $75,000 (Marion County): For the Fostering Hope Initiative, which will develop a 'Pay for Success' (PFS) system in Marion County focused on diverting children from the foster care system through strong coordination between affordable housing, education, health and other social service systems.
Columbia Gorge Health Council - $128,500 (Hood River and Wasco counties): For the Bridges to Health - Housing Pathways project, which works to better link housing and services in the Columbia Gorge through a 'Pathways' model basing payments on the achievement of specific pre-defined housing related outcomes.
Community Action Partnership of Oregon - $110,162 (Statewide, with a focus on Jackson, Klamath and Lake counties): For piloting and documenting close collaboration between housing and other services in Southern Oregon to better meet the needs of families involved with child welfare and TANF programs.
Enterprise Community Partners - $150,000 (Portland Metro): For 'Innovation through Flexible Spending Benefits,' a pilot program that uses flexible spending for housing-related expenses as a cost-effective strategy to support better
Klamath-Lake Community Action Services - $50,000 (Klamath and Lake counties): For piloting and documenting close collaboration between housing and other services in Southern Oregon to better meet the needs of families involved with child welfare and TANF programs.
REACH Community Development - $150,000 (Multnomah County): For the 'Housing with Services Pilot Project,' supporting a robust network of services to residents of affordable housing properties in Portland.
United Way of Lane County - $75,000 (Lane County): For the integration of early learning and affordable housing services in Lane County, to improve the kindergarten-readiness and family stability of affordable housing residents.
Worksystems, Inc. - $128,139 (Multnomah and Washington counties): For the 'Home to Work Collaborative Project,' which aligns housing support (and homelessness prevention) with employment resources in Multnomah and Washington counties.
Total Amount Awarded: $890,801 (over two years)
SECURING THE FUTURE
This third AHI goal aims to develop resources and policies that will expand the availability of affordable housing into the future. We funded one strategy under this goal.
Advocacy. Meyer’s advocacy RFP invited proposals from organizations engaged in community-driven public policy advocacy and community organizing to increase access to and resources for affordable housing in local jurisdictions and across Oregon. Advocacy is identified in the AHI Framework as a key strategy for advancing a broader agenda around improving access to safe, decent and affordable housing around the state. Of the 19 proposals received in this RFP, we funded ten projects that will run over one to two years.
Center for Intercultural Organizing - $80,000 (Multnomah, Washington and Jackson counties): To develop and mobilize tenants leaders in Multnomah, Washington and Jackson Counties around local and state housing policy issues that affect Oregonians, including low-income rural households, immigrants and refugees.
Community Alliance of Tenants - $88,746 (Multnomah County): To support community-based participatory research, organizing and advocacy around policy change to protect tenants from no-cause termination/eviction.
Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization-$62,000 (Portland Metro): To expand the diversity of voices in housing advocacy to address racial disparities directly related to housing and increase the availability of affordable housing for marginalized immigrant and refugee families.
Mid-Columbia Housing Authority - $35,000 (Hood River, Wasco and Sherman counties): To support a community-based housing network to address affordable housing issues in the Gorge.
Urban League of Portland - $90,000 (Statewide) To organize Oregon's African American communities to improve access to affordable, accessible, culturally-appropriate and safe housing.
Welcome Home Coalition - $80,000 (Multnomah County): To support the Welcome Home Coalition's Leadership Academy.
Total Amount Awarded: $539,060 (over one to two years)
In addition, Meyer made a grant of $138,000 (over two years) to the Housing Alliance for its Diversifying Voices program. This project has statewide reach.
ANCILLARY FUNDS
The AHI’s core investments are supported by a small pool of ancillary grant funds to help build capacity and long-term sustainability of affordable housing organizations serving under-resourced communities through technical assistance, training, operating support and strategic growth capital. In the last year, Meyer made eleven grants — mostly for technical assistance, training support and grants to support equity advancement in the housing field — that totaled $345,500 over two years.
