A key goal of the Healthy Environment portfolio is to support a movement for a healthy environment that is effective and relevant for all Oregon's diverse communities. So we were delighted to have a chance to speak with Anna Elza Brady, an advocate who works to elevate the voices of people and place. Next month, Anna will be speaking on a panel titled “Decolonizing Public Lands” at the University of Oregon Symposium on Environmental Justice, Race and Public Lands. I recently caught up with her to get a preview of thoughts she will share on the panel on Friday, May 11.

Jill Fuglister:

Can you please share a little about the coalition of tribes that have led the Bears Ears protection effort and why this place is important to them?

 

Anna Elza Brady:

From the outset, the effort to protect the Bears Ears cultural landscape as a national monument was developed by elders and local Native American grassroots citizens and later led by a historic coalition of sovereign tribal nations. Five tribes — the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Pueblo of Zuni, and the Ute Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation — came together as sovereigns in 2015 and, with a unified voice, called on the president of the United States to designate 1.9 million acres of shared ancestral homelands in southeast Utah as Bears Ears National Monument.

As I have heard expressed time and again by tribal leaders and elders, the Bears Ears cultural landscape is important to the five tribes because it is the dwelling place of the spirits of the ancestors. For those peoples who have inhabited these lands since time immemorial, the spirits of the ancestors are still very much alive in the Bears Ears landscape. When tribal members travel within Bears Ears, they are visiting those who have come before, who walked these lands, harvested its foods and medicines, and left their stories etched in rock. Archaeologists estimate there are over 100,000 cultural and archaeological sites within Bears Ears National Monument — the densest and most well-preserved concentration of such sites anywhere in the United States. For the coalition of tribes that led the effort to protect Bears Ears National Monument, these sites are not simply objects of study: They are the resting places of the Ancient Ones. In this way, the Bears Ears region is sacred and must be safeguarded accordingly.

Bears Ears is also important to local people because it serves as a key source of essential natural resources, including firewood, medicinal herbs and food plants such as pinyons. In the arid desert southwest, Bears Ears is a sort of island ecosystem, providing habitat for a variety of plant and animal species, many of which are not found elsewhere in the region. Jonah Yellowman, a Navajo elder and spiritual leader who has lived in and around the Bears Ears region since birth, explained to me in 2014 how Bears Ears is “our grocery store; it’s our pharmacy.” Jonah also taught me about nahodishgish, the Navajo word for wilderness, meaning literally “places to be left alone.” Nahodishgish recognizes that some landscapes are meant to be used by human beings and others should remain as they were created: untrammeled places from which wild life emerges. Native peoples of this region know that the Bears Ears landscape — the rugged terrain of canyons and mesas fanning up from the sacred confluence of the Colorado and San Juan rivers — is a place of healing and renewal for all people and all beings.

 

Jill:

In what ways is their organizing approach different than other national monument/public lands protection organizing efforts, particularly those led by mainstream environmental organizations?

 

Anna:

The tribes’ organizing approach around Bears Ears National Monument has been fundamentally different than other public lands protection efforts, in part because of tribal peoples’ profound history and depth of relationship with these lands. The tribal leaders continually express and bring to bear the central role of culture and spirituality that has driven the vision of Bears Ears National Monument from the very beginning. Tribal leaders aren’t simply advocating for a place they find beautiful or enjoy visiting from time to time. They are giving voice to the land — its plants, animals, waterways, weather patterns — that has sustained their peoples since time immemorial. Bears Ears holds the songs and stories of their past and the seed-in-promise of their future. In that way, the organizing effort around Bears Ears National Monument has been a reaffirmation of identity.

I’ll never forget something that Willie Grayeyes told me on my first day helping out with the Bears Ears initiative in 2014. Willie is the board chair of UDB (Utah Diné Bikéyah) and a Navajo elder and grassroots community leader from Naatsisʼáán (Navajo Mountain). Willie is also a former Navajo Nation council delegate and currently serves on the Bureau of Land Management’s Utah Resource Advisory Council. Willie has long, silver hair that he wears bound in a traditional Navajo bun, a tsiiyéé?, and he is both quick-witted and wise. Our Ute Mountain Ute board members have teasingly nicknamed him gamuch, which means jackrabbit. Willie has been a thought-leader of the Bears Ears initiative since its inception. It was he who articulated that Bears Ears has always been first and foremost about healing. That notion has been an orienting and unifying compass for the entire Bears Ears Coalition throughout the long journey to protect and defend Bears Ears National Monument.

On that first day, I was timid and quiet, listening and observing, not wanting to impose or offend. I had written an essay about the fledgling vision for Bears Ears National Monument, and to my surprise (and mild alarm) the executive director had given copies to all the board members. I remember Willie Grayeyes approaching me late in the day, my essay in his hands. His eyes were on mine, unwavering, as he leaned in and told me, in his signature growl, both fierce and patient, “Don’t be afraid to say it’s spiritual.”

The tribes have never shied away from saying that protecting Bears Ears is ultimately a spiritual journey of healing: healing the relationship between Native peoples and their ancestral homelands, between tribes and the federal government, between people and the Earth. Organizing takes on a whole different feel and purpose when it rises out of the long history and deep spiritual connection that Native cultures and communities have with the land. Such a spiritual orientation cannot be manufactured, nor should it be co-opted. Yet individually and collectively, we all share an inimitable bond with the Earth that sustains us. Starting from that space, and constantly nourishing and returning to it, has made tribes’ organizing approach around Bears Ears uniquely resonant and powerful.

 

Jill:

Do you see some of this approach reflected in public lands protection efforts in Oregon? If no, what’s a missing piece?

Anna:

That’s a tricky question. I have not been as intimately involved in public lands protections efforts here in Oregon as I have been in Utah (even as an Oregonian!). From what I saw and knew of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument designation effort, as well as the ongoing Owyhee Canyon National Monument initiative — both areas very worthy of federal protection — tribes have not been nearly as involved as the five tribes at Bears Ears, much less in the lead.

That said, a significant facet of recent public lands protection efforts here in Oregon has been the defense of public lands against the armed takeover of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in early 2016. Perhaps the most potent and resounding response to that bewildering occupation was the Burns Paiute Tribe’s statements on behalf of the 190,000-acre wildlife refuge, which lies within the their ancestral territory. Tribal Chair Charlotte Roderique cogently pointed out the irony of the armed occupiers’ claims to be returning federal public lands to their “rightful owners”: “This is still our land, no matter who is living on it.” Chairwoman Roderique told reporters, “Armed protesters don’t belong here. By their actions, they are endangering ... our sacred sites.”

Chairwoman Roderique’s words rang out across the globe, exposing not only the narrow hypocrisy of the Bundy-esque perception of the commons, but the narrative of settler colonialism that has underwritten natural resource management and allowed the Malheur occupation phenomenon to take root and persist. The Bundys’ rallying cry to “return federal lands to their rightful owners” — i.e. Euro-American ranchers and resource extractors — rings hollow in the face of Chairwoman Roderique’s resoundingly simple statement about true belonging: of people to place, rather than the other way around.

If there’s one piece that’s missing when it comes to efforts to protect public lands, in Oregon and throughout most of the country and the world, it’s this idea of letting tribes lead. Getting out of the way, stepping aside, making room for other voices to rise in their own time and in their own way. Listening: that is the biggest takeaway from the Bears Ears process, and it’s right there in the name — Bears Ears. Native people listened to the land, tribes listened to one another, and the federal government listened to the sovereign tribal nations — for a time anyway.

We’ve got to learn to listen, and not just when it’s convenient or comfortable or happens to behoove our mission or our egos. Rather than approaching tribes and Native communities with ready-made solutions, the first step that the conservation community and mainstream environmental organizations can and should take is to recognize tribes as sovereign nations with complicated modern histories and carefully guarded, highly nuanced traditional knowledge about ancestral ecosystems, organisms and lands. Then organizations that are really ready to be in it for the long haul might patiently seek to cultivate relationships and build trust with tribes. Show respect for tribal protocols and observe tribal chains of command. Be prepared for long pauses. Talk to tribes before talking about tribes. Start by asking, “What do you need?”

Jill:

What would it look like if public lands protection in the West accounted for the U.S. legacy of colonization and focused on indigenous rights and tribal sovereignty?

Anna:

That would look amazing! In fact, public lands are a natural space for such a reckoning to take place, where truth and reconciliation might begin. As ecologist and writer Robin Wall Kimmerer (Citizen Potawatomi) has explained, public lands are ancestral lands after all. Where do we think public lands came from in the first place? Who did they belong to before the National Forest Service or the BLM stuck a sign in them and traced their boundaries on a map? Federal public lands, in particular, are a tremendous seed of reconciliation waiting to sprout.

Under the legal doctrine of the federal Indian trust responsibility, all branches and agencies of the federal government owe a fiduciary duty to every federally recognized sovereign tribal nation and enrolled tribal member. This solemn trust responsibility has been articulated and recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court for nearly 200 years and imposes an affirmative duty of care and loyalty on the part of the federal government toward all 573 recognized tribes and Alaska Native villages. This includes the obligation to protect tribal interests and property.

When we put the two together — the very real fact that virtually all public lands are ancestral tribal territories, alongside the doctrine of the federal trust responsibility (not to mention the perennial underfunding, understaffing, and under-enforcement that federal land management agencies face) — a holistic solution begins to emerge that could help heal the legacy of colonization and honor indigenous rights and tribal sovereignty. What if agencies and administrators charged with managing federal public lands invited tribes to the table and formally engaged the continent’s original sovereigns in helping to oversee and steward their ancestral territories? What if, with the permission and inclusion of practitioners, tribal traditional knowledges began to inform management of America’s public lands? What if tribal co-management of traditional lands and resources was the rule rather than the exception? What if healing historical wounds, inflicted on both people and place, was part of our public lands policy?

That is the vision that was realized through the designation of Bears Ears National Monument, and it’s a model that resonates in our bones and in our bedrock. It also makes sense economically, as the West transitions from a resource extraction economy to a recreation, service and information economy, in which quality of life and climate resiliency increasingly drive decisions about where to live and work.

In this process, tribes have much to teach about renewing humanity’s relationship with the natural world and dwelling in place for the long haul — should we choose to finally listen.

---

Anna Elza Brady hails from the Olympic Peninsula and has been a lifelong resident of the American West. She has served as co-director of the University of Oregon's Native American Law Student Association and as the policy and communications strategist for Utah Diné Bikéyah, a Native American-led nonprofit, where she supported tribes in securing protection and designation of Bears Ears National Monument. Anna holds a master's degree in environmental humanities from the University of Utah.

View our cardstack to learn more about Anna and the Bear Ears National Monument leaders, here.

The Bears Ears Buttes at sunset with Navajo Mountain (Naatsisʼáán) in the distance. Bears Ears National Monument was named for these distinctive twin buttes, visible throughout the Four Corners region. (Photo by Anna Elza Brady)

Meyer believes that we have to work better together in order to achieve our mission of a flourishing and equitable Oregon, and we know that working collaboratively to tackle complex issues together takes resources. We have structured our 2018 Annual Funding Opportunity to encourage and support collaboration across organizations in addition to funding the work of individual organizations. We do this in the following ways:

• Organizations may submit an additional grant application on behalf of a collaborative even if they are also applying for grant to support their own organization's work or they have an active Meyer grant.
• Organizations applying on behalf of a collaborative may request up to $250,000 for projects in order to accommodate the scope of work being tackled by large-scale collaborations and, in many situations, to support the participation of multiple organizations.
• Organizations applying on behalf of an emerging collaborative — meaning they are just getting started in their work together — may apply for a planning grant of up $35,000.

What do we mean by a collaborative?

To determine eligibility for collaborative grants (not the planning grants), we ask that organizations applying on behalf of a collaborative certify that the following three things are true:

• The collaborative structure and priorities are inclusive and demonstrate an equitable approach.
• The roles and responsibilities of collaborative partners are clearly defined and demonstrate an equitable approach.
• The decision-making processes demonstrate an equitable approach.

What qualifies for collaborative grants?

With the grant funds that are available to collaboratives, we are looking to support collaborations that have established partners' roles and responsibilities, that have clarity of purpose, and where all partners are committed and on the same page. We also want to support collaborations that have integrated equity into the way the collaborative operates in terms of who is at the table, how decisions are made and how power, resources and responsibilities are shared among partners. Although we don't have a hard definition of a "large collaborative," projects that will be competitive for grants at the top end of our scale generally have a large budget, a significant number of partners, a demonstrated history of successfully working together and are working on large-scale change.

As with all applications, strong collaborative requests demonstrate clear alignment with a portfolio goal and associated outcomes. We look for policy, systems change and movement building strategies that are grounded in the perspective of the communities and constituencies they represent, and we will assess collaborative requests based on our values and equity commitment.

If you are thinking about a collaborative proposal, consider attending our information session webinar on collaborative proposals on Monday, April 2. Finally, below you can find some answers to common questions about collaborative applications for those of you thinking about taking advantage of this opportunity.

What does Meyer mean by "roles and responsibilities of partners are clearly defined"?

When we say "roles and responsibilities of partners are clearly defined," we mean that the partners all have a clear understanding, in writing, for how the collaboration will move its work forward. This can include a defined decision-making process, defined membership and leadership levels (including how new membership will be determined), which partners will bring specific resources to the table (staff, financial, etc.), and how resources will be shared among the partners. Unless you are requesting a planning grant, we ask you to share your Memoranda of Agreement (MOA), letters of commitment or similar documents that your collaborative has in place to capture your joint agreements and understandings.

What exactly does Meyer mean by the phrase "demonstrates an equitable approach"?

There are a number of ways that different collaboratives do this. Examples of ways that collaboratives demonstrate this are:

• Clarity about a shared purpose and goals for the collaborative and that communities most affected by the issues you aim to address have informed and shaped this.
• All partners have a voice in decision-making.
• Clarity about resource sharing. Even if the request is for Meyer funds to only go to one partner, we will consider the collaborative's overarching approach to sharing resources. We trust the collaborative to determine how grant funds can best support its collaborative effort, but we will look for some indication that the different needs of partner organizations to participate as full partners have been considered.
• Co-creation of work plan and budgets.
• Clarity about ownership of work products and credit for work completed and accomplishments.
• Commitments of different partner representatives to participate and commitments of resources they are contributing.

How does Meyer define the difference between a collaborative, a partnership and a contractual relationship?

For our Annual Funding Opportunity, we will prioritize funding for collaboratives tackling systems change work and problems that can't be accomplished by organizations working in isolation and doing "business as usual." An application generally won't be considered a collaborative for our purposes when one or more organizations are signing on to support a policy agenda of a lead organization. We also don't consider contractual relationships between nonprofits as "collaboratives" where one organization has hired one or more other organizations as contractors to provide specific services.

Do the following types of applicants meet the criteria for collaborative proposals?

• Collaborations between separate programs that operate independently but are part of the same umbrella organization? (A: No)
• Coalitions that have come together around a specific short-term project or campaign? (A: Yes, if power-sharing and working together toward a shared goal — not just signing names onto a list of supporters)
• Coalitions that function as a program of one organization? (A: Yes, if involving multiple organizations, power-sharing, collective decision-making and working together toward a shared goal)

How can funds be used?

Although we are open to considering a variety of uses, most often funds support the time of partners to participate in collaborative activities, staffing support to coordinate communication and the work of the collaborative and/or consultant support to advance the collaborative's agenda.

Still have questions? Please join us at our April 2 virtual information about collaborative proposals (RSVP here) or contact us at questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org).

— Mike

A crowd gathers near Dawson Park in North Portland for a climate justice rally lead by a coalition of Meyer grantees: OPAL, Oregon Just Transition Alliance, APANO, Beyond Toxics, Environmental Justice Oregon, PCUN, Unite Oregon & Rural Organizing Project.

I am pleased to announce Meyer's 2018 Annual Funding Opportunity. Through this opportunity, Meyer will invest approximately $3.6 million to advance the Healthy Environment portfolio vision of nurturing a resilient natural environment, while supporting the well-being of Oregon's diverse cultures and communities.

Starting March 15 — with a deadline of 5 p.m. April 18 — the Healthy Environment portfolio begins accepting Initial Applications that advance one of the following portfolio goals:

1. Support efforts that mutually achieve community well-being, economic vitality and environmental stewardship.
2. Ensure that environmental impacts and benefits are equitably distributed among communities.
3. Support a movement for a healthy environment that is effective and relevant for all Oregon's diverse communities.
4. Ensure that natural systems are healthy and able to adapt to changing conditions and long-term impacts.

This is the third round of annual funding in Meyer's new program structure. Last November, we announced the 2017 grants supporting a broad range of forward-thinking efforts for a healthy environment in rural and urban communities across Oregon. This year, we will continue to look for partners who share our commitment to disrupting the extractive systems that are harming the environment and our communities across Oregon and implementing programs and policies that are just, sustainable and work for all.

There are no big changes to the application process this year, but we made some refinements to streamline the application and make it easier for you to navigate. We also created information resources to help clarify areas where we received a lot of questions. Following is our "top seven list" that we think are most relevant to Healthy Environment portfolio applicants for the 2018 funding opportunity.

1. How to pick a portfolio goal for your application. We get a lot of questions about which goal applicants should select for their request. We recommend that you not only assess the alignment of your request with one of the portfolio goals but that you also zero in on the outcome categories connected to each of the goals. Consider your project-specific outcomes and how they fit into the one or two outcome categories for any one of the portfolio goals. In addition, take a look this list of what doesn't fit specific to this funding opportunity to help guide you.
2. If you select "organizational capacity" as an outcome for your request in Goal One or Goal Four make sure you also make the programmatic connection to our goals clear. Strong applicants for capacity building grants in these two goals will be those whose core programmatic work advances one of the other outcomes in that goal. For more details, check out our goals and outcomes information.
3. What's a "collaborative grant" for the purposes of Meyer's annual funding opportunity? We know that organizations are partnering with other organizations in many informal and formal ways, and we believe that this is a valuable strategy for making change in our communities. However, for the purposes of a collaborative grant application, we've got something specific in mind. Check out this new information to help you understand how we are defining collaboratives for the purposes of a collaborative application and answer other common questions about Meyer's collaborative grants.
4. Demographic data collection from your staff and board — let's make it happen! Last year we simplified our demographic data request to applicants, and the new process seems to be working better for groups. However, last year we found that demographic data collection by Healthy Environment portfolio applicants was substantially lower compared with our other portfolios. Here's the data from our 2017 grant applicants:
   

5. We encourage applicants to take this request to heart, and we hope to see more complete results this year. One way this information is important is to establish a baseline of how your organization reflects the communities you serve. Here is a tip sheet that D5 Coalition put together on how to do this. And, if you are successful with your grant, we will be looking for how you plan to address this issue during the grant period.

6. More on what we mean by diversity, equity and inclusion. We continue to have a robust discussion with prospective grant applicants and others about what Meyer means by equity and what our expectations are for applicants. Although we expect the dialogue to continue, we've also put together some new resources in an effort to answer your questions. These include The DEI Journey, Is Your Organization Ready? and Understanding Meyer's DEI Spectrum Tool.
   
   In addition, our Applicant Resources page includes tools and resources to help you understand how we think about and assess diversity, equity and inclusion in the context of organizations' internal operations and their mission and programs.
7. Clearer direction on what dollar amount to request and what support type to pick. This year, the request amounts for the different grant types (capacity, operating, project or capital) are more consistent across all the portfolios. We've also clarified our support type definitions and provided more guidance on what amount to request by sharing the average size of 2017 grants.
8. Operating support candidates are very specific. For the Healthy Environment portfolio, operating support grants will primarily be awarded to organizations working on public policy and systems change; key intermediaries and networks that serve the interests of many organizations working for a healthy environment; or key organizations or networks that play a unique role in the field and that have wider impact for the sector (e.g. is a field leader in Oregon or nationally). All operating support grantees will have demonstrated internal and external commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion; the strongest candidate organizations will also demonstrate diversity, equity and inclusion leadership in the context of the community and field where they work. Please contact us at questions [at] mmt.org to discuss whether your organization is a good fit for operating support.

Getting more info

If you'd like to discuss the 2018 Annual Funding Opportunity and your proposal plans, please participate in one of the upcoming information sessions or contact us at questions [at] mmt.org. Make sure to also review Candy Solovjovs' recent article about the funding call, which offers guidance and tips relevant to all the portfolios.

Our work together is now more important than ever. Please don't hesitate to get in touch to discuss your ideas and questions.

— Jill

Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio endeavours to center equity as a catalyst in philanthropy to address environmental disparities in Oregon and support work that directly benefits under-resourced and historically marginalized populations in rural and urban communities.

Recently, Inside Philanthropy examined the portfolio's approach to grantmaking and the environment in coverage of Meyer's 2017 Portfolio Grant Awards:

The foundation recently announced its second round of grants since launching a new Healthy Environment portfolio, which places emphasis on “underresourced and historically marginalized populations in rural and urban communities” in its funding for the state’s environment. 

Before the new program was unveiled, the foundation was giving a lot to rivers and watersheds, and that’s still a priority. A lot of key Northwest green groups are still on the docket. But Meyer points out that in the 2017 round of green grants—totaling $3.9 million—every grantee has a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, with a half-dozen asking the foundation for training and support in developing them.

Read Inside Philanthropy’s full exploration of Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio’s approach to grantmaking and the environment here.

Rural Oregon, by Dan Lewis. Image source: Inside Philanthropy

I began my Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellowship with Meyer Memorial Trust in September 2015 when the Healthy Environment portfolio was newly formed. Two years later, I am at the end of my fellowship. In work experience terms, this was a short time. In grant period terms, this was a long time. As I transition, I have been asked to provide my outgoing thoughts. In homage to my work at a foundation, I am providing my reflections in a very philanthropic final report format.

Marcelo Bonta

11/1/2017

Final Fellowship Report

File #HE 914152111617

1. Were your goals achieved?

When I started my fellowship, I was really excited about achieving the following personal goals:

1. Contributing to the creation of an effective environmental giving program with equity at its core, and

2. Gaining a deeper understanding and awareness of the obstacles that are preventing environmental programs/foundations from effectively advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and to discover solutions.

Yes, my goals were achieved.

To the first goal, I believe Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio is advancing DEI effectively and, in fact, has emerged as a leading foundation program at the nexus of equity and environmental protection. The program still has much room to grow, but it has many elements that other private foundation programs across the country should replicate. For example, Meyer’s program supports environmental justice, DEI capacity building, general operating support, multi-year grants and diverse collaborations. It pays organizations for their advice and time and requires a commitment to DEI, equity outcome(s) and growth over time. It also has non-grantmaking activities to support in partnership with the movement of Healthy Environment grantees, such as a DEI capacity building workshop.

Regarding the second goal, I discovered that white privilege, trustees that “don’t get it,” and foundations (and philanthropy as a whole) steeped (and stuck) in dominant culture norms and systems are the top issues preventing environmental philanthropic institutions from advancing on DEI. Some solutions to address these challenges that I experienced at Meyer are to add diverse staff and trustees who have equity skills and experience. Also, including ongoing equity training to support personal growth and transformation helps enormously. At Meyer, we started with racial and LGBTQ equity training. Meyer has also been committed to improving and changing internal and programmatic systems.

2. Describe the most important way you contributed toward Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio’s vision of “nurturing a resilient natural environment, while supporting the well-being of Oregon’s diverse cultures and communities.”

Helping develop the Healthy Environment portfolio and its broader programmatic work has been one of the most fun and stimulating parts of the fellowship. With a small team, I co-created Meyer’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Spectrum Tool to help organizations assess the state of their DEI efforts. I also helped to influence creation of the Willamette River Initiative’s DEI goal to guide the program and its grantees toward DEI efficacy. Drawing from my experience at the Center for Diversity and the Environment, I supported and recommended the allocation of funds toward DEI capacity building, especially staff and board training and organizational strategy development. Meyer sees these investments as ways to deliver “more bang” for its bucks.

Although I really enjoyed the co-creation of and contribution to these achievements, the most invigorating experience has been as one of three team members discussing, analyzing and making important decisions and funding recommendations, while grounding our process in equity. I felt our small team had a healthy, inclusive approach to listening to understand, learning from each other, truly seeing each other, and making decisions on consensus. This is the work, the essence of DEI — often beautifully messy and especially uncomfortable. We created an inclusive environment where I could bring my full self.

3. Did you encounter any opportunities or challenges with your experience that impacted your ability to achieve your goals? If yes, briefly describe the opportunities or challenges you experienced and how you responded to them.

As the first cohort (aka the guinea pigs!) of a new fellowship coinciding with implementing a new strategy at Meyer, inconsistencies and missteps were expected. More important is the response and commitment to ironing out the kinks, listening to understand and improving, which Philanthropy Northwest and Meyer have been doing.

It’s been my experience that these organizations are committed to listening to groups and communities they serve and to do their best to respond accordingly. This approach is a key skill in DEI work. The first step is the commitment to respond (i.e., authentic intent). The next step and ongoing work is how you respond effectively so that the community you serve continues to benefit and receive higher value over time (i.e., tending to impact). Equity work is never a perfect process, but your commitment can be perfected.

Additionally, two aspects of my experience made all the difference: (1) working at a foundation that is walking its talk on equity and (2) having a cohort of fellows to lean on for support. To be honest, I don’t believe I would have stayed the full two years if I was not placed at Meyer and not part of the Momentum Fellowship. I am in a time and place in my career where I yearn to bring my authentic self to everything I do. A core piece of who I am and what I bring to the table is my equity lens. I need to work at a place that is not only open to my lens and deep passion for equity but can respond accordingly. Meyer has provided that space for me, for which I am extremely grateful. In addition, we are at a time and place in society where communities facing disparities suffer the consequences from every delay or excuse we give ourselves to not do DEI work. There are deep, impactful negative consequences when we do not act. These communities do not have the luxury of time. Over the past two decades, I have been fortunate to gain an incredible amount of experience and wisdom in the equity realm. I need an atmosphere where I can push myself and make a difference on a daily basis. Meyer has been the right organization at the right time for me.

As for the fellowship, participating with a cohort of people who have similar life experiences and entering the foundation world as newbies together has been life-giving for me in so many ways. The relationships have provided me the support and courage to stand on my two feet when there were times that I just wanted to curl up in the corner in the fetal position. I have made friendships that will last throughout my career.

4. Have there been any significant changes in your organization that impacted you during your fellowship?

I joined Meyer as the foundation was experiencing significant changes. Meyer was transparent with me regarding the unpredictability and growing pains that are inherent with change work. This is the type of atmosphere I prefer and in which I thrive. In the past two years, Meyer has hired more than a dozen new staff and added four of six trustees. Currently, we are experiencing a CEO transition, and three new fellows have joined.

The impact of these changes has all been positive and is part of the transformation process for groups that are truly committed to DEI. These changes were expected and have impacted me in a good way.

5. How will this experience affect you and your work moving forward? What are your next steps?

This experience has helped me hone my equity lens in relation to foundations. Experiencing first-hand the challenges and opportunities of change work has been invaluable as I transition to consulting with and coaching other foundations in this process.

As for my next steps, I will be joining The Raben Group as a principal, building out their DEI consulting arm. I will continue to focus on the environmental movement, including supporting environmental foundations in their overall DEI capacity building and as a program officer consultant. Also, I am starting a blog in the new year to support groups and change agents that seek guidance on the “how to”of DEI work.

My career mission remains the same: to create a just, equitable, diverse and inclusive environmental movement. Meyer Memorial Trust’s Healthy Environment portfolio and Philanthropy Northwest’s Momentum Fellowship are two such programs that our advancing that mission, and I feel honored to participate in the launch and growth of both. I especially feel privileged to work at a foundation at the beginning stages of creating an environmental program with equity at its foundation, which I foresee as becoming more commonplace as our society and the environmental movement shifts, adapts and evolves to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse society, which will ultimately lead to the successful protection of our planet.

Maraming Salamat Po (“thank you very much”),  Philanthropy Northwest!

Maraming Salamat Po, Meyer Memorial Trust!

— Marcelo

After juggling the work — and the occasional jar of spice — Marcelo Bonta reflects on his two year environment fellowship at Meyer

Abraham Franco frequently finds himself walking under the shade of forests that exist today because of his handiwork decades ago.

A veteran worker in Oregon’s reforestation industry, the 60-year-old Salem resident has planted millions of trees in Oregon’s woods and wetlands.

“I remember the units I worked on more than 20 years ago,” he says. “The forest, I remember when it was a twig.”

As a crewmember for his nephew’s company, R. Franco Restoration, Franco spends many of his workdays along the Willamette River and its tributaries, planting trees and shrubs on the streambanks in an effort to restore the basin’s natural ecosystem and improve the river’s health.

Dozens of people do this work, but Franco’s deep experience gives him an outsized reputation among his colleagues. They refer to him as an elder statesman of the industry, praising both his work ethic and his conservation ethos.

Franco demurs. He insists he’s just doing his job.

Franco got his start in the Cascade timberlands, replanting stands of Douglas fir after logging companies harvested the lumber. When his nephew, Rosario Franco, grew old enough to work, Abraham became his mentor.

Years later, Rosario would open one of the Willamette Basin’s most prominent restoration companies, and Abraham would become one of his first employees.

“I taught him how to plant in the mountains,” Abraham says, “and he showed me how to plant down here.”

After spending the first part of his career planting trees that would eventually be felled for lumber, Franco savors the permanence of restoration planting. Nearly 30 years in the business have given him firsthand knowledge of why his work matters. These trees, he knows, will remain in place for generations to clean the water, shade it from the sun’s heat and provide habitat for fish and wildlife.

The work is rewarding but difficult. Wielding a shovel all day, sometimes in soil dense with clay or mottled with rocks, can wear on muscles and joints. Prime planting season also happens to align with the Northwest’s cold, rainy, windy winters.  

Franco shrugs at those challenges. On a recent rainy day, he outpaced men in their twenties as the crew planted rows of willow on an Aumsville farm.

“You get used to whatever weather comes,” he said. “You’ve gotta go and do the job.”

As he worked, Franco reflected on what this place used to be. Where invasive blackberries and ivy used to thrive, the streambanks now host a nascent native woodland that will only grow healthier with time.

“I don’t know if I’ll be around when this one becomes a forest,” Franco said as he dug into his satchel for another sapling, “but that idea motivates me every day.”

— Kelly

After nearly 30 years in the restoration business, 60-year-old Abraham Franco frequently finds himself walking under the shade of thick forests he planted as twigs.

I am excited to join Meyer, an organization that I view as an influential leader in integrating diversity, equity and inclusion into Oregon’s environmental movement. My previous experience was working on the ground, “in the trenches,” so to speak. I’m looking forward to learning more about the nonprofits we support — and how to make an impact as a funder.

I hope to grapple with some of the complicated issues around environmentalism, privilege and systemic discrimination and talk about how to address them. I am especially sensitive to issues of rural communities, given my work organizing rural and Native communities most impacted by industrial agriculture. I’m also curious about how our diversity, equity and inclusion work can lift up groups we support and increase their impact in the diverse communities they serve.

As one of the 10 Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellows, I am humbled and amazed at the depth and variety of experience of my fellow fellows. This second cohort of fellows all happen to be female, and all are women of color. Just looking at us, one wouldn’t necessarily know that. Questions like “Who looks white? Who is white? What kinds of privilege does that offer? How does this show up in philanthropy?” are part of the conversations we need to be having as we learn about our new work in this sector.

Since joining Meyer in September, I have hit the ground running. I appreciate the kind guidance of my Healthy Environment colleagues and the wealth of opportunities available through Meyer and Philanthropy Northwest, including a Skills for New Practitioners training in Anchorage in early November. I also appreciate the expertise and counsel of my predecessor, Marcelo Bonta, whose time at Meyer overlapped with mine for about two months.

I am already grateful for the opportunities and access of the fellowship. I attended a conference a few weeks ago that was of personal interest, Animal Grantmakers, where I met old colleagues and made new connections. I hope to continue the conversation throughout my tenure at Meyer about how the issues of climate change, food systems, pollution and environmental justice intersect and how I can be part of making a difference on these and other issues in my new role at Meyer.

— Denise

Denise Luk, back, third from the left, poses with the 2017 cohort of Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellows.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are some notable characteristics of the 2017 grantees?

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

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

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

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

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

— Jill

Marcelo Bonta, a Philanthropy Northwest Momentum Fellow who works in Meyer's Healthy Environment portfolio, will speak at the opening plenary in October at the GoGreen Conference in Portland, sharing his perspective of the community’s victories and challenges in sustainability over the last 10 years

Marcelo sat down with conference organizers to answer questions about the field:

GoGreen: When you think back on the last 10 years, what do you think of as the biggest win for our community in terms of sustainability?

Marcelo: The biggest win is that equity is becoming a core component of sustainability. Sustainability would not have survived for the long term without equity.

Here are some reasons why equity is so important:

1. Demographics have shifted and will continue to shift as we are becoming a more racially diverse society.  Our nation will be over 50% people of color within the next 25 years.    
2. Communities of color and low-income communities contribute least to climate change and environmental degradation but are most impacted.
3. Polls and surveys demonstrate that communities of color support sustainability, climate change solutions, and environmental protection at higher rates than whites.

Check out more of Marcelo's answers in the full interview here.

Grantee StoriesJuly 26, 2017

At first glance, Oregon’s Willamette River and the Río Laja in the Mexican state of Guanajuato look starkly different.

The two rivers’ mouths are 2,600 miles apart. And while the Willamette Valley is verdant and rainy, the Laja runs through semi-arid lands with few trees. Salmon, so central to the Oregonian ethos, aren’t found there.

Though their climate and ecology may differ, six restoration experts from Guanajuato visited Oregon this month to explore a commonality between two places: Water and the communities it connects.

“Water is the base element for all ecosystems,” said Mario Hernández Peña, director of the botanical garden and nature preserve El Charco del Ingenio, who traveled to Oregon as part of the June 2017 exchange. “No matter where in the world you are, it’s a common resource.”

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The visit was the latest highlight of an international partnership the two basins launched in 2015 as part of the Willamette community’s receipt of the 2012 Thiess International Riverprize. The award, which recognizes exemplary efforts in river protection and restoration, includes an opportunity to collaborate with a watershed outside the prize winner's home country in an exchange program known as Twinning. Meyer's Willamette River Initiative stewards the project on behalf of the basin's restoration community.

“It’s so valuable to be able to talk, to connect, and to learn from our international peers about how they approach similar watershed conservation challenges in a different social and environmental context,” said Tara Davis, coordinator of the Twinning project.

Many of the Willamette’s biggest watershed health challenges are also present in the Laja. Restoration practitioners in both basins are working to improve water quality, increase migratory bird habitat, foster community engagement and restore ecological function to former gravel mines. And both basins face competing priorities for how water is managed and allocated.

The Twinning project is designed to encourage dialogue about how to tackle those challenges through repeated visits to one another’s home turf. But just as importantly, the project has yielded fruitful relationships between people with a common interest in protecting water in the Willamette Basin and Mexico, a country with strong connections to Oregon.

One-in-eight Oregonians identify as Latino, many of them with Mexican heritage. The Willamette Basin includes some of Oregon’s largest and fastest-growing Latino communities.

“At a time when the public relationship with Mexico is framed in terms of division and exclusion, a project that focuses on building collaborative relationships between conservation professionals from both countries is particularly meaningful,” said Allison Hensey, director of the Willamette River Initiative.

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Already, the Twinning partnership has revealed promising collaboration opportunities.

Recognizing that some migratory bird species spend time in both watersheds, partners from the Willamette and Laja have teamed up to explore opportunities to monitor bird populations and use the data to prioritize habitat restoration.

Participants in the June exchange hoped to take the Twinning partnership a step further, leaving with inspiration for increased collaboration in the Rio Laja watershed and an idea for a future project the two basins could tackle together. It didn’t take long for a theme to emerge.

As exchange partners traveled up and down the Willamette River touring projects and meeting with partners, the conversation always came back to people.

“How do you get the public to care about restoration when you’re working in such an urban environment?” Laja partner Javier Vega Ruiz asked as the group toured Talking Water Gardens, a wetland restoration and water treatment project in Albany.

Willamette partners shared a number of techniques, such as hosting school students for on-site science lessons and designing public spaces into restoration plans, but acknowledged community engagement is a challenge in the Willamette, too.

Vega Ruiz’s question spurred others as the two sides sought to learn from one another.

How can conservation workers be better advocates for the communities hit hardest by environmental threats, particularly low-income people and racial minorities? What are the best examples of restoration work that improves ecological conditions while creating beautiful, useful community spaces? And what can we do now to shape the next generation of environmental stewards?

For Heather Medina Sauceda, a board member for the Calapooia Watershed Council who often works within Oregon’s Latino community, the exchange trip itself became an exercise in the power of human connection. Medina worked with Mario Magaña Álvarez, an Oregon State University 4-H outreach specialist to underserved communities, to bring several of Magaña Álvarez’s Latino students along for a day of the exchange.

The pair, who are both Latino, hoped exposure to Mexican leaders in science and conservation would help the teens imagine themselves in a career field that, in America, is still predominantly white.

“It’s powerful to see leaders who look like you,” Medina Sauceda said.

The exchange also held personal significance for Medina Sauceda. Born in Michigan, she grew up with a love for the outdoors that led to a career in agricultural conservation. She had never associated her career choice with the farming culture of her heritage, but interacting with the Laja visitors revealed a profound link between the two.

“I might not have realized in college why I was drawn” to conservation work, she said. “To have that tie with this group coming up from Guanajuato made me feel like it’s something deep down inside; that it has to do with that cultural connection.”

By week’s end, representatives from the two basins saw a partnership opportunity in their shared ambition to connect people through the rivers that sustain them. The migratory bird group has begun discussing ways to involve the community in its bird monitoring efforts. Other Willamette and Laja partners hope to work together on youth engagement initiatives. They are exploring the possibility of sharing environmental curriculum for students in Mexico and Oregon or launching an exchange program that pairs students from each watershed on a scientific project.

The conversation is just getting started, Medina Sauceda said, but “there’s a lot of potential for the future.”

— Kelly