While you know Jill from four years as a program officer at Meyer, juggling both Responsive and Grassroots grants, her background and skills that make her a great fit for this position.
Before Meyer, Jill spent 16 years in the environmental field developing a broad base of knowledge and experience, from traditional conservation to sustainability to environmental justice. Her experience integrating and operationalizing equity into environmental work is quite unique in the field.
Her educational background — a masters degree in environmental studies and a baccalaureate in government — offers a solid grounding in understanding environmental issues and policy. And Jill's management experience as co-executive director at CLF and as operations manager for the Sisters of the Road Cafe provides a base of planning, budget management and supervision experience that will serve her well in this role.
I couldn’t be happier to have Jill lead Meyer Trust’s new Healthy Environment portfolio.
Please join me and Doug in congratulating Jill on her new transition!
For nearly 30 years, Pacific Rivers has been a key player in protecting and maintaining healthy rivers and watersheds in Oregon.
Their mission: to use advocacy and policy work to assure river health, biodiversity and clean water for present and future generations. Since helping to pass the nation’s first and largest federal river protection act in 1988, Pacific Rivers has been dedicated to enshrining protections for rivers and watershed ecosystems in the Northwest.
Part of their focus is to ensure that Oregonians have access to drinking water free from chemicals and pollutants.
Pacific Rivers has prioritized educational initiatives to bring to light dangerous and harmful environmental practices affecting the watersheds in remote and rural communities, and they work to create space to educate the public about the environmental impact risky business can have on rural communities. A three-year, $150,000 grant for organizational development and communications in 2015 supported their efforts to increase the visibility of their work throughout 19 counties across Oregon.
At a recent standing-room only screening of Behind the Emerald Curtain, supporters in Portland learned about an endangered community 90 miles to the west. The film focused on the coastal town of Rockaway Beach, in Tillamook County, where logging and chemical spraying are having a negative impact on the health of neighboring residents and waterways. The event helped teach and mobilize Oregonians about harsh environmental practices affecting rural areas outside cities and what they can do to help. Pacific Rivers will be screening the film throughout western Oregon until February to engage and inspire community members to help reform the Oregon Forest Practices Act and then releasing it online for a national audience. A schedule of screenings can be found on Pacific Rivers' home page.
Following the film, Pacific Rivers Executive Director John Kober facilitated a group discussion led by local community members and field experts. During the Q&A, he exhorted Portlanders to do their part in defending the future stability of Oregon’s watersheds and the health of rural communities dependent upon them.
Along with the development grant, Pacific Rivers received a technical assistance grant of $15,000 to partner with the Center for Diversity and Environment to guide their ongoing diversity expansion efforts. Pacific Rivers, which was already committed to equity, diversity and inclusion, recognizes that environmental progress depends on a diversity of voices and residents, said Kober.
“Pacific Rivers plays a valuable role in protecting clean water and watersheds across Oregon. We also really appreciate their genuine commitment to equity,” said Jill Fuglister, director of Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio. “With the combination of support for branding, communications and diversity training, we’re grateful to help Pacific Rivers make its work more relevant to all of the state’s diverse communities.”
PLACES aims to advance funder efforts that empower communities of color and low-income communities to influence growth and development decision-making in their communities.
There’s lots of things to share about my time in Minneapolis, but I wanted to offer two takeaways from my visit.
The story of the Twin Cities is familiar
Not only does it evoke a host of teenage memories, but it sounds and looks a lot like Portland. The region is growing and its economy is strong. Like Portland, it has more nonprofits than most places, all working to improve the region. But, not everyone is doing well. Communities of color, low-income communities and communities that have historically experienced disparities are falling further behind while communities that have privilege are getting further ahead. Unemployment disparities are especially stark. Race, place and outcomes are highly correlated. We heard that “Minneapolis is fierce about affordable housing.” We know that Portland’s affordable housing conversation is also fierce … in that friendly, Portland way. Numerous presenters referenced a culture of “Minnesota nice” that hinders productive discourse about race. In Portland, we all know about “Portland nice.” And, it seems to cause a similar problem.
Work for equity and social change is complex
It requires collaboration and long-term commitment. It’s not the work of individuals acting in isolation or for the faint of heart.
We saw this in action during an all-day visit to the North Minneapolis Broadway Corridor — a place where community leaders demonstrate passionate commitment to their community, despite the deep disparities and challenges they face. During a panel discussion, community leaders described decades-long disinvestments in the area, while resources poured into neighboring white neighborhoods. The panel buzzed with what someone dubbed “positive tension.” The leaders didn’t agree on everything. They challenged each other’s assumptions and spoke difficult truths to each other — and to us.
DeVon Nolen, a force for positive change and Project/Market Manager of the West Broadway Business Area Coalition, led us on a tour of the corridor which included numerous nonprofits and small businesses working together. She shared creative solutions — some that haven’t yet taken hold and others that are working. For example, amidst a shower of bubbles (yes, bubbles) flowing from the rooftop of its building, Juxtaposition Arts wowed us with their youth empowerment and community development work. Along the way, we met business owners, long-time residents, and newcomers young and old, who shared impressions about the community or quizzed us about what we were doing there. Folks were clearly interested and engaged.
During lunch at Breaking Bread, an impromptu parade of several North Minneapolis leaders shared inspiring vignettes about their work. I particularly appreciated hearing from the director of Neighbors Organizing for Change who won a commitment from the state to reinvest some of the its surplus dollars into North Minneapolis. This is how real change happens.
The level of collaboration, organizing and action we saw was remarkable. Even though I grew up in the Twin Cities, I didn’t know the story of North Minneapolis or many of the other things I learned during the site visit.
Over the coming year, the PLACES program will offer me three more opportunities — in Hartford, Conn.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Jacksonville, Fla. — to hear how different funders are supporting and engaging with communities to advance equity. I look forward to sharing what I learn next time and how we can apply lessons from PLACES to our work for an equitable and flourishing Oregon.
We have covered more than a thousand miles visiting Oregon’s four corners to talk to folks about the goals of Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio and the new funding opportunities for 2016.
One of the more common questions we’ve been hearing in regards to the Healthy Environment portfolio has been: How much should I apply for?
That is a great question without a simple answer. We can say that Meyer is rarely the first funder or only funder of a project. We look for projects that leverage other resources and for projects that have the support and involvement of the community.
Each of Meyer’s portfolios offer guidelines for the 2016 funding opportunities and provide ranges for the types of requests that we’ll be accepting.
The Healthy Environment portfolio’s funding ranges can be found here. In general, we expect only to make a few grants at the high end of the range and expect that some of our grants will be one-year awards while others will be multi-year projects. We predict that awards granted at the top of the range will tend to be bigger, more complex and multi-year projects that may involve several organizations working collaboratively. In addition to project length and size, we will also look at the grant request relative to the full budget for the project and the organization, and how much of that organization’s budget Meyer would support if it has multiple grants.
No single factor determines the answer. So, consider these points and try to craft a request that makes sense within the ranges.
See more answers to questions we’ve heard on our FAQs page. And, finally, reach out to the portfolio staff or questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org) if you want to talk through a grant request size.
