Last February, we announced that Meyer would sharpen our focus to make a more significant impact in areas where Oregon’s needs are greatest: education, the environment, affordable housing, and supporting leaders, organizations and networks addressing issues of equity. These are not new priorities for us but we refined our focus in recognition that these issues are highly complex, the problems are entrenched and the ways that they have been addressed have not always worked. Our new approach seeks to achieve more measurable impact. The top to bottom strategic redesign of our programs and inner processes was accompanied by a re-alignment of Meyer’s existing staff into new dedicated teams, new hires, a new website and a new look. Impact and clarity are our overriding goals.

We are still a few months from accepting grant applications through our four new program portfolios. But we wanted to share a bit about where we are in the process and what’s to come.

We expect to release grant application guidelines in March, including the full schematics of criteria, how to apply and where we will direct our funding. In April, we will begin accepting applications, staging the dates for each portfolio over the course of the month. The education portfolio, a new major focus area, will roll out later in 2016.

Over the past year, as we redefined what we do and how we do it, we’ve heard one question over and over: why is one of Oregon’s largest private foundation going through this transformation? The answer, in a word, is equity.

Our future direction

The majority of our funding already supports the four fields we will focus on, all of which we believe are critical factors in creating an Oregon where people can reach their full potential. That’s what equity is about.

The portfolios are:

Healthy Environment, tasked with nurturing a resilient natural environment, diverse cultures and thriving communities. This portfolio includes both support across the state and for our Willamette River Initiative.  A key vision of this area is for environmental impacts and benefits to be shared equitably among and throughout communities. We will primarily support strategies that further environmental justice; bring together environmental stewardship, community well-being and economic vitality; foster a diverse and inclusive environmental movement; and support healthy natural systems. Policy/advocacy, movement building, innovation, capacity building and collaboration will be prominent. Visit the Healthy Environment portfolio page to learn more and meet the team.

Housing Opportunities, focused on opening doors to opportunity and strengthening communities through safe and affordable housing. This portfolio will include the Affordable Housing Initiative, which will continue as designed, as well as broader support for housing across the state. Strategies that support Oregonians with low incomes, primarily those living on incomes around 60% of the median, will be prioritized. The focus will primarily be on people living in affordable rental housing, with some support reaching people experiencing homeless to the extent services have a direct nexus to more permanent housing. Homeownership as it connects to housing stability and self-sufficiency will also be included. Beyond the AHI, support will be targeted to developing and preserving more units, supporting residents in reaching their potential, mitigating displacement and strengthening organizations that are addressing affordable housing needs. Capital grants will be available, with Program Related Investments targeted to intermediaries. Visit the Housing Opportunity portfolio page to learn more and meet the team.

Building Community, which supports leaders, organizations and networks addressing issues of equity and contribute to vibrant, inclusive communities. We have changed the name of this area, previously referred to as Resilient Social Sector, based on community feedback. This portfolio will prioritize strategies designed to change social conditions by dismantling inequities, increasing equitable opportunities for historically marginalized populations and working to build inclusive communities. The vast majority of funding will support work that directly addresses equity issues, including race, ethnicity, income, gender, sexual orientation and ability. We expect to support policy and systems change work, capacity building, expanding effective services, innovations, arts and cultures, civic engagement and leadership development through this portfolio. Visit the Building Community portfolio page to learn more and meet the team.

Equitable Education, aimed at ensuring meaningful public education for all. This portfolio will include The Chalkboard Project, as well as broader support for educational opportunities across the continuum – from early childhood through post-secondary and workforce training. We’ll place emphasis on strategies that improve Oregon student achievement and close gaps, particularly for low-income students, students of color and first generation college students. We expect to pay close attention to approaches and ideas that have the potential to make policy and systems-level impact. More specifics will be developed over the next year. Visit the Equitable Education portfolio page to learn more.

With all of this work, we will be looking in Oregon and in organizations for the greatest opportunities to support the field in furthering equity. We will continue to include multi-year funding, core support, capacity building and technical assistance to grassroots as well as established organizations. We will also pay attention to policy/advocacy, and supporting, networks, systems and innovation. We will extend our role beyond traditional grantmaker to amplify leadership and collaboration.

Why equity deserves Meyer’s attention

Equity is the central tenet of Meyer’s redoubled commitment to making measurable progress in Oregon in the areas of education, the environment, affordable housing and building community.

Organizations around the state have long attacked inequity at its roots, advocating for equity through social justice, affordable housing, LGBTQ equality, healthcare, immigrant rights, improved educational opportunities, inclusive environmental stewardship, and arts that build community. Meyer joins their efforts to make Oregon flourish by helping close gaps created by inequities.

We didn’t arrive here overnight. For the past several years, the staff and Trustees at Meyer have becomes students of how bias and oppression — via race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, ability and age — are embedded within the institutions and systems in our community. We see them within ourselves, within the Meyer Memorial Trust itself and more broadly within the field of philanthropy. We remain a work in progress. While we will still support some work that may not have equity as a primary focus, we will ask all our partners to explore equity within the context of their organizations and we challenge them to make progress on integrating equity in their work, partnerships, outreach, policies, staff and boards. It is work we embrace — and Meyer is a better foundation because of the changes.

As we learn more about the equity work being done across Oregon, we intend to use our leadership to expand its impact.

These are just a few of the changes observers will notice about the new Meyer.

What else is changing?

We are not only changing our programs, we’re changing how we work.

The field has encouraged us to do more than just fund — they’ve challenged Meyer to step more confidently into leadership roles around our priorities. So, in addition to direct grantmaking, Meyer will bring new vigor to our role as convener, capacity builder and advocate. And equally important, we will use our influence to support systems change and advocacy around topics of critical importance to the field. You will see this take form over the coming years.

In order to take on this challenge, we have also made changes to how we do our grantmaking.

Going forward, Meyer will issue calls for proposals under the four portfolios and make funding decisions a few times a year. We will no longer have open, rolling application periods. We’ll announce more details on this in March.

We will make funding decisions based on the strongest opportunities to further our goals, and will look for partners who share our priorities and are committed to understanding the impact and effectiveness of their work. In the past, 70 percent of Meyer’s awards each year were made through our now-shuttered Responsive Grants and Grassroots Grants programs. We responded to individual requests without holistic goals in mind or clear ways to measure the impact of our funding: even grants made within the same field were isolated and difficult to track. Beginning next year we will have impact in mind when we consider proposals.

What won’t change is our commitment to being responsive and engaged with our partners across the state. We anticipate immediate benefits for Meyer and Oregon nonprofits: together, we will be more effective at making systems level change. Together, we will be more nimble to respond to what is working and what is not. And together, we will maximize what our funds can do.

Meyer’s new teams

This summer and fall, we’ve been building strong portfolio teams. We are especially excited to have gathered four portfolio directors with the right mix of skills, expertise and relationships to guide Meyer on this journey. Meet Jill Fuglister, Theresa Deibele, Dahnesh Medora and Matt Morton.

Jill Fuglister is the director of Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio. Sixteen years in the environmental field have given Jill a broad base of expertise, from traditional conservation to sustainability to environmental justice. And Jill’s experience integrating and operationalizing equity into environmental work is unique in the field. We’re so pleased Jill, who was a program officer at Meyer for four years, will be leading our work at the nexus of Oregonians and our natural environment.

Theresa Deibele serves as director of Meyer’s Housing Opportunities portfolio. Theresa has deep roots in management, finance, community development and the law, but it is her relationships in the statewide housing nonprofit community, from housing authorities to large multifamily housing developers, and from housing advocates to organizations serving people experiencing homelessness, that give her special insights into the housing field. It’s a pleasure to have Theresa, also a former Meyer program officer, running point on housing.

Dahnesh Medora directs Meyer’s Building Community portfolio. Dahnesh's deep expertise and long experience with local and national philanthropy, team leadership and nonprofit organizational development and capacity building provides an excellent foundation for launching this portfolio tasked with supporting strong leaders, networks and organizations across Oregon. We are excited to have a veteran of organization strengthening and leadership development taking the lead over this vitally important portfolio.

Matt Morton (Squaxin Island Tribe) will join Meyer in January as director of Meyer’s Equitable Education portfolio. Matt, currently the executive director of the Native American Youth and Family Center, couples a proven history of nonprofit and public leadership with a deep understanding of equity and disparities across the education continuum — from early childhood to K-12 to post-secondary opportunities. We’re grateful that someone so highly respected in Oregon's nonprofit and public sectors will be sitting at education policy tables on Meyer’s behalf.

These and other hires happened during a whirlwind year at Meyer.

How about that hiatus?

We called the nine-month transition period from Responsive and Grassroots Grantmaker to portfolio-based foundation “a hiatus.” Hiatus implies taking a breather. This year offered little of that. We continued awarding grants while the development was going on. And our Willamette River Initiative and Affordable Housing Initiatives have remained in full swing through funding, convening and collaborating. Record amounts awarded in 2014 and 2015 totalled nearly $100 million. And as we implement this new plan over the coming year, we expect to continue to fund at these levels.

The organization grew from 27 to 32, and will reach close to 40 within the next year, including three Momentum Fellows from Philanthropy Northwest. Our staff is talented, curious, dedicated and eager to help Meyer continue to evolve. But we also said goodbye to valued members of the Meyer Trust family, including longtime Trustee Orcilia Zúñiga Forbes, who died in August. Look for a Board Member announcement in January.

While we wound down our grants programs and worked through hundreds of applications, we began outreach in our four focus areas. We learned so much from community listening sessions, focus groups, expert interviews and learning panels. What we heard helped shape our direction. We heard clear calls for Meyer to remain innovative and bold in both the leadership we provide and the issues and programs we fund. We especially appreciated the groundswell response to our surveys: we received close to 1,000 responses from Oregon advocates working for equitable public policy, organizations cultivating culturally specific communities, volunteers at arts groups and food banks, members of land trusts and so many other voices in between.

What we heard was humbling and inspiring. You told us you supported our shift and would be watching to make sure we lived up to our own new standards. While the specifics of our grant programs have evolved over the past 33 years, Meyer’s commitment to invest and work with communities, nonprofits, ideas and efforts remains — in fact, continues to grow stronger. We appreciate Oregon’s nonprofit community. Thank you for helping to guide our evolution.

Please stay tuned for the release of our application guidelines in March, followed in April by the opening of our application process. The best way to keep abreast of Meyer’s evolution? Sign up for our monthly Meyer Mail and visit mmt.org. You can also check out our FAQ page for answers to your questions, which we will update as new queries come in.

— Doug Stamm, Chief Executive Officer
— Candy Solovjovs, Director of Programs

This week, Meyer welcomed two new trustees, Toya Fick and the Hon. Darleen Ortega, something that has only happened six times since the doors of the Meyer Memorial Trust opened 33 years ago. 

We are excited to announce that Toya and Darleen will join George Puentes, Charles Wilhoite, Debbie Craig and John Emrick on Meyer's Board of Trustees.

Their appointments fill the vacancy created after the death in August of longtime trustee, Orcilia Zúñiga Forbes, and an additional vacancy created by an amendment to the Trust's bylaws that allows for more than five members.

Both new trustees bring passions for education, equity and civic life.

Toya, born and raised in central Louisiana, is the executive director for Stand for Children, Oregon. She was the first in her family to attend college, graduating from the University of Chicago with a degree in political science before launching a career as a teacher, first in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with Teach For America, and later at a charter school in Washington, D.C. She also served as a policy advisor to former Senator Hillary Clinton, authoring three education bills, and then worked on education policy with the Alliance for Excellent Education.

When Toya first arrived in Portland in 2010, she served as associate director of Oregon Health & Science University's local and federal relations. In June 2014, she was tapped to lead Stand Oregon. She juggles work with family: Toya lives in Northeast Portland with her husband and two young children while remaining deeply involved in civic life. She has served on the boards of City Club of Portland, Oregon Food Bank and the Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission.

Darleen was born in Southern California and raised in Banks, Oregon, a rural community 20 miles west of Portland. Class valedictorian at Banks High School, she earned a B.A. degree with summa cum laude honors from George Fox University and juris doctorate with magna cum laude honors from the University of Michigan Law School. In 2003, Darleen was elected as the first woman of color to serve on the Oregon Court of Appeals, where she is now one of the most senior members, having authored more than 415 opinions.

Darleen also serves on the board of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she chairs the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She co-founded OneGeorgeFox, an alumni organization that advocates for LGBTQ students at her alma mater. She has served on the board of Northwest Health Foundation, where she chaired the Equity Committee. And in 2013, Darleen was awarded the Oregon Women Leaders Award from Portland State University.

In his will defining the Trust, Fred Meyer created wide parameters to guide his trustees: "Realizing as I do the uncertainties of the future, I want my trustees to be able to exercise broad discretion in shaping and carrying out charitable programs which can be tailored to fit changing conditions and problems."

Please join us in welcoming Toya and Darleen to the Meyer Memorial Trust team!

It's a pleasure to share the good news that Matt Morton has joined Meyer as Director of our new Equitable Education portfolio.

As we began the search for someone to direct our new Equitable Education Portfolio, we knew we were looking for someone with a proven history of leadership, someone who holds a deep understanding of equity and disparities across the education continuum, someone who could effectively sit at education policy tables and someone who has earned the respect of Oregon's nonprofit and public sectors. Matt Morton (Squaxin Island Tribe) hit the mark across the board!

Many of you know Matt through his leadership in the community, including his roles with several Meyer grantee organizations. Most recently, he served as Executive Director of the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), which enriches the lives of youth and families through education, community involvement and culturally specific programming. Among NAYA’s many services are early childhood programming (including Head Start), K-12 academic and social supports, an early college academy and college and career services. Previously, Matt served as the Deputy Director for the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), an organization addressing issues of child abuse and neglect through training, research, public policy and grassroots community development. Meyer has long histories of supporting both of these organizations, and we have been impressed with Matt's vision and zest for change over our years of working with him.

Matt's career has centered on education. Elected to the Portland Public Schools Board in 2011, he recently completed a four-year term. He serves on the board of directors for All Hands Raised, a Meyer grantee that is a nonprofit-public-private partnership dedicated to ensuring equity and excellence in education for all children in six school districts in Multnomah County. Matt is also co-chair of both the Education Justice Committee of the Coalition of Communities of Color (another Meyer grantee) and the Eliminating Disparities in Child & Youth Success Collaborative of the Coalition and All Hands Raised.

In addition, Matt currently serves on Portland State University’s Graduate School of Education Advisory Council, Portland Community College’s President’s Advisory Council, the Oregon Department of Education‘s American Indian/Alaska Native Oregon Education State Plan Advisory Panel, the Center for Community-Initiated Research to Advance Racial Equity Advisory Council, and the Wells Fargo Community Advisory Board, among others. He also serves on the executive committee for the Coalition of Communities of Color.

In his spare time, Matt enjoys time with his seven-year-old son, Marcus, his wife, Courtaney, and their puppy, Penny June.

We couldn’t be happier to have Matt lead our fourth portfolio!

Please join me and Doug in giving Matt a warm welcome to Meyer!

— Candy

As philanthropy has begun to shift the conversation from equality towards equity, we've seen (and experienced at Meyer) the challenges of accurately conveying the complex goals of equity in a way that is simple and easily understandable.

Equality is focused on giving all people the same things. By providing the same input, equality expects similar outputs. While equality can work well in binary situations, the concept has proven to be unsuccessful in more complex settings.

Take Meyer’s office plants, for example. All of our plants receive the same amount of sunlight, water and attention. But most remain stagnant and a couple have actually begun to wilt. When I think about botanical diversity, these outcomes are more than just plausible, they’re expected. The solution to our wilting problem isn’t new plants, its plant equity.

Which seems pretty simple right? You don’t give a diverse group of plants the same thing, you give each plant the proper care and resources it needs in order to reach its full potential. If we treated our plants equitably, they’d all have the chance to thrive.

People are more complicated than plants. To reach their full potential, people need systemic barriers that stand in their way to be removed.

Even in the foundation world, where people like myself are actively engaged in equity work, it can be a difficult concept to articulate. Graphics like this commonly shared one have been immensely helpful at moving the conversation forward, by providing an image that can be easily interpreted by a broad audience.

In this recent blog post on LinkedIn, Aasha M. Abdill does a marvelous job of addressing that baseball game graphic, and its insidious, implicit bias. Her critique is one reason we sponsored Equity Illustrated, to help develop a better visual tool to help lead us to greater clarity and consensus around equity and how it differs from equality. Often, the simplest images can help convey the most complex idea.

Just last year this simple animated video, inspired by this article, compared sexual consent with drinking tea. As complex as consent can be, after watching the short video, consent becomes as straightforward as drinking a cup of tea.

We’re hoping for similar results illustrating equity so that all Oregonians can understand this critical concept. 

So, can you help us illustrate why equity is just as simple as tea? Ten days remain in our contest. Pick your medium and grab your supplies and enter by midnight, Thursday, March 31st.

— DDJ

When Meyer’s current five-year Affordable Housing Initiative launched in 2014, it felt audacious. We worked with the field to craft a refreshed framework of strategies, aimed towards innovation, systems change and the leveraging of resources.

With two dedicated and experienced program officers leading the initiative, we set out to change how Meyer advanced its affordable housing work. And the equity focus that is now central to Meyer’s work was, in several key ways, first tested through AHI’s work over the last two years.

Now it’s time to take stock of our progress to date. Kristina Smock Consulting recently completed an assessment of the first full year of AHI’s refreshed grantmaking. Evaluation highlights include:

• The Preservation and Rural Housing strategies continue to achieve significant impact in preserving affordable housing across the state (p. 9-11 and p. 12-15, respectively);
• The Sustaining Portfolios strategy, in partnership with technical assistance provider, Housing Development Center, produced a trove of data about the state of ten housing portfolios, including 157 properties (p. 16-18);
• The Cost Efficiencies strategy convened an expert group to identify cost drivers and opportunities for reducing the cost of developing affordable housing (p. 19-22);
• While Oregon wrestles with a historically low vacancy rate, the Private Market strategy helped strengthen understandings of HB-2639 Housing Choice Voucher reform law, illuminated the challenges faced by low-income and underserved populations, and strengthened relationships (p. 23-27); AHI also learned promising strategies that may flourish in a market with normal vacancy rates;
• Grants made under the Advocacy strategy contributed to momentum around key local housing priorities, strengthened and diversified state-level engagement, supported 2015 legislative wins and set the stage for a robust 2016 legislative agenda (p. 31-36);
• All of the Requests For Proposals were framed with an equity lens and three-quarters of the AHI grants were awarded to projects and organizations that fulfilled at least one of the four AHI equity objectives (p. 39-47);
• Meyer’s intention around reaching all regions of the state was largely achieved, with  a significant amount of grants outside the urban Willamette Valley (p. 43);
• Goals to reach projects or organizations that served a majority people of color showed mixed success; of all the year one projects funded, 31% had projects that served a majority of people of color and 37% were for organizations that serve a majority of people of color (p. 44);
• Meyer faces challenges in implementing data collection and gathering outcomes on equity indicators (p. 40-41) and we have ample room for improvement; and
• Meyer continues to refine our AHI strategies, based on data and feedback from the field. We worked to add the Sustaining Portfolios strategy (p. 16) and modified the advocacy strategy after year one to be both wider in scope, with deeper investments over 1-2 years (p. 36).

 

The AHI Year One Evaluation is a sign Meyer remains committed to learning, in all forms. We built a convening structure into the AHI that facilitates sharing between grantees, field practitioners and Meyer. We continue to convene multi-sector workgroups on tough issues and will spread the findings of those groups. In the coming year, our AHI program officers will share blog posts about each of the strategies, highlighting both challenges and successes. And we know that dedicated time for learning and reflection, coupled with annual evaluations from an outside consultant, are critical to successful execution of the Initiative.

It’s clear that Meyer can’t do this work alone; we rely every day on housing developers, providers, advocates, community members and funders to carry out the vision that every Oregonian has a decent, safe and affordable place to call home.

We welcome your feedback on this Year One Evaluation of the AHI, and look forward to learning together in the coming years.

— Theresa

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.

Don’t forget: the deadline to submit inquiry applications for the 2016 Healthy Environment funding opportunities is 5 p.m. on Monday, June 6th, 2016.

Since arriving in January, I’ve been focused on developing Meyer’s investment strategy to improve educational equity in Oregon. Now I’m hoping you will weigh in at Oregon’s Kitchen Table. The survey is available in both English and Spanish.

To Meyer, equitable education is defined as improving outcomes so that students of color, first-generation students and students living in poverty all achieve educational success. It also means identifying and reducing the disparities in how our most underserved students experience education. In early 2017, we will begin inviting organizations to submit proposals on educational equity; your input now will ensure that Meyer’s strategy represents the views, and articulates the needs, of stakeholders across Oregon.

It’s important to Meyer to have feedback about Oregonians’ values on equitable education. Meyer wants to hear from people at educational institutions, coordinating councils, school districts, early learning hubs, municipalities, institutions of higher education, government, foundation partners and other Oregonians who care about education. Your insights will help Meyer as we work to develop strategies that improve Oregon student achievement and close gaps in educational opportunities and outcomes.

Your feedback will be compiled by Oregon’s Kitchen Table, and all responses are anonymous. Following an inclusive engagement process with stakeholders, a summary report will be shared later this summer.

The last day to submit your feedback was Wednesday, May 25th.

Thank you in advance for participating in this process, and please don’t hesitate to contact us at questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org) should you have any questions.

— Matt

Since announcing the 2016 Funding Opportunities in March, we have had many great conversations with organizations from across the state. We’ve heard compelling ideas, learned about fabulous work and gained new insights about communities in all corners of our state.

One common theme: we’re hearing a lot interest and questions from groups that are considering submitting an application on behalf of a collaborative. We are excited about the energy for new levels of collaboration in the field, and we highly value efforts to unite interests and work across issues. At Meyer, we understand the power of collaboration and recognize that we cannot work in isolation if we are to make meaningful progress toward an equitable and flourishing Oregon.

This is exactly why we created a place within our new funding opportunities to support collaborative work. As you know from our application information, an organization may submit one proposal for itself and one proposal on behalf of a collaborative. Our intention is to avoid forcing groups to choose between their own organizational needs and the needs of a collaborative effort in which they are involved.

Many of you have asked what makes for a strong collaborative proposal to Meyer and what you should consider in deciding whether to be part of a collaborative proposal. Here are a few things to think about as you decide whether and how to approach Meyer for support of your collaborative efforts through our current funding opportunities:

— Meyer grants will support collaboratives that communicate clear and compelling purposes that align with our funding goals, demonstrate clear partner commitments and roles, and have clear decision-making structures. We want to be clear that we are not asking organizations to create new partnerships just to be eligible for funding. In fact, quickly convened collaborations for the purpose of applying for a Meyer grant are not likely to be competitive. We are looking to partner with collaboratives that are well-organized, meaningfully share resources and decision-making, and are ready to take action.

If your collaborative is just being established or has operated informally and is now ready to become more structured, a technical support grant for planning and development will likely be the best fit for you. Each of the 2016 funding opportunities offer technical support grant opportunities of between $10,000 and $35,000 (depending on portfolio), which could support such planning.

It is also important to understand that available grant dollars are limited — not all collaboratives that apply are likely to be funded, and only one partner should apply on behalf a particular collaborative.

— If your organization is involved in multiple applications through a variety of partnerships and collaborations, help us to understand your priorities and capacity.We’ve heard from a number of organizations that are considering being partners in a number of grant applications in this funding cycle. Keep in mind that as we review applications, it may be difficult for us to understand how your organization is juggling its involvement in numerous collaborations or coalitions, especially if you have a small staff team or are volunteer-run. As you put together your proposals, help us to understand your capacity to be active and engaged in multiple partnerships. Also, consider what your organization’s key priorities are for Meyer funding and make this clear to us in your proposal(s), recognizing that not every Meyer application you are involved in may be funded.

— The total amount of funding you have or are requesting from Meyer is a factor in our decision-making. We believe that diverse sources of revenue make organizations strong and that too much support from any one source, including Meyer, can create challenges with sustainability and community perceptions of independence. As we consider a proposal from your organization, we will also be considering the amount of Meyer funds your organization is receiving through existing grants, as well as new funding being requested for your organization, including through collaborative proposals.

If you have a current Meyer grant and/or are considering being involved in multiple proposals and would like guidance about the amount of funding you are considering requesting, please contact us.

— Remember that each of the 2016 Funding Opportunities has a finite amount of grant funds available. Each funding opportunity has a specific “up to” grant budget for this year, so the total funded proposals will not exceed these amounts in 2016 funding:

$3.5 million, Housing Opportunities
$5 million, Building Communities
$2.5 million, Healthy Environment

We expect these limited dollars will be dedicated to work across Oregon and across our funding goals. Again, if you are involved in multiple proposals, help us to understand your highest priorities, knowing that not all these proposals may be funded.

You may have other questions and we welcome those, too. Please contact us at questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org) or call us at 503-228-5512. We are excited for the opportunity to support collaborative work that will further our mutual goals! We hope these tips will guide decisions on how best to approach Meyer for support. As always, our team will be happy to assist you.

We are saddened to share the news that Gerry Pratt – the last trustee named in Fred G. Meyer’s will establishing a charitable trust from his personal estate – died last week. He was 88.

The last living member, and longest serving, of Meyer Memorial Trust’s original trustees, Gerry passed away on Friday. Few details are available at this point in time, but his daughter, Barbara Blackhurst, says that his passing was peaceful.

Born in 1927, Gerry’s career carried him through years as an Oregonian reporter and foreign correspondent, as a contributor to the public radio program “All Things Considered,” as host of the television program “Town Hall,” and as a columnist for the Community Press, a Portland newspaper. He went on to work in leadership roles in Fred Meyer’s enterprise, including as head of the Fred Meyer Savings and Loan, and served as a Meyer trustee over three decades. He could be depended on to answer the question, “What would Fred Meyer do?”

A published author, Gerry once described the role of philanthropy this way:

“There is very little the Trust can do to shape society, but it can sometimes point the way by lighting up neglected corners of need. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of making only safe grants, but that really negates the purpose of a foundation. What we do is like a flashlight in a dark room. We can help find the light switch. We are successful when we do that, not by adding light to an already bright room.”

Those who knew Gerry recalled his enormous contribution to Fred Meyer’s legacy and his deep connection with his mentor, boss and friend of many years.

“Gerry was extremely close to Fred Meyer, so we have lost our strongest connection to our founder but we were fortunate to have his steady hand and influence over the Meyer Trust for so many years,” said Doug Stamm, Meyer’s chief executive officer.

A funeral mass will be held for Gerry at 11 a.m. on Monday, July 18, at St. Mary’s Cathedral, 1716 NW Davis Street, in Portland.

Q: Where did the idea for Equity Illustrated come from?

Darion: Equity Illustrated was created as our attempt to visually synthesize our understanding of equity and its complexities in a way that could be easily understood. Pretty much everyone in the nonprofit world has seen that image of three people standing on crates alongside a fenced baseball field. We — Meyer Memorial Trust and Northwest Health Foundation’s communications staff— saw it used a number of times at the 2015 Communications Network conference last fall and talked about how helpful it was in highlighting the differences between equity and equality. But the original image has problems. For one thing, it doesn’t address the systemic disparities that equity seeks to overturn. We decided that to dive deeper into the dialogue about equity in Oregon, we needed to start a conversation at home about what equity looks like in our communities — and find a way to help people understand exactly what we mean when we say “equity.”

Q: Why a design contest?

Laura: We could have gone so many different directions with this. We could have held an essay or video contest. We could have hired a designer to create an image illustrating equity and had much more control over the final product. But a design contest made the most sense to us for two reasons. Reason one: Humans interpret images in milliseconds and remember images much more readily than words. Images are also the easiest way to catch and keep people’s attention and spread information, whether on the Internet, in a presentation or in print. Reason two: Meyer Memorial Trust and Northwest Health Foundation look to communities to guide us in our work. We didn’t want to create an image to show people how we understand equity. We wanted community members to show us how they experience and understand equity, and we wanted Oregonians to talk to each other and help each other understand what equity means for Oregon.

Q: What was the response to the contest?

Darion: Robust! Our community partners helped us spread the word about Equity Illustrated to nearly 33,000 Oregonians across social media channels. We heard from folks who went old school, using emails, coffee dates and even phone calls (!) to promote the contest. But we also heard from, and were grateful for, people who passed along details about the contest via Facebook, Twitter, memes, videos, blogs, reshares and likes.

Q: Who benefits?

Laura: Through equity, we can improve life for all Oregonians. But it’s difficult to achieve equity when people don’t know what it means. With these images in hand, it will be easier for us and our community partners to explain equity to Oregon’s elected officials, to our peer grantmakers, business owners, teachers and school administrators, nonprofit staff and board members, health care workers and all Oregonians. When people understand what equity means, together we can move toward a more equitable Oregon!

Q: Who entered the contest and how were the winners chosen?

Darion: The response to Meyer and NWHF announcing the contest was huge. We saw excitement all over social media and through word of mouth.

Just over 40 youths and adults from across the state submitted entries to the contest. They ranged in age from 10 to 63. We drew together a panel of 11 volunteers from local nonprofits, social justice organizations, youth leadership groups and other foundations, as well as experts in design and art. The panel reflected Oregon’s diverse communities of color, sexual identity and disability, along with a range of age, socioeconomic backgrounds and privilege. They selected winners based on a rubric that considered design, understandability and impact, message and content, creativity, accuracy, and inclusiveness.

Q: What did you learn from the contest?

Laura: My own understanding of equity has become more complete. Before we ran this contest, I didn’t see any conceptual problems with the original equality vs. equity illustration.After researching and reading articles about equity, seeing illustrations from people all over Oregon, and hearing from all of the community members who judged the entries and chose our finalists, I understand that equity is more complex than boxes, a fence and baseball can represent. Furthermore, communities experience equity, and barriers to equity, in more ways than could ever be captured by a single image.

I also learned that equity is an issue Oregonians care about deeply and passionately.

Darion:  Like Laura, I, too, feel greater clarity and a deepened understanding of equity. For me, one of the most valuable things I learned through this process is how beneficial actively listening and engaging can be, and I feel the listening portion is often overlooked. Being a part of an intentional process of community inclusion and engagement (both hallmarks of Meyer and Northwest Health) showed me how crucial it is to any organization doing equity work.  

Q: What’s next?

Laura: That is a good question. First and foremost, we’ll be working to spread the winning images as far and wide as possible. These images were made to explain equity, and that’s what we’ll be using them for. We hope others will use them for that as well.

As far as the contest goes, and whether we’ll run it again, that’s something we haven’t talked about yet. To be determined.

Darion: Laura’s right! Our first mission is to get these images out to the community as tools for other foundations, nonprofits and community members, whether they’re just beginning their equity journeys or already engaged in conversations around equity. These images weren’t meant to be the end all of the conversation, only an entry point to help people dive a little bit deeper. I also hope that people who maybe thought they knew everything there was to know about equity are able to learn a little bit more.

Personally, I don’t think equity work is ever done.

You can learn more about the contest winners here and view the winning illustrations here.