Recently, Meyer invited the founding members of the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative to sit down for a conversation about what prompted their support.

The following is the edited transcript of their conversation. You can listen along here:

Roberto Franco: My name is Roberto Franco. I’m the director of the Latino Partnership Program, with the Oregon Community Foundation. The reason that the Oregon Community Foundation is involved in this is that this is part of the work that we’ve done for many years now. Finding ways and supporting the integrations of the immigrant and refugees in our communities is part of what we do, and I think this specific collaborative is just an extension of that.

Cynthia Addams: I’m Cynthia Addams. I’m the chief executive officer at The Collin’s Foundation, and we have been in some form of collaboration with the Oregon Community Foundation and the Meyer Memorial Trust, and with the MRG Foundation, too, around the deferred action for childhood arrivals program for the past few years, and so this opportunity to come together again, at a time when national policies are changing so rapidly and dramatically, it just felt like a really important time for us to work together.

Roberta Phillip-Robbins: I’m Roberta Phillip-Robbins, executive director of MRG Foundation. MRG chose to be a part of this collective effort because we have traditionally supported immigrants and refugees in our state, and recognize the importance of supporting folks who bring this richness, and who really carry our economy. We couldn’t turn away and not be part of an effort to support immigrants and refugees in our communities.

Sally Yee: I’m Sally Yee. I’m a program officer with the Building Community portfolio at the Meyer Memorial Trust. Like my colleagues here, Meyer was interested in the integration of individuals into our communities and immigrants and refugees are an important part of it. They have a long history; Oregon has a long history of immigrants and then refugees coming to this state and contributing to this state. And showing their full integration in our community benefits all of us.

Moderator: Why was a coordinated and collaborative funding process necessary to support organizations working on immigrant and refugee issues in Oregon?

Cynthia Addams: Whenever we’re thinking about immigration, we’re talking and thinking about systems, and how those systems affect so many people who are either entering in the country or living the country. All of us are affected by systems in so many ways, and when a systemic action and actions are taking place, affecting so many, it feels like systems on the ground are also really important, and coordinating and collaborating in a much more robust way is the only thing you can do when you are working to respond to very big systems that are so pervasive and difficult, troubling.

Roberta Phillip-Robbins: I believe in a nutshell, that you really increase your impact if you’re able to work together. If the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, the result is usually a stronger result. And that’s why we wanted to join the effort.

Roberto Franco: Well, it’s also at the very basic level that no one entity can support all the work that can be done. But I think there is, I mean, as the saying goes, “There is force, there is power and there is strength in the numbers.” And also at a very basic level, we often ask our nonprofit partners to find collaborations and coordinate with others. So in some ways, doing a collaborative in this fashion is leading by example, as well.

Sally Yee: I think that I’ll step back a little bit from where we are at the moment and say that when President Obama, then President Obama, released his executive order that established DACA it created an opportunity, that first opportunity, for us to get together on this particular issue. It’s not that we haven’t worked together before as funders but it created that opportunity, and allowed us to model for the community and other states what I think is an appropriate response to insuring that people who are here have every right to be here and should have full access, as anyone else, to being able to thrive where they’re living. And so, in the last few years we were working towards…we were hoping we were working towards a full rollout of DACA.

Cynthia Addams: And then even the expansion of DACA.

Sally Yee: And the expansion of DACA with DAPA, which extended the protections to the families of childhood arrivals. So that was our anticipation and hope in this last election. And in the election that all changed and it all changed very suddenly. And so the work that we’re doing now seems even more important. For all the reasons that my colleagues mentioned, us working together is smarter. It’s better service to our clients; the groups and the people out in the field doing the work. We think it’s the appropriate responsiveness of philanthropy.

Roberto Franco: Someone said something about the large impact of policy and actions, which really requires a collective action as well. And that’s what this is about: the issues and actions that impact thousands of people, and that’s why it requires a collective response.

Cynthia Addams: I think one other consideration too is the last round of grants that we made as a group, we made in the fall in November, and by the time we had reached that date, our grants to the organizations serving immigrants in the state were shifting a little bit, more toward capacity building and not quite as focused on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program. And we recognized in November, as those grants were going out, that things were changing really seriously. Which also prompted us to get everybody together shortly thereafter, everybody getting the grantees and the foundations to talk about how they were responding to the rapid changes that were happening and beginning to formulate a response on how to address those changes, and how to respond to them. So I think that really, collaboration and our ongoing conversations, and the many shifts occurring right now, certainly call all of us to work together.

We’ve also had great support from Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees for the last few years. And they have continued to provide matching funds for the work we’ve been doing which has been a great inspiration for us, too.

Roberta Phillip-Robbins: I’d like to add a little piece about this question. You know, why did we need to coordinate? There’s something about the funding process that is kind of mystical for organizations and this effort is to help demystify some of that. To create the “no wrong door” approach to funding access; to really allow grantees to be able to knock on whichever door they’re most comfortable with and have the same level of access to funding is really important. And creating an open communications system between our organizations so that we can get in touch openly and we can move the ball for grantees really efficiently.

Moderator: What larger message do you hope Oregonians take away about the idea of supporting organizations that are doing this work?

Cynthia Addams: Gosh, what message? How important it is for all of us to work together? I just want to say too, that with everything happening at the national level and with so much rhetoric around immigrants and, you know, the linkages between immigrants and the word “illegal” and “undocumented” and just all of that public rhetoric, has created a lot of fear and anxiety among people who are part of our community.

And that anxiety hasn’t just landed on people who might be undocumented; it’s affecting everyone. It’s affecting people who have lived here, and are citizens and have been for their entire lives. It’s affecting so many people, and we all need to work to make sure our friends and families and colleagues are welcome. To make sure that everybody knows they’re welcome. And that this isn’t us; this is something that’s happening but it doesn’t reflect how we feel and it doesn’t reflect our appreciation for immigrants and refugees in our communities, who are so important to all of us. So, I hope by our working together we can share the message of inclusion and appreciation.

Roberto Franco: Yeah, I have to really think this. At the very basic level of communities, people want to be part of their communities. And I think what philanthropy and the role that we have as representatives of all this philanthropy is creating that sense that people are welcome. That people have the opportunity to be a part. So the work that we’re supporting, with our resources and the collective resources, is in some ways hopefully making those opportunities more available. It’s, I think, at least at the Oregon Community Foundation, it’s people’s good will coupled with their financial resources that are put into use. So that good will that we’re transmuting…that good will with financial resources is, again, hopefully making those opportunities more available for kids, for adults, for workers, for the larger community. I think that’s the message that I would carry as part of the Oregon Community Foundation.

Roberta Phillip-Robbins: So, an additional point for me is that philanthropy represents power and privilege distilled. And for this sector, for us as representatives of the sector, to stop and to find a way to more efficiently and immediately address the needs of the community, I think says a lot about how we choose to use our power and privilege in philanthropy.

Sally Yee: I think that when we use the words immigrants and refugees, it — as we’ve had to, as we’ve been forced to, with the policies that have come out — we depersonalize and dehumanize people. These are our neighbors, our friends; they’re our colleagues. They’re family members and they’re individuals and people who, as Cynthia was saying, who — and all of us have been saying — just want to be part of this community. They want to be here and they want to be part of this community and to be able to live. So the more that we can share or communicate with folks that we’re talking about people, people you know, people you see everyday. And it’s not this, whatever this image of immigrants and refugees is or has been painted as by either the media or policy, that that’s a job, if we could take on, is part of our responsibility. To make sure that we know that these are people.

Cynthia Addams: I would also like to add that we would love to have other people join us in supporting this work, because there just isn’t enough funding out there quite yet. We are hoping that some other folks, whether they’re foundations, individuals, or organizations will join us in the work happening on the ground and helping to address the many needs that are out there. We’ve got a whole host of opportunities that people could be thinking about, in the way of grant opportunities or funding opportunities. From on the ground work, to organizing, to legal services; there’s just a wealth of things to do.

Moderator: I want to add, before we get to the last question, I wanted to throw in an additional thought- earlier you mentioned the funding that you’ve been doing as relates to DACA particularly, and how in the fall, organizations were working in capacity building and would one or all of you want to talk a little bit about how organizations, like the ones we’re gonna be supporting through this collaborative, sort of the health of those organizations? So there’s the program need, but there’s also showing that the organizations can weather unexpected storms like changes in federal policies. I mean their capacity needs to grow because the needs around them are gonna grow exponentially. Can you give me just a little thought about that? You kind of mentioned it; I realize that will be really helpful and help people understand why this matters?

Roberta Phillip-Robbins: So leading up to the election in November, it was certainly already on our radar that the need would be there, in the community, if the election were going to go one way. And on November ninth, when we realized that it went that way, there was certainly…the alarms were sounded. I think organizations had already taken inventory of what they could do with their existing capacity. And so in light of this new administration and the climate that changed in twenty-four hours for immigrants and refugees in our communities, those organizations, our local organizations, really understood that they did not have in place already what they needed to meet the onslaught. And that’s certainly what we’re trying to work within, so I think they have identified, very capably, what the need is.

Cynthia Addams: One of the things we noticed, or have noticed in the last couple of years, is how challenging it is for the number of organizations we have, and the size they are, to fully cover and serve the entire state of Oregon. And there’s been a challenge there from…it was obvious when we first started making these grants in 2012, just how difficult it is to get the resources necessary into rural Oregon to provide the clear level of service that’s needed. So the grants that we were making in the fall of 2016, it was very clear that the organizations who were seeking those grants were challenged by limited staffing, reaching the entire state with their resources, and we were hopeful that we were gonna be able to start making a difference there. I think that then, as Roberta mentioned, the huge shift that occurred certainly magnified everything. And today that brings us to an opportunity to provide even more resources and to do whatever we can to help build the system that we need to insure that our immigrants and refugees are protected and safe and contributing in the ways that they want to in our communities. Hopefully we’ll be able to make a difference. But we have a long way to go.

Roberto Franco: Yeah, and I think added to that is also the uncertainty of things, of the environment, meaning that policies could change from one week to another or from one day to another. So in a way, our collaborative approach remains nimble and flexible, to adapt to what community organizations need. And that’s one of the main elements of how we like to structure our work. As policies change, we can respond immediately in that flexible moment. So we do rely on the community organizations to let us know what they need. We have an idea of what their general needs are, but ultimately it’s the community organizations that have to educate us how best to support their work. In some cases, we might not be able to support everything or anything, but in many cases, I think, collectively we can cover a larger scope of services than if we worked as only one individually.

Cynthia Addams: That’s too, why we would love to have more people supporting us.

Roberto Franco: Yeah, well, we have reached out to our donors at the Oregon Community Foundation. And there have been responses there so people do see not only the need but the value to be a part of it. Absolutely.

Sally Yee: You know what we’ve heard in the field is that there has been a response to the policies where lawyers who are not involved with this work want to help in defense. They need training and support to do it, but they’re interested. There are people in the mental health field, organizations that do that, that are seeing a need in the community.

And so there is that kind of response and it’s not just the funders coming together. I think that there are some opportunities to allow the communities across the state to come together in response to this. Which really, we hope, shows a strong message about why this effort is really important. This is not the first time that this has happened in this country or in this state. We’ve experienced massive sweeps from ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), which was called something else at the time, in the 70s, where people were just swept up out of the field and deported. The community responded at that time as best they could — they weren’t as organized as they are now. But I think it’s worth mentioning, just so that people know that these groups are really resilient. They’ve experienced setbacks and issues like this before and while it’s sad that they have to bring back the response to that, they have been very nimble and have done that and we feel grateful that we are able to be in better response to them this time than I think the first time around.

Cynthia Addams: I think so, too. We’ve become more accustomed to working together and more comfortable over time, in responding more rapidly to opportunities than maybe we once did. We’re all a little bit more nimble.

Roberta Phillip-Robbins: Isn’t there an old African proverb that said, “if you want to go fast, go it alone, but if you want to go far, go together?” And I think we’re embodying that.

Moderator: What would success look like? And I know this is the first round. Do you want to talk further in subsequent rounds, or do you want to kind of stick to this round now? But if so, what would success look like at the end of this chapter? The end of this year?

Cynthia Addams: I guess if I were to identify some success it would be around organizations having the resources they need to respond to the current realities.

Roberto Franco: I think I’d say when one individual or when one family says, “I had the information I needed to know what to do in this situation,” or one individual says, “I had the legal information and the legal representation that I needed,” then that’s what success is. Again, it may come in different ways, but if there’s anything in that world less tangible, it’s those examples.

Cynthia Addams: Yes. People have the information and the resources and the access they need.

Sally Yee: I think that saving even one individual and a community from experiencing the trauma of being deported after having been here and been part of a community, or been part of this community, I think that again, even just saving one individual would be success. We hope for much more than that. We expect that there be much more than that. If we could begin to reset or reframe the narrative around immigrants and refugees, and their importance to all of our communities, if we could just begin to do that, that would feel like something.

Roberta Phillip-Robbins: I think success would look like fewer barriers for community groups to access funding, and to really build relationship with grantees that we’re working with so that this could be even better every year, so that our collaborative functions more smoothly and can meet the needs more closely.

Roberto Franco: We probably wouldn’t be able to measure it, because the feeling of uncertainty and the feeling of confusion is real. There’s no way for us to measure that degree of it going up or down, but it is our hope that with some of these resources we can provide, that people can find the information and resources to ease some of those uncertainties that they face. But recognizing that they are real. Money probably couldn’t solve it, but if money is part of the solution for resources, then that’s a role that we play as philanthropists.

Moderator: Thanks for joining us today in this conversation and stay tuned for more in the future. Cheers!

“Philanthropy represents power and privilege distilled,” says Roberta Phillip-Robbins, executive director of MRG Foundation.

For the people doing the muddy, demanding physical labor to restore the floodplain forests of the Willamette River Basin, a typical day goes like this:

You wake up hours before dawn and get dressed in waterproof clothing from head to toe because you’ll almost certainly be working in the rain.

You head to “the cooler,” a massive refrigeration facility near Salem, to load your truck with a few thousand cottonwoods, dogwoods, thimbleberries and other native Willamette Valley trees and shrubs.

Just after sunrise, you arrive at the riverside farm or public park where you’ll be planting. If winter rains have flooded the access road, you lug all those plants into the site on foot, unwrap the twine that secures each brown paper parcel of bare-root saplings, drop a few dozen into your knapsack, and start digging holes.

The best planters have a strong back and a distinct rhythm to their work. Dig-two-three … plant-two-three … stomp-two-three … dig-two-three …

Before sundown, you’ll have planted across hundreds of acres, preparing a future forest where native Oregon fish and wildlife will thrive.

An experienced worker can put more than 1,000 saplings into the ground in a day. By the end of the winter planting season, Willamette River Initiative grantees will have planted more than half-a-million native trees and shrubs this year along the river and its tributaries.

The planting is just one facet of a massive, basin-wide effort to achieve meaningful, measurable improvement in the health of Oregon’s largest and most heavily populated watershed with support from this Meyer initiative. Since its inception in 2008, the initiative has awarded $14 million in grants to fund restoration as well as science, advocacy and organizational capacity for groups working on the Willamette.

Learn more about the initiative, including profiles of some of the projects we’ve supported, here. And if you come across a planting crew during your next nature walk, be sure to thank them for making tomorrow’s Oregon a greener place for all.

— Kelly

Doug Stamm: Meyer’s mission is to contribute to a flourishing and equitable Oregon. That means our mission is place-based. We try to maximize impact by aligning all parts of our business in this effort. We stay focused on our mission in Oregon when awarding grants, in the day-to-day operation of our business and, to some degree, when managing our investment portfolio.

Rukaiyah Adams: Yup. We said it, “to some degree.” That’s an awkward way to put it, but that’s the way it is.

Historically, we have focused most of our resources on successfully investing Meyer’s assets in global markets. We did that because our most important fiduciary responsibility as foundation investors is to optimize risk-adjusted returns so that our program teams can continue to make grants long into the future. As a result, we have a top-performing investment portfolio. Thankfully, it is exactly that long-term success that affords us the chance to set new, more visionary objectives for mission alignment in our investment work. Although we have made opportunistic mission-related investments for about a decade, the truth is that alignment with our place-based mission has not always squared with optimizing returns. Not to mention historically we haven’t devoted enough resources to refining our alignment. Until now.

Doug: Three years ago when Rukaiyah took the helm of Meyer’s investment team, we knew that regional investing would require better thinking, more resources and greater clarity. We asked, what does it look like to find investments that lead to a more flourishing and equitable Oregon? By which methods do we share our quantitative performance information about regional investing with other technical investors? How can we better use our position as long-term, regional capital to convene, explore, catalyze and lead?

As two of Meyer’s senior leaders, it is our work to provide strategic leadership. Together with the Meyer Trustees, we agree: Mission-related investing is a strategic priority. As Mitch Hornecker said, "To create a vibrant economy with opportunity for all Oregonians — and a safety net for those in need — we must be thoughtful and strategic and carefully scrutinize our public and private investment decisions.” Decades ago, it may have been a dream to find profitable and scalable investments that allow us to incorporate mission into our investment portfolio. The tide, however, is turning. Meyer has long been part of this shift.

Rukaiyah: Scalable transformation for regional investing will require Meyer to be very clear that mission-related investing is first and foremost investing, not grantmaking; a sustained focus with buy-in at all levels of the Meyer organization; and a long-term commitment of capital. For many years, Sayer Jones, in addition to his responsibilities as Meyer’s finance director, was leading mission-related investments. In our effort to shift our strategy toward greater definition and success, Sayer will now be able to exclusively focus his time, expertise and passion as Meyer’s first director of mission related investing.

Last year alone, Sayer’s deep connections throughout Oregon made it possible for Meyer to convene Oregon’s leading innovators in economic development, which has sparked ideas and resulted in a first-ever map of the capital ecosystem to help legislators and business leaders understand the challenges facing entrepreneurs.

Recently, Sayer spearheaded Meyer’s $2 million investment in Elevate Capital. Founded by Portland-based entrepreneur and investor Nitin Rai, Elevate invests in startups led by minorities.

Make no mistake, we will continue to invest our portfolio to optimize risk-adjusted returns around the world. That will never change. However, we expect, with the addition of this strategic focus on regional investing, that there will be more options for us to do well and do good in our own backyard, here in the Pacific Northwest.

Meyer’s investment team and trustees are working to clarify mission alignment and developing a 10-year plan for mission-related investing so that we can get to work!

Stay tuned for updates from Sayer.

—Rukaiyah & Doug

If you are anything like me, you weren’t sleeping easily in the run-up to the presidential election — and haven’t been sleeping well since. You’re anxious about the present moment in our democracy, let alone the future. Maybe you feel unheard and threatened, short-tempered and stuck, targeted and helpless.

I feel both foreboding and a sense of deja vu. This political moment belies the myth of a post-racial America, an America driven to be its most equitable, inclusive and welcoming self. I am worried. I am angry. I am rattled.

Yet I have emerged from my funk of feeling overwhelmed to feeling a sense of power and purpose in my commitment to resist oppression and injustice alongside people who have had to resist both for too long.

In the current political climate, I’ve found myself doing a lot of soul-searching. I am most struck by the resurfacing of an old ugliness that has haunted our country since its origins. Racial and religious hatred and scapegoating are written into American history, and they have always been part of our present. So have systemic racism against African Americans and abuses of other minorities, including Latinos, people with disabilities, Muslims and the LGBTQ community. But to watch the shift from a simmer to a boil has shaken me, and people around me, to the core.

I am outraged by the incidents of bullying and outing and xenophobia and racism on university campuses and at K-12 schools.

I watch in real time the way demagoguery builds despair. I see journalism, a pillar of American democracy, hobbled by the rise of fake news.

I'm sickened to see the value of experience diminished, knowledge belittled and comity toward others called weakness.

Personally, and also as the CEO of the charitable trust created by Fred G. Meyer, what is happening at this moment affirms how crucial it is to be awake and dedicated to the fight for equity and inclusivity.

Don't just take my word for it, take Darren Walker’s, CEO of the Ford Foundation:

“In these times, it is easy to be discouraged. And disappointment, anger, and confusion are understandable — often reasonable — responses to the challenges we face. But we must do all we can to fight the slide into hopelessness.”

Last month, Dr. john a. powell, a widely recognized expert in the areas of civil liberties and civil rights, gave a talk at Portland Community College about equitable education as Meyer’s first Equity Series speaker. He reminded the room that philanthropy has a special role to play during uncertain political times. Politics, not partisanship, must guide our steps. And we must keep moving forward.

For me, Dr. powell’s remarks were a reminder that the work equitable philanthropy takes on can mitigate, repair and overcome the direction politics has taken. It's not about party affiliation; it is about impact. Philanthropy, the way Meyer is committed to doing it, is laser focused on making real change.

Here’s what we know: At no point in the past quarter century have our neighbors in this country been as ideologically polarized along partisan lines or as driven by political animosity, according to Pew Research Center studies in 2014 and 2016.

Hate crimes are up, way up. Hate crimes against Muslims in America soared nearly 70 percent last year, according to a new FBI report, and hate crimes overall — crimes motivated by race, ethnicity or ancestry, religious bias or bias against sexual orientation — are up by 7 percent nationwide. In New York City alone, police say 43 hate crimes have been reported since Election Day, more than double the number reported during the same time last year. And with 33 hate crime incidents reported since Nov. 8, Oregon ranks tenth in the nation for post-election intolerance, with hate-related crimes reported in Lake Oswego, Forest Grove, Hillsboro, Oregon City, Silverton, North Bend and at the University of Oregon and Reed.

If this election had happened seven years ago, the conversations we’ve been having at Meyer would likely have been different. Nothing is under the surface now. We talk about how to personally engage without demanding more of each other, how to listen and support each other. We look to our partners, listen to leaders in communities that are disenfranchised and respectfully follow their lead.

I am fully aware that I have the privilege that comes with being born white, cisgendered and male in a relatively well-off family. I can and must use all of that privilege personally and at Meyer to be a useful accomplice to the deeply disenfranchised, people who feel especially targeted and endangered by threats to deport immigrants; by religious tests; by the growing reach of white supremacists; by attacks on women, including the potential loss of reproductive freedom; by cabinet picks who disbelieve in income equity, housing aid for the poor, tribal sovereignty, climate change science and public education free from religious interference; and by rollbacks of rights for LGBTQ, DACA Dreamers, the press and civil protesters.

I don’t think there is any more important time for Meyer, philanthropy and nonprofits more broadly to “lean into” our work — to be thoughtful and strategic with all of our assets and resources to work against the recent and anticipated threats to civil liberties. We recently funded a range of organizations on the front lines (including the Muslim Education Trust, Causa, Basic Rights Oregon, Family and Community Together, Rural Organizing Project, ACLU and Unite Oregon) but that is just a start.

Here are some explicit steps you’ll now see Meyer take.

• We will call out explicit bias: No dog-whistles allowed. We say white supremacy rather than alt-right, because you just can’t rebrand racism. And we won't shy away from condemning racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and discrimination against people with disabilities.

• We will affirm our unwavering support for equity and inclusion and for building communities where all feel welcome, included and heard.

• We will remain resolute in our defense of core values: equity, tolerance and racial and social justice.

• We will hold fast to our trustees’ commitment to a spending policy at a higher level now and next fiscal year.

• We will use our voice and relationships to call regional peers to action.

• We will engage grantees and partners to guide us and will participate in community listening and learning sessions to better understand needs and where Meyer can plug into support and tactical opportunities.

• We will identify where Oregon can lead. Local action is very important. There are many examples where local action either blunted regressive federal efforts or lifted up and protected civil liberties on a local or regional level, creating models for other regions or at the federal level. As noted by Huy Ong, executive director of OPAL (Organizing People/Activating Leaders) recently noted: "Now more than ever is a time for everyone to get involved in grassroots organizing."

• We will be nimble by remaining open to time-sensitive instances where our established program strategies are not positioned to respond.

• We will factor into future program strategies the implication of national policy and funding shifts for personal or civil liberties in Oregon.

• We will engage in advocacy and use the Meyer bully pulpit to give voice to the vulnerable.

Meyer is in this for the long haul. It isn't hyperbole to say there's never been a more important time to hold fast to our values in the face of demagoguery and hate. We will lead from the front as well as lead from behind in our support of others. Either way we will not waver.

I hope you'll stand beside us.

— Doug

Marcelo Bonta, one of Meyer's three Philanthropy NW Momentum Fellows, knows a lot about the intersection of equity and environmental movements, organizations, funders and advocacy.

If you haven't checked out his latest blog for Philanthropy NW, it's worth your time.

Marcelo doesn't bury his lede:

Environmental philanthropy has a big problem.

It’s not our lack of racial diversity, especially at the executive and trustee level. It’s not the lack of funding directed towards organizations led by people of color. It’s not the lack of funding for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, despite many foundations now talking about it. It’s not the lack of investment in established leaders of color and a professional pipeline for emerging leaders of color. It’s not the underfunding of general support and capacity-building. It’s not the assumption that people of color don’t care about the environment; it’s not the lack of acknowledgement that people of color support environmental issues at higher rates than whites. It’s not the hiring of average white men instead of overqualified people of color.

All those are simply the byproducts of the big problem: White privilege.

To read the whole piece, click here.

Meyer is excited to have three of the first class of Philanthropy NW's Momentum Fellows.

Sharon Wade Ellis works as a fellow on the Housing Opportunities portfolio. She blogged about by her passions for philanthropy and housing, which ultimately brought her to Meyer.

Here's how she began her essay:

When I was a kid, I spent summers with my grandparents in their old and drafty home on Chicago's South Side. I recall going to the candy store next door, falling asleep on the enclosed back porch with the hot Midwestern summer sapping all my energy, listening to the roar of the trains rattling by. I remember navigating the rickety wooden stairs down the dirt alley to a shared garden patch where we'd pick greens and onions, and crossing the gravel parking lot to visit my great-grandmother nearby.

My grandmother would often share her own memories of that home and say, “Those were good times," and I remember thinking, "It's just an old, dilapidated house.” With each passing year, however, I grew to understand my grandmother’s feeling. There was always laughter, especially around the kitchen table. Even when hard times hit, there was a sense of security permeating every nook and cranny of that old home — and laughter wasn’t far behind.

Read all of Sharon's essay, and check out essays and blogs by other Momentum Fellows, here.

After the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked in July of 2016 on a decision halting the implementation of expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, leaders of three Oregon foundations — Cynthia Addams, executive vice president of The Collins Foundation, Nichole Maher, president and CEO of Northwest Health Foundation, and Meyer CEO Doug Stamm — issued a joint commentary calling for real, empathetic immigration reform.

Here's our call to action:

As philanthropic organizations, we work hard every day to support thriving Oregon communities: We seed small businesses and job opportunities. We partner with communities to provide kids and families with quality, affordable care and education.

We create safe, welcoming spaces for people of all cultural and religious backgrounds. We invest in affordable housing, clean rivers and healthy neighborhoods for all Oregonians.

And most importantly, we support diversity, because inclusive communities are strong communities. Our immigrant ancestors and our immigrant neighbors enrich our understanding of the world, our communities and ourselves. Oregon and the U.S. are stronger with all of us.

The recent 4-4 tie decision by the Supreme Court in Texas v. United States leaves in place a lower-court decision halting the implementation of expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans. It puts the lives of millions of immigrants and their families on hold. This deadlock prevents an estimated 5 million immigrants from gaining work authorization and protection from deportation. It also prolongs the worries and fears of their 6.4 million family members, not to mention their friends and neighbors. Our friends and neighbors.

The original Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has benefitted nearly 730,000 individuals and their families, allowing young adults to stay in their home — this country — while working and going to school. In the face of last week’s decision, we are more committed than ever to supporting the strength and resiliency of immigrant families and communities.

By welcoming immigrants, we foster thriving communities that benefit us all. We welcome families that have endured incredible hardships to leave bad situations to provide a better future for their kids. We welcome more entrepreneurs and more customers for local businesses. We welcome children who will grow up to be doctors and teachers, business owners and artists. We welcome neighbors, co-workers and friends who share our deepest dreams — the freedom to speak and pray, and the opportunity to raise healthy, happy families.

DACA and DAPA are a critical step in providing immediate stability to our neighbors, but they don’t fix our broken immigration system. We invite both our colleagues in philanthropy and decision-makers at every level to join us in support of thoughtful, national, comprehensive immigration reform. Only by addressing both these immediate needs and long-term challenges can we ensure the health and prosperity of a diverse and thriving Oregon.

Street Roots also ran the commentary in full here. 

 

Former Meyer trustee Judge Darleen Ortega penned an essay for the Summer 2016 edition of Oregon Women Lawyers' Advance Sheet.

Darleen delves into the challenges of identifying as a member of marginalized groups but being further marginalized when the subject turns to diversity.

Here's a nugget from her essay, Of Optimism and Listening Well:

Recently at a legal event, I ended up in a conversation about diversity efforts that were being undertaken by various bar organizations. You might think I entered the conversation because my input was being sought; after all, I identify as a member of some marginalized groups (Latina, woman), and have been deeply engaged in equity, diversity, and inclusion work for many years. As the work was discussed, I began to be concerned about the lack of input from members of the marginalized groups that the work purported to serve. Since my input actually wasn’t being sought, I inquired as to how members of those marginalized groups were being included in formulating and administering the efforts. The answer that I got back was that the white male speaker was only aware of other white and mostly male participants. But without missing a beat, he assured me that, given who was in charge, he was “optimistic.”

You can download Darleen's essay, and also check out Judge Adrienne Nelson's essay on the Black experience in Oregon, here.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy devoted 2,060 words to an examination of Meyer's internal and programmatic redesign in September, 2016. 

Staff writer Rebecca Koenig quoted Doug Stamm, Elisa Harrigan, Cristina Watson and Candy Solovjovs in describing how Meyer made equity the cornerstone of what it is and how it supports Oregon's nonprofit sector, its leaders and its organizations. It's a great read, thoroughly reported. 

Here's what Candy had to say about the role of in philanthropy in supporting advocacy:

There’s debate in philanthropy about whether and how to support activists who demand dramatic shifts in public policy and government behavior. For Meyer, "policy and systems change" is "key to equity work," Ms. Solovjovs says; to that end, the foundation is looking to support community organizers and "working with emerging groups we have not worked with before."

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is behind a paywall, but for the closest look to date into what is driving Meyer's change, the full story is worth your time. 

Oregon Metro News posted an excellent series of Q+As with leaders in housing and homelessness on Oct. 25, 2016.

Israel Bayer of Street Roots, Marisa Zapata of Portland State University, Michael Buonocore and Molly Rogers of Home Forward, Martha McLennan of Northwest Housing Alternatives, Cynthia Parker, BRIDGE Housing and Meyer's Michael Parkhurst shared their insights on the fight for affordability.

Here's how Michael responded to one question:

Why is Meyer interested in the issue of affordable housing? How can it help?

There was a first five-year housing initiative and we just renewed it a few years ago. Our trustees were hearing a lot from partners in the field that housing was a really important issue and a place the Trust could make a difference. Not just grantmaking, but advancing policy and issue conversations around housing, helping advise public funders and learn from the field and disseminate best practices. Funding research is another thing we can do.

This issue of widespread concern about the expensive nature of affordable housing development bubbled up as an important issue where Meyer can weigh in as an analyst. So we put together this group of experts and spent a lot of time digging into the issues. We wanted to try to evaluate the underlying implication that it was more expensive than it needed to be and somehow there is a way to do this less expensively.

You'll find the full Oregon Metro News piece here.