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.

Grantee StoriesNovember 8, 2016

Sleek, remodeled Earl Boyles Elementary — full of natural light, bright yellow walls, state-of-the-art courtyard play structures and technology-rich classrooms — stands at the corner of Southeast 112th  Avenue and Bush Street, in one of the poorest and most diverse sections of Portland.

Five years ago, median household income was $29,457 in the Earl Boyles enrollment zone, just 60 percent of the county median income of $49,049. More than a quarter of families primarily spoke a non-English language at home, and 24 percent of adults had not completed high school.

So, how did one of Oregon’s most-challenged elementary schools become a beacon of transformation?

The school’s statewide test ranking has skyrocketed from 8.3 percent in 2009 to 48.2 percent today. Attendance rates hover just below 100 percent. Students pour outside at the end of the school day, giggling excitedly to see Principal Ericka Guynes, Oregon’s 2013 Elementary Principal of the Year.

Wrap-around services and early learning opportunities for Earl Boyles students and their families stand as national models. So does its English-language learners programming and a slate of pre-K programming that helps families of young children connect with literacy and financial education classes, parenting tools and social services.

School district leaders, staff, volunteers, county programs and nonprofits connected with parents early and are sticking with them for the long haul. That recipe of partnership, especially programming designed around a community vision, is the secret of Earl Boyles’ success, and it offers hope for schools across the country.

As one Earl Boyles parent put it: “I never thought my children would have access to an education like this.”

Many people saw potential in Earl Boyles Elementary, including Swati Adarkar, president and co-founder of Portland’s Children’s Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for young children in Oregon. Adarkar has built a national reputation as a champion for early child care and education between birth and age 8. To Adarkar, the focus has real urgency because research shows that when kids — especially children from low-income families — don’t read at grade level by the third grade, their chances of graduating from high school plummet.

In 2008, only 65 percent of Oregon’s third-graders were reading at grade level, with much lower rates in poorer areas. And high school graduation rates place Oregon third from the bottom in national rankings.

Adarkar has spent the past few decades crisscrossing the country in search of successful early-engagement models that might work in Oregon.

It was on one trip to Chicago that she found true inspiration. There she met the leaders of Educare, which used funds from the Ounce of Prevention Fund to create a state-of-the-art school on Chicago’s South Side for low-income infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families. Educare’s programs focus on literacy, language, early math and social-emotional skills, and staffers join with parents to help them become champions for their children’s education and achieve their education goals.

Adarkar called up then-David Douglas School District superintendent Don Grotting, a future Oregon superintendent of the year and student of early-intervention research. The superintendent immediately tapped Principal Guynes, who was making a name for herself as a then-new principal by translating forms into Spanish (a dominant language at Earl Boyles) and arranging caregiver get-togethers that transformed the school’s booster “club” of just one person into a thriving group.

They reached out to Portland State University’s Center for the Improvement of Child and Family Services to help design a program with the help of Earl Boyles’ families. They partnered with Mt. Hood Community College Head Start on how best to utilize their services. And they coordinated the onsite services of the Multnomah Early Childhood Program and the pre-existing Schools Uniting Neighborhoods (SUN) program at Earl Boyles by planning for more services and parent engagement.

Together, the team raised money, studied and planned for two years before hatching Early Works, a 10-year initiative at Earl Boyles with a focus on children ages 3-5. In 2012, the team took a big step forward by hiring a former migrant education recruiter, Andreina Velasco, as their first Early Works Parent & Community Engagement Coordinator based at Earl Boyles. A bilingual native of Venezuela, Reed College alum and young mother, Velasco had learned the hard way as a Portland Public Schools teacher that children often aren’t socially and emotionally prepared for school. For Velasco, Portland’s K-12 system wasn’t set up to help every child succeed. Early Works was a personal, direct approach to address the gap.

Velasco partnered with the SUN program and Portland State University to find names, phone numbers and addresses of families who might one day send students to Earl Boyles. She talked to children at the school about young siblings still at home. She went door to door, visiting their families so they knew her. Her work was especially important when the Early Works team embraced a bigger, tougher ambition: reaching families of newborns and toddlers. New brain and social science research showed that the earlier educators reached children and parents, the sooner children would be ready to learn — even before they were born. Soon, Early Works enrollment began to double, then triple, as engagement with families became deeper and more committed.

An onsite staffer, known as a Family Resource Navigator, began connecting families to various services, including Portland’s housing agency, Home Forward. Padres Unidos, which translates into Parents United, the school’s parent leadership group, is fully facilitated, managed and promoted by parent leaders. The group reviews Early Works evaluation data, and numerous caregivers have overcome English-language challenges to advocate for early learning by giving speeches and providing testimony across the state.

A $7 million voter-approved construction bond gave Early Works and Principal Guynes what they truly needed: More space for preschool and kindergarten classrooms and services at Earl Boyles. It also gave parents something they never expected: a beautiful place to connect in their own backyard.

The bond paid for half the expansion, while Multnomah County foundations, including Meyer Memorial Trust, and individuals provided the rest. Today, the Richard C. Alexander Early Learning Wing at Earl Boyles serves 90 3- and 4-year-olds in the Earl Boyles catchment area.

Connected to the Early Learning Wing is the Earl Boyles Neighborhood Center, which includes a lending library, family food pantry, meeting rooms for partner agencies and families, an infant-toddler room, and an adult learning classroom that provides parent education.

The school campus buzzes day and night.

I’ve been thinking a lot about leaders lately. Not just because of what’s happening on the national stage but because Meyer has released new funding opportunities, two Requests for Proposals, focused on leadership development and capacity builders aligned with our equity goals.

What makes a leader? Personality? Technical skills? Others who are willing to follow? I suspect that many people who are considered leaders feel like “accidental” leaders. That’s particularly true for leaders from communities that are underrepresented in positions of leadership (think of CEOs, elected officials or executive directors).

So what can Meyer do to facilitate the development of leaders? Companies and nonprofit organizations have been working on this for a long time. Funders like the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Ford Family Foundation have already partnered with many organizations over the years to support leaders. So has Meyer. There are many good programs and many good answers to “What makes a leader?” Now, as Meyer integrates equity throughout our work, we have the opportunity to consider what is needed to create a unique sort of leadership, one with equity in mind.

I’ve talked with many traditional and nontraditional leaders, reviewed the literature, including an important read, Leadership for Large Scale Change, and considered my own experience. Here’s what I’ve found:

• Accessing leadership development support focused on “hard” or technical skills, such as financial management or fund development, is generally easier to find than programs that teach the “soft skills” like relationship building, personal development and trust building.
• Leaders of color and rural leaders place a higher priority than other leaders on interpersonal communication, conflict management, self-identity and giving and receiving feedback.
• There is a desire to move away from programs that focus on individual leaders and to develop or use nontraditional definitions of leadership, including leaders who may not be in high-level positions but have lived the community experience and are trusted by the community.  
• The pathway to leadership for leaders of color and people with disabilities is not smoothly paved and, in some cases, not even accessible.
• Many leaders are eager for developmental relationship support, such as peer circles, mentorship and informal networking opportunities.
• Organizations, particularly those that are small and not as well-funded, need more capacity to allow time and space for leaders to build their skills. This capacity could come in the form of additional staffing or operating support for core operations while leaders are accessing capacity building or leadership support.
• To address complex social issues, and particularly to address inequities, there is a need for more collective community, cross-sector and networked approaches.
• Networked and community-level leadership require nuanced and longer-term evaluative approaches, and results are harder to measure but may have more large-scale impact.

Meyer, through our Building Community portfolio, is excited to partner with leadership development programs in Oregon in the next year by providing grants for programming and for participation in peer learning.

We don’t have all the answers, and in true shared leadership fashion, we seek to learn from and alongside our grantees and partners. Our goal is to meet programs where they are and work together to fashion a future program that leverages all the wisdom of leaders leading leaders.

Say that three times fast!

For more information about our just released Requests for Proposals, please contact questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org).

— Carol

Meyer's goal is to meet programs where they are and work together to fashion a future program that leverages all the wisdom of leaders leading leaders.