I am thrilled to announce that Kathleen Kee and Andrew Colas are joining Meyer Memorial Trust’s Board of Trustees. As we continue our mission to accelerate racial, social, and economic justice, their experience and leadership will be invaluable to our work.
Kathleen Kee has been a force for financial empowerment and inclusive leadership for more than 40 years. As Senior Wealth Advisor at Focus Partners Wealth and while CEO of Confluence Wealth Management, she has built a legacy of mentorship and success in a traditionally male-dominated field. Beyond her professional accomplishments, Kathleen has dedicated her time to numerous organizations focused on economic equity and cultural preservation. Her belief in the power of community resonates deeply with Meyer’s mission. As she so aptly put it,
“We are all connected as a community and we have to share in the responsibility to work together with respect and optimism to improve and solve the many injustices around us.” We couldn’t be more honored to have her join us in this work.
Andrew Colas brings a visionary perspective as President and CEO of Colas Construction. His leadership in sustainable and innovative commercial construction, coupled with his deep commitment to community service, makes him a perfect addition to Meyer’s board. As a lifelong Portlander, Andrew understands firsthand the challenges and opportunities facing our communities. His words reflect the heart of what we strive to achieve at Meyer:
“People have more in common than not, yet too many feel marginalized and left out. Meyer’s mission to support organizations advancing justice and bridging this gap aligns deeply with my values.”
With his leadership, we will continue to build toward a more equitable future.
As we welcome Kathleen and Andrew, we also express our deepest gratitude to Charles Wilhoite, who concludes his term in March after 12 years of dedicated service. Charles has been a cornerstone of our board, shaping Meyer’s vision with wisdom and integrity. His contributions will leave a lasting impact, and we are profoundly grateful for his leadership.
At a time when steadfast leadership and an unwavering commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice are more essential than ever, we are excited for what lies ahead. Kathleen and Andrew bring invaluable expertise, dedication and passion to Meyer, and we look forward to the impact they will make in advancing our mission.
For the first time in its history, Meyer has partnered with the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) to survey our grantees about their work with us. The CEP is an independent, nonprofit organization that has been working to improve philanthropic effectiveness for almost 25 years.
We recognize that grantees are not always comfortable sharing feedback with funders who hold the purse strings. That’s why we appreciate CEP’s efforts to ensure that the feedback gathered in this survey was fully anonymous and confidential. CEP’s survey is issued to hundreds of foundations each year, allowing us to compare ourselves to a broad range of philanthropic organizations, as well as to a smaller cohort of mission-aligned funders that we consider exemplars in the field. We set high standards for the work we fund and we want to be just as ambitious in the goals we set for ourselves.
It’s also worthwhile to note that this year’s survey was conducted in April 2024, prior to the launch of our issues-based open call. We know that at that time, our community was anxious to learn more about our strategy and goals for funding. With more than a dozen info sessions held virtually and around the state, we hope that much of that uncertainty has since been allayed.
We still consider that the 2024 survey offers a valuable baseline assessment of grantee perception from which we are eager to build and improve upon over time. You can learn more about CEP’s work and survey methodology here. More details are also available in these slides.
This year has been a dynamic time for Meyer. We've welcomed 11 new staff members, launched a new Tribal Nations Initiative and hosted our first open funding opportunity in more than three years. We are grateful to the staff and grantees who have been on this journey with us. Our deepest appreciation to all those who shared their honest and thoughtful feedback along the way. Let’s keep talking.
— Kim
What We Learned: Key Lessons and Opportunities
Meyer grantees value the freedom and flexibility to do their best work.
Grantees told us that general operating dollars, automatic renewals and multi-year funding are important contributors to their success. They also appreciated Meyer's relatively low-burden application process. Grantees believe that the time spent on applying for grant funding is worth the dollars received and our transition to the Giving Data grants management platform also received high marks.
Grantees want to be in relationship with us and support 'beyond the check'.
Strong partnerships require mutual understanding. We know that Meyer’s staffing and structural changes in late 2023 affected the continuity of many of the valued relationships with our program staff. In addition, we hear that grantees appreciate support that goes ‘beyond the check’, especially through collaboration, convenings and connections to other resources.
With our current grantmaking team solidly in place, we are looking forward to developing more opportunities to listen and learn from one another in the coming months and years.
More substantive and clear communication is a must
Not surprisingly, grantees at the time of the survey were seeking more specific, actionable information from Meyer about how and what we would be funding. We also know that consistent, substantive communication about our goals and strategies is important for grantees so that they can plan.
In addition to sharing more robust communication in this area, we also plan to communicate more about how we are measuring and tracking our progress. In 2025, we will update our website and deepen our storytelling about the work we support, so that our grantees can access information and better understand how and whether their organizations' work and values are a good fit for Meyer funding.
Last year saw a historic rise in the number of displaced people around the world and, tragically, a similarly unprecedented increase in anti-immigrant rhetoric. With these hateful sentiments come rumblings of new, exclusionary policies, both nationally and here in Oregon.
Since 2018, the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative (OIRFC) – a group comprised of The Collins Foundation, Oregon Community Foundation and Meyer Memorial Trust – has provided grants to organizations working to counter anti-immigrant narratives and foster long-term inclusion and belonging for Oregon’s immigrant and refugee communities.
Having been part of this work at Meyer since the beginning, I can say that the last six years of funding have led to critical successes. However, after primarily supporting work reacting to negative policies or practices, we asked ourselves if we should be more forward-thinking in our grantmaking. We got an answer in a series of grantee partner listening sessions last year. We heard a pressing need for funding to better mobilize, leverage and scale the collective impact of the immigrant and refugee community over the long term.
That’s why I’m particularly pleased to announce the latest round of OIRFC grants: A suite of funding specifically focused on organizations and coalitions in the advanced stages of movement building.
While the OIRFC had originally allocated $675,000 for this initiative, we were overwhelmed by the breadth and depth of organizing taking place. Thanks to additional contributions by the Oregon Community Foundation and Meyer, we were able to increase the total budget to $1,096,174.
After careful consideration, the OIRFC selected the seven projects below to receive funding in this initial round. These groups display a clear commitment to scaling their movement-building efforts. Please join me in celebrating these organizations, both for the work they have done in service to the community and for the critical work ahead of them.
They know what others sometimes forget: Immigrants have always been a part of Oregon’s story. They have played an integral part in building and sustaining our state’s economy and culture. They are part of what makes Oregon healthy and whole and, when we vilify them, we are only hurting ourselves.
Movement Building Grantee Partners
Adelante Mujeres (Women Rise Up) has a rich history of engaging the Latine/x and immigrant community by providing educational resources and acting as a forum for community advocacy. Through this project, they will strengthen their ability to unite with others in the broader community who are committed to advancing social and economic justice for the common good.
Bienestar (Well being) started 42 years ago providing dignified housing for migrant farmworkers. Now it develops multi-family rental properties that are safe, low-cost alternatives in an increasingly unaffordable housing market. They will use these funds to provide training and skill-building support for residents who can then raise their voices to advocate for equitable housing policies.
For more than 30 years, Community Alliance of Lane County has organized residents to advocate for racial justice, immigrant rights, human dignity, economic justice and educational equality. The organization’s leadership development program, Voces Unidas para la Justicia, works with and trains Latine/x youth and families so they can advocate for equitable education policy. They are now partnering with Escudo Latino, another community-centered leadership program for the Latine/x community. Their work will be focused on the education system of Springfield, Oregon.
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon works to engage diverse communities of faith in direct service to people living on low incomes and those marginalized and impacted by structural injustice. It offers a mix of social services to low-income immigrants. These funds will help the organization build upon its current coalition and community partnerships to establish immigration status as a recognized social determinant of health.
Oregon Latino Health Coalition has worked for almost 20 years to advance the health of the Latine/x people through policy, advocacy and prevention. This project will build capacity for Salud es Poder, a movement-building initiative to ensure a healthcare expansion policy to offer Oregon Health Plan benefits to people of any age or immigration status.
Oregon Rural Action Project is a grassroots and culturally diverse community-led organization based in La Grande and working across Eastern Oregon. They promote social justice, agricultural and economic sustainability, and stewardship of the region’s land, air and water. They aim to build a rural movement in eastern Oregon to advance greater health, food and resource equity; farmworker rights; and environmental justice.
The Next Door offers culturally relevant, community-centered programming for youth and families. Programs like equity and outreach training support further engagement in promoting resilient community health, effective public education and thriving economic development systems. This project seeks to advance civic equity through education and advocacy in the Mid-Columbia Gorge.
This post has been updated to reflect the total funding amount for the planning phase of these collaborative grants: $2.6 million.
To achieve Black liberation, we must build power within Black communities; calling on one another to form interdependent networks of nourishment and celebration. We’ve heard this often from our conversations with folks on the frontlines: our impact could be so much larger if we had the time and resources to collaborate with one another. Some groups have found innovative ways to make this happen, but many still need dedicated space, staff and funding to fully realize goals.
In our latest round of funding for Justice Oregon for Black Lives, we’ve reimagined our approach, asking organizations to form collaboratives that will sustain thriving Black ecosystems in Oregon. By removing barriers to maintain long-term partnerships, collaborative funding enables groups to bring their breadth of expertise to tackle systemic issues. These partnerships will allow organizations to learn from one another, share data and strategize, building upon the momentum set forth by those who came before us.
We believe in the strength of the collective. Social justice movements of the past and present knew this to be true as well.
The “Big Five” civil rights groups worked together to bring tens of thousands to the March on Washington, advocating for desegregation and voting rights. The Chicago Black Panther Party joined ranks with the Young Lords and Young Patriots, forming the cross-cultural group, Rainbow Coalition, to combat police brutality and substandard housing. Today, the Black Lives Matter movement utilizes a “leaderful” model where grassroots organizations and those at the forefront of injustice collectively lead this ongoing pursuit.
I believe that if there can be some form of reparative action for the Black community here, then it can happen across the United States. And that can benefit all communities, not just ours. If we can start here.
Since 2020, 133 groups across the state have been funded through Justice Oregon for Black Lives, totaling $21.4 million. Now, we seek to deepen our impact by creating space for organizations — that are already doing vital work — to dream big and create lasting, systemic change together.
We are excited to announce the following 14 collaboratives that will receive a total of $2.6 million for the planning phase of these transformational projects.
KairosPDX is partnering with Black Parent Initiative,Albina Vision Trust and BEAM to transform the former Portland Public School property in Albina into a Center for Black Student Excellence by forming a youth council to garner input from impacted students on the Center’s function and processes.
A Black Art Ecology of Portland will collaborate with community partners to identify and prepare for a range of long term activities that support the creation and preservation of Black art in all mediums throughout Portland and beyond.
POIC+RAHS will collaborate with Be the Healing and Journeys Oregon to develop a community safety worker (CSW) model to combat violence in the Black community.
I am excited to announce that we now offer a free event space to all current grantees! Located on the first floor of Meyer Headquarters, the Center for Great Purposes is a welcoming space where grantee organizations can hold meetings, trainings, coalition gatherings and more.
Organizations with an active Meyer grant may reserve the space and enjoy its many amenities from a built-in AV system and garden access, to a catering entrance and kitchen. The space accommodates up to 100 guests, depending on room configuration.
In Service to Our Partners
For the past few months, we’ve softly rolled out this event space and have been overjoyed with the turnout. As more organizations utilize this space, we want to learn alongside the community and welcome feedback to improve our services.
Access to this event space serves as an additional resource beyond grantmaking to support more connections and convenings across the nonprofit sector. To make long-lasting impact, we know that in-person interactions strengthen bonds and deepen understanding. Meyer is here to facilitate that. We want everyone who walks through these doors to feel like they belong here and know that we're here to help them achieve their goals.
Designed with Community in Mind
Meyer’s presence in the Albina neighborhood is an intentional investment in a community with deep ties to Black Portlanders. Every aspect of the building’s design is meant to highlight the strengths and rich cultural history of this place.
We partnered with architects, contractors and subcontractors who identified as Black, Indigenous and people of color. Artwork by artists of color adorn the halls, native plants pepper the garden and sustainably sourced Oregon wood products are featured throughout our award-winning, LEED v4 Platinum building. It was important that Meyer HQ reflect our values visibly and create a space of joy and belonging for community members to connect, empower and grow with one another.
The building honors the past while looking towards the future.
When I first began my career at Meyer, I was a front desk receptionist answering calls about grant opportunities. I felt like I was on a mission to help get partners everything they needed. Eight years in, that sentiment is even stronger.
Now, I have the privilege of managing a team dedicated to nurturing community partnerships. Our newest Office Operations team member, Saylor Eames, joins Meyer as our first Events Coordinator and I’m certain she will continue providing excellent support to each and every person who enters our building.
“I’m so excited to join Meyer and continue serving the community,” Eames says. “Partnering with local nonprofits and supporting their mission has always been a dream of mine, and I can’t wait to see what we accomplish together in the Center for Great Purposes!”
Accelerating Lasting Impact
Learn more about the Center for Great Purposes and send a reservation request on our website. With great purpose comes great impact and we are thrilled to support grantee partners who are creating lasting change in Oregon.
It is with mixed emotions that I announce the departure of D’Artagnan Caliman, director of the Justice Oregon for Black Lives initiative. His last day at Meyer will be February 1.
D’Artagnan joined us in 2020 as the director of Justice Oregon for Black Lives, Meyer’s largest single initiative in history. We are incredibly grateful for his efforts to connect and deepen Meyer’s relationships in the community, his leadership in expanding participatory processes in our grantmaking and for all he has done to ensure that Black-led and Black-serving organizations in Oregon are empowered and resourced to do their vital work. With his departure, we lose one of Meyer’s most authentic voices; a colleague who took the work seriously, but never himself.
Under his leadership, Meyer has distributed nearly $9 million to dozens of organizations through Justice Oregon and brought a significant number of first-time awardees to the mix. A sixth-generation Oregonian, D’Artagnan’s lived experience in the historically Black neighborhoods of Portland have helped to inform his efforts and approach, including the early and important work of convening dozens of community leaders to develop the initiative’s main funding priorities. In addition, all grants made through the initiative have benefited from community input and review. D’Artagnan’s leadership has ensured that Justice Oregon is truly an initiative by and for the Black community.
We wish D’Artagnan all the best as he takes a well-deserved moment to breathe and decide on what his next chapter will look like.
I also want to assure our grantees and partners that Meyer remains committed to Justice Oregon. As we enter its third year, we are excited to continue funding excellent work and sharing more about our learnings through the initiative.
Meyer Memorial Trust is announcing today an indefinite pause of our engagement on Twitter due to growing concerns about safety and security on the platform. As an organization dedicated to advancing justice, we cannot continue to engage in a space where hate speech and misinformation are allowed to run rampant and unchecked. Yesterday’s dissolution of Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council, and other decisions that loosen content moderation standards and reinstate problematic accounts, make our continued participation untenable.
As the staff member who develops Meyer’s social media content, I know that no platform is perfect. Cyber hate and misinformation have become par for the course in today’s digital landscape and efforts to bolster democratized public discourse and information sharing too often contend with harmful agents for visibility.
My colleagues and I also understand that many of Meyer’s grantees, community partners and peers depend upon Twitter to share stories, spread awareness and fundraise. As a private funder, we recognize it is a privilege to even consider stepping away.
As someone who came of age during the early days of online social interaction, I still believe in the power of social media to connect people in ways that transcend time and space. The digital world is a tool for building community among diverse audiences that could rarely, if ever, exist on word of mouth alone. The ocean of possibilities within social media connectivity have the potential to make waves in transformative change at scale. As a society, we have already witnessed what can be achieved through the power of the collective in the era of virality.
But we cannot rely on a platform that weaponizes a false notion of free speech to abuse the very communities we support. The danger associated with the onslaught of harmful rhetoric and misinformation continues to mount and runs counter to Meyer's mission to accelerate racial, social and economic justice.
While building community may be at the heart of social media, it cannot act as a proxy for deepening relationships. Content is not a substitute for conversation. Purposeful communication requires an honest and transparent dialogue in spaces that respect individual differences and honor personal safety — online or IRL.
What to Expect, What’s Next
The decision to pause Twitter engagement indefinitely will give us time and space to reexamine our approach to promoting healthy conversation within the virtual landscape. We will continue to monitor the platform’s efforts toward moderating hate speech and countering misinformation to determine if and/or when it is safe to return. Our team is also investigating the viability of increasingly popular alternatives like Mastodon.
Meyer will continue to highlight the impact of our grantees and spread ideas worth sharing on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. We have ended promotion of staff Twitter accounts on our website, but continue to share LinkedIn account information for staffers who engage on that platform. Decisions made by staff about their own personal Twitter accounts and non-Meyer related content are their own.
A Continuing Conversation
We hope to continue listening to and talking with you as we work towards a better future as thoughtful communicators. In that spirit, we’re still advocating for and with communities throughout Oregon and value your partnership and engagement. Want to share your thoughts, have a healthy debate on the future of social media or just pop in to say, hi? Don’t hesitate to reach out to me at taryn@mmt.org.
For those who are also grappling with how best to respond to the moment, here are some practical resources that may be useful:
Regardless of how you choose to navigate through the tumult — by staying the course or swimming to a different shore — I hope you find healthy discourse and connection.
Mark your calendars! Our grant operations team is excited to share that on March 1, 2023 Meyer will launch GivingData, a new grants management software and grantee portal.
Our current software, GrantIs, will be taken offline on February 23, 2023.
Why the change?
This transition has been in the works since May 2021 when we formally began our search for a grants management software that would better support Meyer’s community-informed grantmaking framework. Feedback from our grantee partners and staff also prompted us to look for a new system with a more user-friendly interface. GivingData will allow us to collaborate in real time, improve the flow of applications and reports, and keep our grantmaking data in one place. We are especially excited for the external reviewer portal, which is a feature we had on our wish list. We look forward to piloting this function with some future grant cycles.
For Current Grantees
We will be reaching out to existing grantee partners in the coming months with more details on how to navigate the new grantee portal. One substantial change from our current system is that all grantees will need to create and activate a new account for an individual user, rather than on behalf of an organization. Reports that are due after March 1, 2023 will be submitted through GivingData.
For New Applicants
If you expect to apply for a grant from Meyer in 2023, we recommend that you wait to register until our new software is in place.
When Will Meyer Begin Accepting Grant Applications? What happened to the Annual Funding Opportunity?
Meyer is still working out the details of our new grantmaking structure, so we do not yet have specific information to share on current funding opportunities for 2023 and beyond. The Annual Funding Opportunity was retired as Meyer’s main vehicle for grantmaking in 2021.
What’s Next?
We’ll be posting quick guides, FAQs and other helpful resources on our website in the coming months to support a smooth transition. We look forward to working and learning with grantee partners in this new grants management software and thank everyone in advance for their patience and support as we complete this transition.
When I joined Meyer four years ago, I did so with the unwavering belief that following the lead of BIPOC communities was key to realizing our shared vision of an equitable Oregon that works for all. I still carry that vision and that dream in my heart, but will not be continuing on this journey as I leave Meyer in October.
I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to champion and partner with you on so much of the excellent work that is happening now. Deepening our strategy, shifting power, implementing trust-based practices and creating a culture of learning is work that is ongoing. They are efforts that I have worked hard to catalyze and grow. I know they will continue long beyond my tenure here.
The work we have done to move our commitment from equity towards justice and to center intersectional BIPOC wisdom fills me with pride.
In my time here, we were able to increase the grantmaking authority of our CEO and to include community members into grantmaking recommendations. Meyer’s annual grantmaking has increased from $35 million to $45 million. But more importantly, the percentage of general operating grants has grown from 12% to 45% and the percentage of grants supporting BIPOC, immigrants, LGBTQIA+ and people with disabilities increased from 59% to 82%.
Following our community’s lead has allowed us to desilo our work and address root causes — to show up for reproductive justice and other pressing needs in ways that our portfolio structure did not previously allow. I also am grateful for the opportunity to have dreamed and created Justice Oregon for Black Lives, responded to anti-Asian hate and moved resources equitably during both the COVID pandemic and the wildfires.
With our staff and partners, I strove to create a learning arc for our strategy work that allowed us to learn from social justice community members and national leaders as we pushed ourselves to our growing edge. I’ve learned so much from our community, but one lesson resonates particularly deeply: to balance our sense of urgency with the need to move at the speed of trust.
I believe that I am leaving Meyer in a stronger place to be in real service to the community by centering intersectional BIPOC wisdom and making a bold commitment to justice. Meyer has a new CEO at the helm, a dynamic new director of grantmaking in place with a director of learning soon to follow, and an engaged program staff. I look forward to the next chapter and remain, as always, a champion for justice.
I am excited to share that Sohel Hussain will join Meyer Memorial Trust as the first-ever Director of Investment Operations. Sohel most recently oversaw the middle office team at PIMCO, a global investment management firm focusing on active fixed income management. He brings a decade of experience in operations, trade support, cash management and project management.
He has extensive experience managing the “middle office” — the work that moves forward the investment process and provides critical information to fiduciaries and stakeholders. As Director of Investment Operations, he will be responsible for strengthening partnerships and improving workflow in this area among Meyer’s operations, accounting, information technology and communications teams.
As we continue to formalize and professionalize our investment operations, Sohel's proven leadership skills will help to guide Meyer in our dedicated support for communities across Oregon through strong alignment between our investments and values.
He earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from Hofstra University’s Frank G. Zarb School of Business and is completing a Masters of Liberal Arts in Finance at Harvard University.
