For five years, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) has given nearly 800,000 hopeful young strivers brought to the United States as children the legal protections they need to work and study in this country, despite the immigration status of their parents.
Known as “Dreamers,” these young people have deep stakes in the U.S. Through DACA, they’ve achieved many of the milestones that frame the American dream: earning better wages to support their families, pursuing higher education, buying cars, and setting down roots in their communities through home ownership. They are students in our classrooms, teachers in our schools, soldiers in our armed forces, leaders in our cities and towns. They represent the best of us. Those who qualify for deferred action pose no threat to public safety or national security.
Nearly 8 in 10 voters support allowing DACA recipients to remain permanently in the country and just 14 percent believe they should be forced to leave.
In Oregon, the 11,300 young people registered under DACA have a powerful impact not only on immigrant communities but also on all Oregonians. According to an Oregon Center for Public Policy report, undocumented Oregonians pay roughly $81 million in taxes to help fund schools and other public services that strengthen the state’s economy, through property taxes, personal income taxes, and sales and excise taxes. If every undocumented immigrant left the state, Oregon would lose up to $3.4 billion and nearly 20,000 jobs. Ending DACA would cost Oregon more than $605.6 million annually in gross domestic product losses. Without DACA protections, deportation will tear more families apart and shatter the foundation of local economies.
The Trump administration’s decision to phase out DACA feels like a sucker punch. It will go down as a decision that is equal parts small, short-sighted and destructive. It threatens DACA Dreamers with expulsion from the only country most have ever known. And it reneges on the promise that registering as an undocumented immigrant would not be used against them.
They deserve better. We all do.
So here’s what you should know:
Earlier this year*, The Collins Foundation, MRG Foundation, Oregon Community Foundation and Meyer Memorial Trust partnered to create the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative, a collective effort to support the successful integration of immigrants and refugees into our communities. All four organizations share an unshakable belief in the value and importance refugees and immigrants bring to our state.
We remain committed to our grantee partners and to the immigrants they serve.
We are also urging grantmakers and philanthropists in our state and across the country to join us in funding essential services and supports to assist these immigrants and their families.
We support the bipartisan Dream Act of 2017 and urge our neighbors to take action to protect DREAMers. Without intervention, young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children could face deportation as early as March 6, 2018.
As Darren Walker, CEO at the Ford Foundation, wrote in a forthright blog after the DACA decision: “Soon, it may be too late for courage, too late to take the necessary steps to mend our society. We risk reaching a day when whatever ability we had to influence change or protect our democratic values will have been squandered.”
— The Collins Foundation, MRG Foundation and Meyer Memorial Trust
*In late 2017, Pride Foundation joined the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative.
Hundreds gathered at a Defend DACA Rally in Portland after the Trump administration announced it would end the program. Photo credit: JoeFrazierPhoto.com
We are excited to introduce our new program officer to the Equitable Education portfolio, Bekah Sabzalian.
A blended background in public education and nonprofit program leadership, a deep commitment and passion for equity and community, and a highly analytical mindset are just some of the qualities that Bekah brings to her role within the education portfolio.
Before coming to Meyer, Bekah worked as a elementary and middle school teacher in Portland Public Schools. Prior that, at community-based nonprofit organizations for six years. Bekah is committed to focusing on youth, education and equity work, and also believes that education works best when connected with community work.
She is excited to start partnering with organizations again and becoming more active in community engagement. We are excited that she will be joining the Equitable Education team here at Meyer!
It seems fitting that the bulk of Meyer’s $936,460 in June grant awards support housing advocacy. At the same time those awards were made, Oregon’s 2017 legislative session was drawing to a close, offering some forward momentum to support affordable housing and unfinished business and remaining opportunities to create communities where every Oregonian has a safe, decent and affordable place to call home. At Meyer, we believe that housing is key to a flourishing and equitable Oregon and understand that public policy is the primary driver of housing equity.
Our June housing advocacy awards — 12 grants totaling $717,000 — were made following a request for proposals issued in February as part of our Housing Opportunities’ Affordable Housing Initiative (AHI). This is the third year of housing advocacy awards made through our AHI. These awards support community-driven public policy advocacy and community organizing aimed at policy and systems changes that will expand the availability of affordable housing to low-income Oregonians. While all of this year’s awards advance the same broad goal, they reflect a range of strategies and opportunities such as reforming Oregon’s mortgage interest deduction in support of more equitable public investment in housing, identifying specific needs and community-driven housing solutions in rural communities, and building capacity of people living on low-incomes , faith communities, social justice organizations and housing providers to engage as housing advocates, just to name a few.
Technical assistance to Children First of Oregon, an organization that works to create conditions in which all Oregon children thrive, in advancing internal diversity, equity and inclusion objectives.
Finally, as part of Meyer’s commitment to advancing the national field of philanthropy, modest awards were made to the Council on Foundations for an upcoming summit on achieving equity in the workplace and to the Center for Effective Philanthropy, an organization that helps philanthropic funders better define, assess and improve their effectiveness and intended impact.
You can find a list of all of our June awards, here
In other Meyer news, we have completed Inquiry Application decisions for our 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity. This year — the second round under our new funding structure — we accepted applications through all four of our portfolios and had an enthusiastic response to the first open opportunity under Equitable Education. In total, we received 608 inquiries requesting more than $73 million. Nearly half (47 percent) were submitted to Building Community, over a quarter to Equitable Education (27 percent) and the remaining split evenly among Healthy Environment (13 percent) and Housing Opportunities (13 percent). For 16 percent of applicants — 99 organizations — this was the first application to Meyer and another 14 percent — 87 organizations — had submitted at least one application in the past but have not yet received Meyer funding. Nearly half the requests were for capacity building or operating support.
Following close review, thoughtful discussion, a bit of angst and some difficult decisions, we invited 213 applicants, with initial requests totaling over $27 million, to continue in the process. Organizations invited to move forward indicate that work supported by the requested Meyer grant dollars would include specific strategies designed to serve and/or benefit the following populations*:
People of color (67 percent)
Immigrants and refugees (37 percent)
People living on low incomes (78 percent)
People with disabilities (28 percent)
People who identify as LGBTQ (19 percent)
In addition, 46 percent of applicants indicated that their proposal would benefit rural communities.
*note that one application can serve multiple populations
As anticipated, proposals that rose to the top in our review process demonstrated a clear opportunity to advance Meyer’s portfolio goals and communicated a commitment to equity (both internally and externally), with some earlier on in their equity journey. Successful proposals demonstrated that their work was meaningfully informed by, engaged with and/or would be led by community. Most of these proposals also drew a connection between the organization’s work and broader policy and systems change. Finally, clarity about the role and importance of Meyer funds, a clear implementation plan, and organizational readiness were key considerations in our teams’ decisions and recommendations.
As always, we encourage applicants who were not invited to move forward to contact our portfolio staff for feedback and conversation. We also hope that if you submitted a request you responded to our applicant survey to help us identify how we can better communicate what we are looking for in proposals and to share your ideas about improving our processes. We made a number of changes last year in response to your feedback and continue to be open to and value your ideas.
We are excited about the innovation, collaboration and community, policy and systems change aspirations embedded in the proposals we received. The commitment to and enthusiasm for building community, increasing housing opportunities, cultivating a healthy environment and creating an equitable education system are both inspiring and palpable. We continue to be humbled and inspired by your work and the possibilities ahead of us — and we are deeply grateful for your partnership in shaping an Oregon where all who live here can truly thrive.
Partnership, in its many forms, is infused throughout Meyer’s program strategy. One way this shows up is in how we weave in grant dollars to support our partnership work to strengthen the broader nonprofit and philanthropic fields.
Meyer’s May grant awards, totaling $93,650, include some excellent examples of the ways in which our grantmaking supports our partnerships, collaborations and sector connections. They also reflect the understanding of our founder, Fred Meyer, that when given thoughtfully, even small amounts of money can accomplish great things. As you can see, each May grant award is $26,000 or less.
In late May, a packed room of folks from social justice organizations and funders (including Meyer staff) convened to take stock of the changed political environment and to explore ways we can work together to strengthen our community’s capacity for justice. Somewhat unique in its formation, the event was co-created by a small group of nonprofits, Meyer and other partnering funders. Meyer was pleased to provide Western States Center, which served as a key event organizer, with a small grant of $1,750 to help support the logistical costs of the gathering. We are looking forward to the next steps as the partnership moves toward action!
We are also excited that, for the first time, Meyer is providing grant support ($12,000) to the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), an organization that is known for its social justice leadership and advocacy and specifically for pushing philanthropy to do more for those who are marginalized, underserved and disenfranchised.
NCRP is a strong proponent of grantmaking practices that resonate with Meyer’s values and funding approach: dedicating a significant percentage of funding to strengthen marginalized communities; making multi-year grants; offering operating support and capacity building grants; funding advocacy, organizing and civic engagement; demonstrating transparency in disclosing information; and paying out more than the standard 5 percent of foundation assets in grants. In fact, its research and recommendations to philanthropy were a meaningful resource during Meyer’s recent organizational redesign. As the importance of NCRP’s work and message are elevated within the current political context, we are especially pleased to join its network of philanthropic supporters to influence the field of philanthropy.
And speaking of advocacy, grantmaking practices and convening, we are grateful to be partnering with Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington, the Nonprofit Association of Oregon and the Alliance for Justice (AFJ) to build the capacity of nonprofits and funders to engage in policy advocacy through workshops in the fall. As Meyer has increased its work in the advocacy space — both through our grantmaking and amplifying our voice in support of issues we care about — we have appreciated the excellent guidance and resources that AFJ offers. If you are not familiar with AFJ or want to deepen your organization’s engagement in systems change, I encourage you to check out their Bolder Advocacy initiative (that’s right - they offer free technical assistance! And services in Spanish!). And look for the upcoming Nonprofit Association of Oregon and Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington workshops. We are thrilled to once again help bring AFJ to Oregon through this $7,500 grant.
Over the coming months, we will continue to share about our programmatic work, grantmaking and beyond. In the meantime, you can find a list of our May grant awards on this PDF.
Kendall Clawson, Executive Director of the American Leadership Forum of Oregon, responds to the prompt, "What makes you do this work?" during a convening of the Building Community portfolio’s Leadership Development and Learning Collaborative.
April was a busy month at Meyer as we completed statewide outreach for our 2017 annual funding opportunity and our program team began digging into the 607 inquiry applications we received in response to our annual funding call. Applicants can expect to hear in mid-June about whether they are invited to submit full proposals.
But our annual funding opportunity is just one piece — albeit a big one! — of Meyer’s strategy. We continued to make other grants in April, awarding 18 grants totaling more than $792,000 to advance our vision of a flourishing and equitable Oregon. Through these investments, Meyer partnered to establish a rapid response fund as part of the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative work, invested in model watersheds under our Willamette River Initiative and supported field convening and learning. These awards continue Meyer’s commitment to social change, collaboration, innovation, diversity, equity, inclusion and responsiveness in this policy environment that is hurting our neighbors, friends, co-workers and community.
You can view the full list of April grant awards here. And here’s a little bit more context about what Meyer funded in April:
Healthy Environment
In our Healthy Environment portfolio, Meyer made seven awards, totaling $708,479, through our Willamette River Initiative to support model watershed organizations working to improve habitat, flow and water quality in key Willamette River tributaries. These grants were made to local watershed councils in Benton, Linn, Lane and Polk counties and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation as part of Meyer’s long-term support of the Willamette Model Watershed Program. So many things about the Willamette River make it a cornerstone of a flourishing and equitable Oregon: cultural practices, salmon, drinking water, recreation, jobs and the spiritual renewal of nature, just to name a few. You can learn more about Meyer’s 10-year Willamette River Initiative, its tributary strategy and grantees here.
In addition to these Initiative grants, Meyer awarded $16,000 in Healthy Environment funds to the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians in support of convening, relationship building and collaboration among Oregon Oregon tribes and environmental and social justice organizations.
Building Community
In the first quarter of 2017, Meyer awarded 32 grants to organizations selected to be part of leadership development and capacity-builder learning communities. These cohorts are working to build equity and inclusion at community and policy decision-making tables through leadership development and to strengthen the broader social sector by integrating diversity, equity and inclusion within organizations. Through these cohort experiences, organizations will come together to lift up collective wisdom and to share and build knowledge to advance diversity, equity and inclusion. In April, Meyer invited four additional organizations to engage in these learning convenings, awarding each of them a $10,000 grant to support their participation.
Learn more about our Leadership Development and Capacity Builder programming here.
Meyer-Directed Awards
Meyer continues to make mission-aligned grants beyond our portfolio-specific awards in response to timely opportunities and needs. In April, we made seven Meyer-directed awards totaling $28,000. Awards included $15,000 to support Meyer’s partnership with the MRG Foundation, Collins Foundation and the Oregon Community Foundation to establish a rapid response fund as one component of the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative. This collaborative is building on a history of partnership in support of immigrants and refugees, including past grantmaking related to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. You can learn more about the collaborative here and here.
Remaining funds supported convening and learning, including grants to support grassroots social justice organizations in raising funds in the context of movement building, to inspire and equip social change agents inside grantmaking organizations, and for dialogue about pressing civil rights issues and bridging divides in Oregon.
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!
A few months ago, former Meyer CEO, Doug Stamm, wrote about how Meyer would become more deliberate in our use of advocacy to make a greater impact in Oregon.
Doug promised to collaborate with other foundations, just as we ask nonprofits to work together toward a common purpose. He recognized a simple fact that by working together we can have greater impact on issues that can lead to systems change that we could not do if we went about it alone; working together we are better and have a stronger voice for change
Toward that goal, I’m pleased to share with you Meyer’s participation in a funders collaborative to address the impact of recent Federal policies on immigrant and refugee communities. These policies affect the admission and resettlement of refugees to Oregon, and focus on heightened immigration enforcement and broadened rules for compliance with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Immigrants and refugees make significant contributions to this state. According to an Oregon Center for Public Policy report out in April, undocumented Oregonians alone pay roughly $81 million in taxes to help fund schools and other public services that strengthen Oregon’s economy, through property taxes, personal income taxes, and sales and excise taxes.
The Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative, a partnership between The Collins Foundation, MRG Foundation, Oregon Community Foundation and Meyer*, aims to highlight the importance of refugees and immigrants to our state and our joint commitment to address the need for their successful integration into our communities. Economic mobility and social inclusion for newcomers and their children builds communities that are stronger economically and more inclusive socially and culturally.
What the funders collaborative will consider
The collaborative will consider requests for projects providing:
Legal information/advice, services and representation for immigrants and refugees;
Outreach and education about policies, program services and preparedness;
Information collection, policy tracking and analysis;
Basic human needs for immigrants and refugees; or
Outreach and advocacy (civic engagement, community organizing).
How the funders collaborative will work
The funding collaborative anticipates making decisions on proposals within four weeks of requests, with payments issued a couple of weeks later; time sensitive critical response grants of up to $4,000 will have a 48-72 hour turn-around and payment within a week. Applicants are encouraged to ask for what they need, requests — over $50,000 — would be considered large for this fund and likely be shared by more than a single funder, if awarded.
Grant awards will cover current activities up to 12 months.
*In late 2017, Pride Foundation joined the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative. Today applicants can contact any funder collaborative partner and will be forwarded to the following point person:
At The Collins Foundation Cynthia Addams, caddams [at] collinsfoundation.org (caddams[at]collinsfoundation[dot]org)
At MRG Foundation, Esther Kim, esther [at] mrgf.org
At Oregon Community Foundation, Roberto Franco, rfranco [at] oregoncf.org (rfranco[at]oregoncf[dot]org)
Pride Foundation, Katie Carter, katie [at] pridefoundation.org (katie[at]pridefoundation[dot]org)
And at Meyer, to me, Sally Yee, sally [at] mmt.org (sally[at]mmt[dot]org)
In the midst of our exciting 2017 annual funding opportunity, Meyer Memorial Trust continues to make awards to organizations driving equity solutions in Oregon.
Since January, Meyer has made 106 grants totaling more than $8.8 million to 100 nonprofit organizations, including nearly three dozen under our fall Nonprofit Social Sector RFP and nine under the Affordable Housing Initiative’s Rural Manufactured Home Repair RFP. We’re excited that all of these awards support social change, innovation, diversity, inclusion, leadership and capacity building, along with equitable practices and outcomes.
View the full list of grant awards by viewing this PDF. And, as always, you can view our full awards database here.
Here’s a little bit more insight into what we've funded so far this year:
Building Community throughout the Nonprofit Social Sector
In Meyer’s Building Community portfolio, Meyer made 37 awards totaling nearly $3 million to organizations changing systems and improving conditions for communities of color, people living in poverty, and other marginalized populations. Awards included 32 grants to organizations that applied under our fall Nonprofit Social Sector RFP for leadership development and building capacity of capacity builders.
Leadership development
As part of our program restructuring, we committed to continuing our support for programs that develop and support leaders and networks from Oregon’s diverse communities. We believe that powerful institutions continue to struggle for authentic engagement with marginalized populations and that positions of power remain limited or unsustainable for people of color, immigrants and refugees, and other marginalized populations. Through our leadership development strategy, we aim to build equity and inclusion at community and policy decision-making tables. Salem Keizer Coalition for Equality, for example, was awarded an $85,000 grant to organize, train and empower Latino Spanish-speaking parent leaders on social justice in education and civic representation. In all, we made 22 awards totalling $1.5 million to advance leadership development.
Building capacity builders
Meyer also made awards investing in strategies that support capacity builder core work, advance equity and effectively strengthen the broader social sector. With Meyer’s focus on equity, it has become clear that organizations need capacity building services such as generalized training and consultation to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion strategies within their organizations. These grants will support this. The Coalition for Community Health Clinics, for example, was awarded $136,000 to provide technical assistance to 14 member clinics to design and implement equity-focused community health improvement strategies within health care settings. In all, we made 10 grants totalling $1.4 million to build the capacity of organizations that help build the capacity of others.
Learn more about our Leadership Development and Capacity Builder awards here.
Nurturing a Resilient Natural Environment
In our Healthy Environment portfolio, Meyer made 13 awards totaling $140,500 to organizations that are advancing equity throughout the state, and five awards, totaling $513,215, to organizations improving the health of the Willamette River, the watershed that more than two-thirds of Oregonians call home. Among those grants was a $15,000 operating support grant to Crag Law Center, which provides free legal services and low-cost legal aid to protect wild places, climate and livable communities across Oregon, and a $20,000 grant to Ecotrust for an effort to recruit and train diverse community members for careers in the green workforce.
Advancing Affordable Housing Opportunities
In our Housing Opportunities portfolio, Meyer has made 25 awards this year totaling nearly $2.8 million to organizations exploring innovation, supporting systems change and leveraging resources to meet the housing needs of all Oregonians. All of the awards but one, a $125,000 grant to Mercy Corps Northwest, for a center that helps formerly incarcerated individuals find their way back to stable lives, were made under two Affordable Housing Initiative strategies:
Manufactured Housing
Last fall, Meyer asked nonprofits and housing authorities to submit plans to build the capacity of rural manufactured home repair programs. With a strong field of proposals, Meyer funded nine projects totaling $630,000 over two years and across the state. Umpqua Community Action Network in Josephine County was awarded $100,000, for example, for home repairs in its 50-space manufactured home park in Roseburg, to be maintained as permanently affordable housing, prioritizing households with children. Read more about that batch of grants here.
Sustaining Portfolios
Meyer’s Sustaining Portfolios Strategy couples flexible funding with technical assistance to help ensure the long-term sustainability of Oregon’s existing affordable housing. In the last two years, Meyer has awarded two-year grants to 19 organizations through two rounds of funding. Six grants awarded in February, totaling $380,975, provided a third year of funding to organizations in the first group of grantees, such as Columbia Cascade Housing Corporation in The Dalles and Farmworker Housing Development Corporation in Woodburn.
Advancing Equitable Education
Meyer made 7 awards totaling $1.4 million to continue our support for equitable education while we have developed this portfolio. See our new framework for equitable education in this blog post from portfolio director Matt Morton.
Meyer-Directed Awards
Beyond our portfolio specific awards, Meyer occasionally makes grants to respond to timely needs and opportunities during these changing times. This winter, we’ve made 15 such awards, totaling $930,000, including grants awarded in March to Catholic Charities and Lutheran Community Services Northwest, to provide emergency bridge funding to maintain critical refugee resettlement services.
Wajdi Said, president and co-founder of the Muslim Educational Trust, leads a conversation with Meyer Memorial Trust staff and trustees, including Dahnesh Medora and Board Chair Charles Wilhoite.
Last year, as part of Meyer’s newly restructured grantmaking programs, we launched the first set of opportunities under the Building Community portfolio. We were excited and heartened by what we saw! We learned about how organizations across the state are working to support marginalized populations and prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion.
This year as part of Meyer’s 2017 annual funding opportunity, the Building Community portfolio is investing $4.8 million in grant funds. We will begin accepting Inquiry Applications on March 15, with a deadline of 5 p.m. April 19, that advance one of the following portfolio goals:
Invest in strategies that dismantle inequities and create new opportunities to advance equity.
Support efforts to encourage and strengthen civic engagement and public participation in democratic processes.
Support arts and cultural initiatives that create inclusive communities.
Learning from 2016
The Building Community portfolio received more than 400 applications as part of the 2016 annual funding opportunity, and it was able to provide funding to 68 grantees. A few characteristics of last year’s grantees:
26 percent were focused in rural communities, 10 percent worked in both rural and nonrural communities and 28 percent were doing work at a statewide level.
25 organizations received project grants, 21 received capacity building funds, 20 received general operating support and two received capital funding.
10 percent were organizations with annual operating budgets of $200,000 or less.
Four organizations were first-time applicants to Meyer.
The average grant size was $113,000.
Most applications we received were compelling, but the ones that were competitive shared similar characteristics:
They focused on historically marginalized populations. The Building Community portfolio has a special interest in people of color, people living on low incomes, women and girls, crime/abuse survivors, indigenous peoples and tribes, immigrants and refugees, the elderly, people with disabilities and LGBT people.
They considered how direct services were tied to broader systems or root causes. It’s important to consider how a direct service or program (e.g., domestic violence counseling) is part of a broader context or connected to other issues that address the root causes requiring the service.
They employed strategies that were clearly informed by the intended audiences or those that would be most impacted by the proposed activity. Consider in what ways are the intended audiences for your work included in creating plans? Do they have some opportunity to influence what you do?
They considered diversity, equity and inclusion as part of broader strategies to improve and sustain organizational health (e.g., operations, policies and procedures, finances, staffing).
Changes in 2017
This is the second round of annual funding in Meyer’s new grantmaking programs. We received positive feedback from applicants and grantees and have made a few changes to try to make the process as clear and straightforward as possible. Past applicants may notice a few changes this time around.
We’re asking more questions about how an organization is informed by the population it seeks to serve. Our application aims to understand how your work and your organization as a whole is informed by the people you seek to impact.
Knowing that the process of preparing an application requires a considerable amount of time, we have tried to be clearer about work that is not a good fit with Building Community. You’ll find a list of examples of what does not fit in the funding opportunity materials.
One of the most common questions we received in the application process last year was about grant size. This year, we have tried to provide more specific details, including the average grant size from last year (listed above) and how this relates to grant type (e.g., capacity building, operations, project and capital).
Of the 68 grant awards provided last year, two were for capital requests and each of those two was for less than $100,000. This year, we will again consider a limited number of capital requests. These requests will need to show a direct and compelling connection to improving conditions for priority populations and need to demonstrate how diversity, equity and inclusion considerations both informed the project and will be assessed moving forward.
One starting point for gauging where organizations are on their pathway to prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion is by collecting demographic data. This year we have created more resources and tools in a new Applicant Resources section of our website to provide more help with demographic data collection.
We have been clearer about what we mean by “equity.” Our Applicant Resources also includes more information to help applicants think about how equity takes shape, both externally through programming and services and through internal operations.
Get More Information
We are committed to being transparent about what we seek in an application. Over the next month, Meyer staff will be traveling the state to share information about the 2017 opportunity across all four of our portfolios, including Equitable Education, Healthy Environment and Housing Opportunities. A list of information sessions can be found here. The Building Community team will be hosting three webinars where we will provide more details about this portfolio and and respond to specific questions.
Of course, you can also check out our new Applicant Resources page with more information. And feel free to contact us at questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org).
Spring is finally making its appearance. The days are getting longer, and the crocuses are blooming, which means one thing: Meyer has begun accepting inquiry applications for our 2017 Annual Funding Opportunity!
Now, more than ever, we feel the urgency and importance of dismantling barriers to equity, eliminating disparities and creating conditions for every Oregonian to thrive. This year, we are pleased to invite applications to support efforts to advance equity in all four of our portfolio areas: Building Community, Equitable Education, Healthy Environment and Housing Opportunities. We know there is amazing work happening in Oregon to change systems and better communities. If you share our vision of a flourishing and equitable Oregon, please consider joining us — everything you need to know to apply can be found here.
The deadline to submit an Inquiry Application is 5 p.m., Wednesday, April 19.
This is our second open annual funding invitation for proposals since we redesigned Meyer’s grantmaking. We had a robust response in 2016. Quite frankly, we were blown away by the opportunities, ideas and innovations in the proposals we received and the grants we funded. So naturally we are eager to see what emerges in this 2017 round!
We recognize that Meyer’s new approach has come with a lot of changes, and we will continue to iterate on and evolve our grantmaking and related processes. We’ve always been committed to getting perspective and feedback from nonprofits about how we can be effective partners, so after 2016 we thought, “What better way to improve for 2017 than to ask you!” Our team invited all 2016 applicants — whether they received funding or not — to share their perspectives through a survey about our processes and communications. We also talked one-on-one with a lot of folks both in person and over the phone.
We received a lot of positive comments about our focus, communications and process and also heard about where we can be clearer, where additional information would be helpful and where our processes can be simplified, especially at the inquiry stage. We listened closely to your feedback and made a variety of improvements that you’ll see in our application materials.
The core of our approach remains consistent, including our funding goals, intended outcomes and priorities for who will benefit from our support. Equity remains our grounding center. Our eye remains focused on community and systems change, and community voice and leadership, combined with solid planning, continues to be key. We’ve made all these priorities clearer in this year’s application.
Here are few highlights of what is different for 2017:
Our Equitable Education portfolio is now online! We are thrilled to include Equitable Education in our 2017 annual funding opportunity. Find out more about the goals and strategies of our newest portfolio, meet the team here and read about the inclusive process that Meyer used to make sure that our approach supports the aspirations and priorities of our community for equitable education.
We have clarified what “fits.” We are quick to recognize that in the newness of our first application round, we couldn’t be as specific as we would have liked in response to questions about what types of proposals were a good fit with our new funding opportunities. Now, with a year of funding under our belts, we have provided clearer examples of the types of requests that fit and those that do not. We’ve offered clearer guidance about grant amounts and have provided downloadable lists of the awards made in 2016 for each portfolio (available on the portfolios’ Goals + Outcomes pages), categorized by goal area, to provide you with additional insight about our interests.
We’ve provided resources to explain how Meyer considers diversity, equity and inclusion in reviewing proposals. We’ve been clear: Equity is a central tenet in Meyer’s grantmaking. We are asking all applicants — regardless of where they may be today — to demonstrate a commitment to ongoing growth through the integration of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) into both their external programming or services and internal structures and operations. You will see that we have refined questions in the Inquiry Application to clarify what we are looking for, and we have introduced new DEI resources to our website, including a DEI Spectrum tooland examples of strategies to advance DEI within organizations. We’ll ask all grantees to identify what steps they will take to move equity forward within their organizations during the grant period and to report progress made.
We’ve streamlined our applications. Our questions are clearer, and we’ve moved some questions out of the Inquiry Application. We’ll either ask for that information in the full proposal, during site visits or not at all. Organizational and application budgets, detailed demographic data, and partnership agreements can all be provided in whatever formats you already use.
Our demographic data questions have been simplified. We will still ask about the demographics of beneficiaries, boards and staff, but we’ve simplified our form so you can base your responses on how you already collect data and highlight what you believe is important for us to know about the demographics of your community and organization. We will continue to offer a demographics data form for organizations that are looking for an example, but the use of our particular tool is optional.
Funding amounts are now consistent across portfolios. We will provide additional information to help you determine what amount to ask for and extend a clearer invitation to talk with us if you want more guidance. An important note: Requests for amounts above our stated limits will not be considered.
We have more clearly defined what we mean by collaborative applications. We are big believers in the power of collaboration for impact and change, and once again we have a specific path for collaborative proposals that allow for larger grant amounts. You can find additional information here and within our application question previews.
Our perspective on multiple active Meyer grant awards has been refined. Organizations that received a multi-year grant through Meyer's 2016 spring funding opportunity are not eligible to apply for a 2017 funding opportunity grant unless they receive prior written approval from the portfolio director of the portfolio under which they wish to apply. Applications received from 2016 multi-year grantees that have not obtained this approval will not be considered. We anticipate that approvals will be the exception and will be made only in situations in which total Meyer funding during the grant period would not comprise a significant portion (~20%) of the organization's total operating budget and in which one or more of the following apply:
the organization is applying on behalf of a collaborative or as a fiscal sponsor;
the organization is applying to the Housing Portfolio for a capital grant project and has other funding secured for the project;
there is an extraordinary and time-sensitive opportunity that clearly advances the portfolio's highest priorities; and/or
the organization has significant and distinct programming that falls in a different Meyer portfolio than its current grant.
Organizations receiving funds through Meyer's Affordable Housing Initiative, Willamette River Initiative or other special Meyer programming are eligible to apply for a grant through the 2017 funding opportunity; however, interested grantees are highly encouraged to contact their current Meyer program partner prior to applying.
Information sessions are new and improved: Check out our schedule here and reserve your spot soon. We’ve added portfolio breakouts to our general sessions so you’ll have more opportunity to connect with portfolio team members, discuss specifics of that portfolio’s funding opportunity and ask your questions. We will continue to offer portfolio-specific virtual sessions. Can’t make a session? You can still contact us at questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org) and 503-228-5512 to get your questions answered.
We know there are many opportunities and much important work to be done to advance our Building Community, Equitable Education, Healthy Environment and Housing Opportunities goals. You won't want to miss blogs by our four portfolio directors Dahnesh Medora, Matt Morton, Jill Fuglister and Theresa Deibele, linked here. We invite you to explore our 2017 funding opportunity and consider how we might join together in creating a flourishing and equitable Oregon.
