September always brings change: weather shifts from hot to cool, busy autumn mornings replace leisurely summer afternoons, days grow incrementally shorter. Here at Meyer Memorial Trust, in a year filled with changes, the month offers a moment to reflect on where we have been and on where we are heading.
Six months ago, we suspended our responsive grantmaking programs to refocus what we do to make a greater impact. We accepted our last batch of grant applications then, over 300 requests in all. The spring and summer have been extremely busy and productive. Since April, we have done due diligence on the requests, awarding 188 grants and loans, totaling nearly $16 million, to nonprofits in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Last year, Meyer awarded more grants than ever before — 515 grants and loans just over $46 million; we are again on track to make the largest payout in the foundation’s history.
But we haven’t only been making grants this year. While we wound down our Responsive and Grassroots grants programs and worked through our pipeline of applications, we began outreach in several of our four priority focus areas — housing, education, the environment, and supporting a vibrant nonprofit sector. More than 1,000 nonprofit leaders from across the state have taken part in surveys, interviews and listening sessions aimed at helping us shape the strategy of our new programs. We’re grateful for the input and guidance. It is helping us get closer to our goal of new programs that highlight the best of responsive grantmaking and initiative-based funding, all in the pursuit of achieving greater impact.
It’s also allowed us to learn more about the equity work being done in the community so that we can support it and also use our leadership to expand its impact.
As summer ends, Meyer continues to make awards focused on affordable housing under our Affordable Housing Initiative, to support watershed restoration efforts under the Willamette River Initiative and to underpin education work through the Chalkboard Project. And those initiatives have been busy working on special projects in support of their fields — look for the release of a cost efficiencies report on October 1st that helps identify opportunities to reduce the costs of developing quality affordable housing in Oregon and the first Willamette River report card, set for release later in October.
And we continue to listen to our stakeholders on housing, the environment and the resilient social sector portfolios. Groundwork for our education portfolio has begun but will get underway in earnest in the coming weeks.
We are on track to announce Meyer’s overarching framework for our new programs in December. It will be a high-level outline of our general funding strategies and direction. Look for additional information, including details, application criteria and timelines to be announced early in the new year. We anticipate opening the first opportunity to apply for grants under our new programs late in the first quarter of 2016. Our education portfolio may roll out a bit later due to the sequencing of the work.
Dahnesh brings an impressive background that is an excellent fit with the vision for our portfolio (formerly called the Resilient Social Sector portfolio). Most recently, he worked with Education Northwest, where he provided capacity building and planning support to nonprofits and government organizations, both locally and nationally. His work included consulting with the Corporation for National and Community Service and nonprofit intermediaries participating in the Social Innovation Fund (a partnership of national funders and the federal government), as well as serving as a Plan Consultant for the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund's Flexible Leadership Award and its grantees in the Gay and Lesbian Rights and Immigrant Rights portfolios.
Previously, Dahnesh's roles included leading the organizational development consulting team at the Nonprofit Association of Oregon/TACS, serving as director of organizational services and capacity building with the National Community Development Institute in Oakland, Calif., and serving as Director of External Relations for the Tides Center in San Francisco. In all of those roles, Dahnesh supervised teams and led programmatic strategy development and implementation.
Dahnesh's experience with local and national philanthropy and nonprofits, team leadership and management, and his deep expertise with nonprofit organizational development and capacity building, provide an excellent foundation for building out and launching the Building Community portfolio.
Last February, we announced that Meyer would sharpen our focus to make a more significant impact in areas where Oregon’s needs are greatest: education, the environment, affordable housing, and supporting leaders, organizations and networks addressing issues of equity. These are not new priorities for us but we refined our focus in recognition that these issues are highly complex, the problems are entrenched and the ways that they have been addressed have not always worked. Our new approach seeks to achieve more measurable impact. The top to bottom strategic redesign of our programs and inner processes was accompanied by a re-alignment of Meyer’s existing staff into new dedicated teams, new hires, a new website and a new look. Impact and clarity are our overriding goals.
We are still a few months from accepting grant applications through our four new program portfolios. But we wanted to share a bit about where we are in the process and what’s to come.
We expect to release grant application guidelines in March, including the full schematics of criteria, how to apply and where we will direct our funding. In April, we will begin accepting applications, staging the dates for each portfolio over the course of the month. The education portfolio, a new major focus area, will roll out later in 2016.
Over the past year, as we redefined what we do and how we do it, we’ve heard one question over and over: why is one of Oregon’s largest private foundation going through this transformation? The answer, in a word, is equity.
Our future direction
The majority of our funding already supports the four fields we will focus on, all of which we believe are critical factors in creating an Oregon where people can reach their full potential. That’s what equity is about.
The portfolios are:
Healthy Environment, tasked with nurturing a resilient natural environment, diverse cultures and thriving communities. This portfolio includes both support across the state and for our Willamette River Initiative. A key vision of this area is for environmental impacts and benefits to be shared equitably among and throughout communities. We will primarily support strategies that further environmental justice; bring together environmental stewardship, community well-being and economic vitality; foster a diverse and inclusive environmental movement; and support healthy natural systems. Policy/advocacy, movement building, innovation, capacity building and collaboration will be prominent. Visit the Healthy Environment portfolio page to learn more and meet the team.
Housing Opportunities, focused on opening doors to opportunity and strengthening communities through safe and affordable housing. This portfolio will include the Affordable Housing Initiative, which will continue as designed, as well as broader support for housing across the state. Strategies that support Oregonians with low incomes, primarily those living on incomes around 60% of the median, will be prioritized. The focus will primarily be on people living in affordable rental housing, with some support reaching people experiencing homeless to the extent services have a direct nexus to more permanent housing. Homeownership as it connects to housing stability and self-sufficiency will also be included. Beyond the AHI, support will be targeted to developing and preserving more units, supporting residents in reaching their potential, mitigating displacement and strengthening organizations that are addressing affordable housing needs. Capital grants will be available, with Program Related Investments targeted to intermediaries. Visit the Housing Opportunity portfolio page to learn more and meet the team.
Building Community, which supports leaders, organizations and networks addressing issues of equity and contribute to vibrant, inclusive communities. We have changed the name of this area, previously referred to as Resilient Social Sector, based on community feedback. This portfolio will prioritize strategies designed to change social conditions by dismantling inequities, increasing equitable opportunities for historically marginalized populations and working to build inclusive communities. The vast majority of funding will support work that directly addresses equity issues, including race, ethnicity, income, gender, sexual orientation and ability. We expect to support policy and systems change work, capacity building, expanding effective services, innovations, arts and cultures, civic engagement and leadership development through this portfolio. Visit the Building Community portfolio page to learn more and meet the team.
Equitable Education, aimed at ensuring meaningful public education for all. This portfolio will include The Chalkboard Project, as well as broader support for educational opportunities across the continuum – from early childhood through post-secondary and workforce training. We’ll place emphasis on strategies that improve Oregon student achievement and close gaps, particularly for low-income students, students of color and first generation college students. We expect to pay close attention to approaches and ideas that have the potential to make policy and systems-level impact. More specifics will be developed over the next year. Visit the Equitable Education portfolio page to learn more.
With all of this work, we will be looking in Oregon and in organizations for the greatest opportunities to support the field in furthering equity. We will continue to include multi-year funding, core support, capacity building and technical assistance to grassroots as well as established organizations. We will also pay attention to policy/advocacy, and supporting, networks, systems and innovation. We will extend our role beyond traditional grantmaker to amplify leadership and collaboration.
Why equity deserves Meyer’s attention
Equity is the central tenet of Meyer’s redoubled commitment to making measurable progress in Oregon in the areas of education, the environment, affordable housing and building community.
Organizations around the state have long attacked inequity at its roots, advocating for equity through social justice, affordable housing, LGBTQ equality, healthcare, immigrant rights, improved educational opportunities, inclusive environmental stewardship, and arts that build community. Meyer joins their efforts to make Oregon flourish by helping close gaps created by inequities.
We didn’t arrive here overnight. For the past several years, the staff and Trustees at Meyer have becomes students of how bias and oppression — via race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, ability and age — are embedded within the institutions and systems in our community. We see them within ourselves, within the Meyer Memorial Trust itself and more broadly within the field of philanthropy. We remain a work in progress. While we will still support some work that may not have equity as a primary focus, we will ask all our partners to explore equity within the context of their organizations and we challenge them to make progress on integrating equity in their work, partnerships, outreach, policies, staff and boards. It is work we embrace — and Meyer is a better foundation because of the changes.
As we learn more about the equity work being done across Oregon, we intend to use our leadership to expand its impact.
These are just a few of the changes observers will notice about the new Meyer.
What else is changing?
We are not only changing our programs, we’re changing how we work.
The field has encouraged us to do more than just fund — they’ve challenged Meyer to step more confidently into leadership roles around our priorities. So, in addition to direct grantmaking, Meyer will bring new vigor to our role as convener, capacity builder and advocate. And equally important, we will use our influence to support systems change and advocacy around topics of critical importance to the field. You will see this take form over the coming years.
In order to take on this challenge, we have also made changes to how we do our grantmaking.
Going forward, Meyer will issue calls for proposals under the four portfolios and make funding decisions a few times a year. We will no longer have open, rolling application periods. We’ll announce more details on this in March.
We will make funding decisions based on the strongest opportunities to further our goals, and will look for partners who share our priorities and are committed to understanding the impact and effectiveness of their work. In the past, 70 percent of Meyer’s awards each year were made through our now-shuttered Responsive Grants and Grassroots Grants programs. We responded to individual requests without holistic goals in mind or clear ways to measure the impact of our funding: even grants made within the same field were isolated and difficult to track. Beginning next year we will have impact in mind when we consider proposals.
What won’t change is our commitment to being responsive and engaged with our partners across the state. We anticipate immediate benefits for Meyer and Oregon nonprofits: together, we will be more effective at making systems level change. Together, we will be more nimble to respond to what is working and what is not. And together, we will maximize what our funds can do.
Meyer’s new teams
This summer and fall, we’ve been building strong portfolio teams. We are especially excited to have gathered four portfolio directors with the right mix of skills, expertise and relationships to guide Meyer on this journey. Meet Jill Fuglister, Theresa Deibele, Dahnesh Medora and Matt Morton.
Jill Fuglister is the director of Meyer’s Healthy Environment portfolio. Sixteen years in the environmental field have given Jill a broad base of expertise, from traditional conservation to sustainability to environmental justice. And Jill’s experience integrating and operationalizing equity into environmental work is unique in the field. We’re so pleased Jill, who was a program officer at Meyer for four years, will be leading our work at the nexus of Oregonians and our natural environment.
Theresa Deibele serves as director of Meyer’s Housing Opportunities portfolio. Theresa has deep roots in management, finance, community development and the law, but it is her relationships in the statewide housing nonprofit community, from housing authorities to large multifamily housing developers, and from housing advocates to organizations serving people experiencing homelessness, that give her special insights into the housing field. It’s a pleasure to have Theresa, also a former Meyer program officer, running point on housing.
Dahnesh Medora directs Meyer’s Building Community portfolio. Dahnesh's deep expertise and long experience with local and national philanthropy, team leadership and nonprofit organizational development and capacity building provides an excellent foundation for launching this portfolio tasked with supporting strong leaders, networks and organizations across Oregon. We are excited to have a veteran of organization strengthening and leadership development taking the lead over this vitally important portfolio.
Matt Morton (Squaxin Island Tribe) will join Meyer in January as director of Meyer’s Equitable Education portfolio. Matt, currently the executive director of the Native American Youth and Family Center, couples a proven history of nonprofit and public leadership with a deep understanding of equity and disparities across the education continuum — from early childhood to K-12 to post-secondary opportunities. We’re grateful that someone so highly respected in Oregon's nonprofit and public sectors will be sitting at education policy tables on Meyer’s behalf.
These and other hires happened during a whirlwind year at Meyer.
How about that hiatus?
We called the nine-month transition period from Responsive and Grassroots Grantmaker to portfolio-based foundation “a hiatus.” Hiatus implies taking a breather. This year offered little of that. We continued awarding grants while the development was going on. And our Willamette River Initiative and Affordable Housing Initiatives have remained in full swing through funding, convening and collaborating. Record amounts awarded in 2014 and 2015 totalled nearly $100 million. And as we implement this new plan over the coming year, we expect to continue to fund at these levels.
The organization grew from 27 to 32, and will reach close to 40 within the next year, including three Momentum Fellows from Philanthropy Northwest. Our staff is talented, curious, dedicated and eager to help Meyer continue to evolve. But we also said goodbye to valued members of the Meyer Trust family, including longtime Trustee Orcilia Zúñiga Forbes, who died in August. Look for a Board Member announcement in January.
While we wound down our grants programs and worked through hundreds of applications, we began outreach in our four focus areas. We learned so much from community listening sessions, focus groups, expert interviews and learning panels. What we heard helped shape our direction. We heard clear calls for Meyer to remain innovative and bold in both the leadership we provide and the issues and programs we fund. We especially appreciated the groundswell response to our surveys: we received close to 1,000 responses from Oregon advocates working for equitable public policy, organizations cultivating culturally specific communities, volunteers at arts groups and food banks, members of land trusts and so many other voices in between.
What we heard was humbling and inspiring. You told us you supported our shift and would be watching to make sure we lived up to our own new standards. While the specifics of our grant programs have evolved over the past 33 years, Meyer’s commitment to invest and work with communities, nonprofits, ideas and efforts remains — in fact, continues to grow stronger. We appreciate Oregon’s nonprofit community. Thank you for helping to guide our evolution.
Please stay tuned for the release of our application guidelines in March, followed in April by the opening of our application process. The best way to keep abreast of Meyer’s evolution? Sign up for our monthly Meyer Mail and visit mmt.org. You can also check out our FAQ page for answers to your questions, which we will update as new queries come in.
It's a pleasure to share the good news that Matt Morton has joined Meyer as Director of our new Equitable Education portfolio.
As we began the search for someone to direct our new Equitable Education Portfolio, we knew we were looking for someone with a proven history of leadership, someone who holds a deep understanding of equity and disparities across the education continuum, someone who could effectively sit at education policy tables and someone who has earned the respect of Oregon's nonprofit and public sectors. Matt Morton (Squaxin Island Tribe) hit the mark across the board!
Many of you know Matt through his leadership in the community, including his roles with several Meyer grantee organizations. Most recently, he served as Executive Director of the Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), which enriches the lives of youth and families through education, community involvement and culturally specific programming. Among NAYA’s many services are early childhood programming (including Head Start), K-12 academic and social supports, an early college academy and college and career services. Previously, Matt served as the Deputy Director for the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA), an organization addressing issues of child abuse and neglect through training, research, public policy and grassroots community development. Meyer has long histories of supporting both of these organizations, and we have been impressed with Matt's vision and zest for change over our years of working with him.
Matt's career has centered on education. Elected to the Portland Public Schools Board in 2011, he recently completed a four-year term. He serves on the board of directors for All Hands Raised, a Meyer grantee that is a nonprofit-public-private partnership dedicated to ensuring equity and excellence in education for all children in six school districts in Multnomah County. Matt is also co-chair of both the Education Justice Committee of the Coalition of Communities of Color (another Meyer grantee) and the Eliminating Disparities in Child & Youth Success Collaborative of the Coalition and All Hands Raised.
On March 9, Meyer will announce Spring funding opportunities for our grants focusing on building community, supporting a healthy environment and ensuring housing opportunities.
Funding opportunities for our Equitable Education portfolio will rollout later in 2016.
Visit our portfolio pages for specific information on funding opportunities. And bookmark our events page for details on a series nearly two dozen of information sessions, including in-person and virtual open houses, beginning in mid-March and running through early April. Click the events to register for your preferred date.
Finally, to stay in the loop, please sign up to receive our general e-newsletter, Meyer Mail, as well as portfolio-specific e-newsletters.
Staff will answer questions on Meyer's four portfolios and new funding opportunities at community information sessions during March and April. Those include virtual open houses and in-person events in Astoria, Bend, Burns, Coos Bay, Cornelius, Corvallis, Enterprise, Eugene, Grants Pass, Klamath Falls, La Grande, Lincoln City, Medford, Oregon City, Portland, Redmond, Roseburg, Salem, The Dalles, Tillamook, Warm Springs and Woodburn. In addition, we've included conferences and Meet the Funder panels where Meyer staff will be on hand with representatives of other funders.
*Sessions can also be found in chronological order on our events page.
Metro Area
The funding information sessions for the Metro Area have ended, please stay tuned for updates.
Coastal Area
The funding information sessions for Oregon's Coastal regions have ended, please stay tuned for updates.
Emerald Valley
The funding information sessions for the Emerald Valley have ended, please stay tuned for updates.
Eastern Oregon
The funding information sessions for Eastern Oregon have ended, please stay tuned for updates.
Central Oregon
The funding information sessions for Central Oregon have ended, please stay tuned for updates.
Southern Oregon
May 18-20 Meet the Funders Panel (Canyonville)
All Day
This is part of a series of in-person information sessions Meyer plans to host after announcing new funding opportunities on March 9. Each two-hour event will include multiple staff members from each portfolio to answer questions and share insights about Meyer's redesigned grantmaking. Location: Seven Feathers Casino Resort, 146 Chief Miwaleta Ln, Canyonville, OR 97417. For additional information, and to RSVP, please click here
Virtual Sessions
The virtual funding information sessions have ended, please stay tuned for updates.
Meanwhile, if you're thinking of attending a virtual open house, by phone or video conference, be sure to send us your questions on Twitter using #MeyerInfoSessions.
Over the last month, Meyer has visited fourteen communities and connected with over 1,000 individuals representing the diversity of Oregon’s nonprofits, public educational institutions and government and Tribal agencies. Another 30 information sessions are scheduled over the next four weeks as organizations prepare their response to Meyer’s 2016 funding opportunities scheduled to be released on April 4th.
As Meyer staff has traveled across the state, we’ve brought together organizations interested in learning more about the four key areas we believe to be essential to a flourishing and equitable Oregon. Our visits with you have been an excellent reminder of our shared values toward service and support so that all Oregonians may thrive.
Thank you for your hospitality and candor. We’ve heard loud and clear the barriers urgently experienced by many communities across our state, and your voices continue to deepen our commitment to creating systemic conditions where all Oregonians experience the opportunity to reach their full potential.
Meyer’s working hiatus has deepened our commitment to dismantling barriers and finding meaningful, positive change in communities across our state. We’ve challenged ourselves, and we’re asking you join us in this challenge. Transformative work doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen without you and the communities you serve. We’re grateful for your continued commitment to your communities and our partnership.
If you haven’t yet had an opportunity to connect with us, please consider joining us when we come to your community---we look forward to seeing you!
The Building Community portfolio, along with two other Meyer portfolios, recently announced funding opportunities to help Oregon’s communities increase their collective capacity to improve conditions for communities of color, Oregonians living on low incomes and other historically marginalized populations.
Now fully staffed, the Building Community team has been traveling around the state to explain the portfolio’s goals and help answer questions from prospective grantees and community members at dozens of funding information sessions. As Portfolio Director, I have appreciated learning firsthand about the challenges and successes of people and organizations working in the field around Oregon. And we’ve been impressed by the creativity and resilience we’ve seen from Astoria to Eugene, and from Bend to Burns.
At many of the info sessions and during follow-up calls and emails, we have responded to a number of questions, including:
1 ) How many proposals can my organization submit under the 2016 Funding Opportunities?
An organization may submit only one proposal for itself. However, if an organization is submitting a proposal on behalf of a collaborative, it may submit one proposal for its own organization and one on behalf of the collaborative.
2) Will Meyer review all proposals submitted by inquiry application deadlines, or will reach a certain capacity earlier and stop accepting them?
There’s no limit to the number of applications that can be submitted before the inquiry application deadlines. We will review all timely applications.
3) My organization does not have an explicit equity mission. Will we still be eligible to apply?
Across all of our funding priorities, our grantmaking is framed by our commitment to dismantling barriers to equity and improving community conditions so that all Oregonians can reach their full potential. We believe that the work of many organizations contribute to increasing equity and building inclusive communities. Our goal is to support organizations and collaboratives to build their strength in this area regardless of their starting point or stage of development in this area. All proposals should demonstrate a commitment to equity that is closely tied to overarching goals. Please review our Equity Statement for more information on our approach to equity.
We have tried to address these questions and many more on our growing FAQ page.
As you think about the funding opportunities in the Building Community portfolio and whether or not they are a good match with your strategic goals, we encourage you to begin by reading through what we fund.
When we consider requests for support, we’ll be looking for good alignment with our goals, strategies and desired outcomes. Think about how the work you propose connects with one of these goals and how it might bring about one or more of the desired outcomes.
Our portfolio team can also respond to your questions about the Building Community portfolio and our funding opportunities. In addition to myself, the team includes:
erin [at] mmt.org (Erin Dysart), Program Associate nancy [at] mmt.org (Nancy Ramirez Arriaga), Program Officer
Yana Velasquez, Administrative Assistant sally [at] mmt.org (Sally Yee), Program Officer
Please let us know if we can answer your questions [at] mmt.org (questions) and join us for one of our upcoming in-person information sessions, or the Building Community specific virtual information sessions.
Thanks for your interest in the Building Community funding opportunity and we look forward to connecting with you soon!
Since arriving in January, I’ve been focused on developing Meyer’s investment strategy to improve educational equity in Oregon. Now I’m hoping you will weigh in at Oregon’s Kitchen Table. The survey is available in both English and Spanish.
To Meyer, equitable education is defined as improving outcomes so that students of color, first-generation students and students living in poverty all achieve educational success. It also means identifying and reducing the disparities in how our most underserved students experience education. In early 2017, we will begin inviting organizations to submit proposals on educational equity; your input now will ensure that Meyer’s strategy represents the views, and articulates the needs, of stakeholders across Oregon.
It’s important to Meyer to have feedback about Oregonians’ values on equitable education. Meyer wants to hear from people at educational institutions, coordinating councils, school districts, early learning hubs, municipalities, institutions of higher education, government, foundation partners and other Oregonians who care about education. Your insights will help Meyer as we work to develop strategies that improve Oregon student achievement and close gaps in educational opportunities and outcomes.
Your feedback will be compiled by Oregon’s Kitchen Table, and all responses are anonymous. Following an inclusive engagement process with stakeholders, a summary report will be shared later this summer.
The last day to submit your feedback was Wednesday, May 25th.
Thank you in advance for participating in this process, and please don’t hesitate to contact us at questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org) should you have any questions.
Since announcing the 2016 Funding Opportunities in March, we have had many great conversations with organizations from across the state. We’ve heard compelling ideas, learned about fabulous work and gained new insights about communities in all corners of our state.
One common theme: we’re hearing a lot interest and questions from groups that are considering submitting an application on behalf of a collaborative. We are excited about the energy for new levels of collaboration in the field, and we highly value efforts to unite interests and work across issues. At Meyer, we understand the power of collaboration and recognize that we cannot work in isolation if we are to make meaningful progress toward an equitable and flourishing Oregon.
This is exactly why we created a place within our new funding opportunities to support collaborative work. As you know from our application information, an organization may submit one proposal for itself and one proposal on behalf of a collaborative. Our intention is to avoid forcing groups to choose between their own organizational needs and the needs of a collaborative effort in which they are involved.
Many of you have asked what makes for a strong collaborative proposal to Meyer and what you should consider in deciding whether to be part of a collaborative proposal. Here are a few things to think about as you decide whether and how to approach Meyer for support of your collaborative efforts through our current funding opportunities:
— Meyer grants will support collaboratives that communicate clear and compelling purposes that align with our funding goals, demonstrate clear partner commitments and roles, and have clear decision-making structures. We want to be clear that we are not asking organizations to create new partnerships just to be eligible for funding. In fact, quickly convened collaborations for the purpose of applying for a Meyer grant are not likely to be competitive. We are looking to partner with collaboratives that are well-organized, meaningfully share resources and decision-making, and are ready to take action.
If your collaborative is just being established or has operated informally and is now ready to become more structured, a technical support grant for planning and development will likely be the best fit for you. Each of the 2016 funding opportunities offer technical support grant opportunities of between $10,000 and $35,000 (depending on portfolio), which could support such planning.
It is also important to understand that available grant dollars are limited — not all collaboratives that apply are likely to be funded, and only one partner should apply on behalf a particular collaborative.
— If your organization is involved in multiple applications through a variety of partnerships and collaborations, help us to understand your priorities and capacity.We’ve heard from a number of organizations that are considering being partners in a number of grant applications in this funding cycle. Keep in mind that as we review applications, it may be difficult for us to understand how your organization is juggling its involvement in numerous collaborations or coalitions, especially if you have a small staff team or are volunteer-run. As you put together your proposals, help us to understand your capacity to be active and engaged in multiple partnerships. Also, consider what your organization’s key priorities are for Meyer funding and make this clear to us in your proposal(s), recognizing that not every Meyer application you are involved in may be funded.
— The total amount of funding you have or are requesting from Meyer is a factor in our decision-making. We believe that diverse sources of revenue make organizations strong and that too much support from any one source, including Meyer, can create challenges with sustainability and community perceptions of independence. As we consider a proposal from your organization, we will also be considering the amount of Meyer funds your organization is receiving through existing grants, as well as new funding being requested for your organization, including through collaborative proposals.
If you have a current Meyer grant and/or are considering being involved in multiple proposals and would like guidance about the amount of funding you are considering requesting, please contact us.
— Remember that each of the 2016 Funding Opportunities has a finite amount of grant funds available. Each funding opportunity has a specific “up to” grant budget for this year, so the total funded proposals will not exceed these amounts in 2016 funding:
We expect these limited dollars will be dedicated to work across Oregon and across our funding goals. Again, if you are involved in multiple proposals, help us to understand your highest priorities, knowing that not all these proposals may be funded.
You may have other questions and we welcome those, too. Please contact us at questions [at] mmt.org (questions[at]mmt[dot]org) or call us at 503-228-5512. We are excited for the opportunity to support collaborative work that will further our mutual goals! We hope these tips will guide decisions on how best to approach Meyer for support. As always, our team will be happy to assist you.
