The Oregon Community Foundation

🏡 Solution Alert for Homeowners! 🚨 Expensive repair bills could have forced two Portlanders out of their beloved homes and into a housing market with few affordable options. But thanks to forgivable loans from a public-private partnership and grants from the Portland Housing Bureau, they were able to stay put! 🙌✨ Curious if you qualify for these programs? One is set to expand statewide soon! A huge shoutout to the Portland Housing Bureau, Oregon Health Authority, and our partner, Habitat for Humanity, for leading the way with this solution. And special thanks to The Oregonian / OregonLive.com and reporter Lillian Mongeau Hughes for shining a light on this important story. 📖 Read more here: Home Repair Grants Help Portlanders Stay in Beloved Houses #HousingSolutions #Portland #CommunitySupport #HomeRepairs #ForgivableLoans #HabitatForHumanity

🌟 Discover how the @Teresa McCormick Center is making a difference in Southern Oregon! 🌟 This EO Media (https://lnkd.in/gP_eUp2x) story tells about the nonprofit’s incredible efforts to provide food boxes, rental assistance, tax filing support, refurbished bicycles, and more. With the dedication of 42 volunteers, the center served over 28,000 people in 2023 — truly a testament to the power of community support. Oregon Community Foundation is proud to support their mission and extend our gratitude to Harry & David and 1-800-Flowers.com for supporting this vital resource.  Together, we can continue to uplift our communities! #OregonCommunityFoundation #CommunitySupport #SocialImpact #Volunteerism 

Self Enhancement, Inc., just unveiled this stunning 1,500-square-foot mural that celebrates its legacy of empowering youth, families and community members. The talented Kyra Watkins, Project Color Corps and the Portland Street Art Alliance created “The Village.” We’re proud to partner with SEI through the Black Student Success program and grateful for the organization’s unwavering commitment to North and Northeast Portland.     Check out the story to see “The Village” and “Streets of Hope,” a mural on the corner of Southeast Eighth Avenue and Yamhill Street in Portland that highlights the voices of our homeless community. Grants from OCF, Prosper Portland and the Oregon Arts Commission supported “Streets of Hope.” Discover more about these murals and their significance in our community by reading the full story at the Portland Tribune. #PortlandArt #PublicArt #CommunityEmpowerment #ArtForChange #SEI 

These caring teens saw their classmates struggling with anxiety and depression— and saw a way to help. Find out what they’re doing and how you can support them through the Oregon Community Foundation’s Community 101 Fund.  

🎉 Meet the nonprofits serving and protecting students, entrepreneurs and families with $1.2 million in grants from the Latino Partnership Program of Oregon Community Foundation! Read on to learn about the organizations and how they will use their funds.

Twenty-five years ago, the mother of Lupita Vargas (right) wanted a quality education for the daughter and son she was raising in Medford. The family met Tom Cole (second from the right), who came to Medford to start a Boys & Girls Club. But he found families like Lupita’s needed more specific kinds of support. The result was Kids Unlimited, which has grown from a small afterschool program into a charter school, preschool, a source of healthy food for hundreds of kids and now even a producer of fresh pasta. As Tom puts it, “We believed we could be a resource working with families.” Here are Tom and Lupita this fall with OCF President and CEO Lisa Mensah (center) and OCF board member, Dee Anne Everson, CEO/Executive Director of United Way of Jackson County. Oregon Community Foundation is proud to support innovators like Tom and Lupita, who started at Kids Unlimited as a kindergartener and now directs education services there. “Success looks like breaking barriers, ensuring kids feel empowered,” she says. Listen to this new segment about Kids Unlimited on OPB’s Think Out Loud. https://lnkd.in/gdx99bYF

This important story is the reminder of the outsized role nonprofits play in the lives of all Oregonians. They are critical to our social safety net, economy, environmental stewardship and artistic and cultural lives. Many of the grants that come from Oregon Community Foundation and its donors are unrestricted. This allows our nonprofit partners to use the funds wherever and how they are needed most. December is the busiest month for giving. As you think about supporting your community, consider unrestricted donations that support nonprofits who are doing the hard work of building a better Oregon.

Purple sea urchins are invading the Oregon coast, threatening fragile kelp forests. Yet coastal communities have found this environmental challenge also represents an economic opportunity. Now, a new grant from Oregon Community Foundation will help expand the capacity of a seafood processing facility in Newport to, among other services, get more of the invasive creatures onto dinner plates. The nonprofit Central Coast Food Web provides shared facilities, equipment, guidance and support in acquiring business licenses and certifications for small businesses, including Oo-Nee Sea Ranch, a purple urchin harvesting operation on the southern Oregon coast. “Our goal is to help fishing operations like Oo-Nee build enough processing and retail capacity and do the research and development needed to become self-sufficient,” says Jim King, Executive Director of the Central Coast Food Web. “This economic development supports the community at the same time we’re building our fishing industry workforce throughout the coast.” The $25,000 grant will also allow King's organization to support at least 10 more fishing and farming small business owners. The new funding for Central Coast Food Web is one of 39 grants across the state from OCF’s Thriving Entrepreneurs Program. OCF distributed a total of $907,500 to nonprofits that support innovative economic development throughout Oregon. The program provides flexible funding for organizations that support entrepreneurs, especially women, people of color and people living in under-resourced rural communities or working in under-resourced sectors. The full list of grants demonstrates the geographic and economic breadth of the small business investments. Click through for details.

Congratulations to Literary Arts for opening its new headquarters and bookstore in Portland's Central Eastside! The new 14,000-square-foot space is named for longtime OCF donor Susan Hammer to honor her steadfast generosity and passionate commitment to the arts, including Literary Arts. Hammer's gift through Oregon Community Foundation helped catalyze the campaign to build the new headquarters to strengthen the Literary Arts mission to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation with great literature.

Germaine's Culinary provides hands-on training to people with intellectual or developmental disabilities in Portland. The Boys & Girls Clubs of the Rogue Valley provides safe spaces where young people can thrive. The Antelope School Community Center preserves a vital piece of the town's history and heritage. These are just a few of the projects and programs receiving new funding in every region of Oregon from Oregon Community Foundation. Just as the new grants reach Oregon nonprofits, OCF has opened the next round of Community Grants to be distributed in spring 2025. Click through for details. The deadline is Jan. 14, 2025.