2020 Year in Review
In 2020 we saw incredible generosity, awe-inspiring community organizing, and the dreams of those that came before us made reality. We also saw our communities experience and endure harrowing crises.
NWHF staff and board are honored to have been a small part of the work to advance a healthier region last year.
While this 2020 Year-in-Review highlights our grantmaking and other work, it’s difficult to make a list “come alive.” Missing in the text below are the stories of community members gathering late at night via Zoom to address solutions with kids in the next room sleeping. Missing is the creativity shown from organizations across the region to ensure an accurate Census count and high voter turnout. Missing are the lives lost to massive wildfires and a virus that had no name twelve months ago. The stories that we heard as funders are no doubt just a fraction of the profound work that occurred in 2020—organizations pivoting from one emergency to another, lifting up the communities they serve by advocating for resources, political representation and policy change—all while holding steadfast to the belief that we are all in this together.
COVID-19 and the Movement for Black Lives
We converted all open NWHF project grants and sponsorships to general operating support, retroactively to the grant start date; deferred all grant reports for 90 days automatically; accelerated all grant payments due before June 30 to ASAP.
We contributed noncommitted grant resources to COVID-19 rapid response funds and/or increased open grant amounts. Because we make multi-year grant commitments to organizations, this represents about 10% of our grantmaking budget.
We supported Black-led efforts to respond to the growing movement for Black lives, including The Oregon Cares Fund, Reimagine Oregon and Reimagine Safety.
Civic Health: Cohort and Culture Shifting
We invited 21 organizations from across Oregon and SW Washington to participate in Civic Health Assessment & Planning (CHAP). Participants learned about and discussed electoral organizing, other types of civic engagement, and movement building. They also talked about anti-Blackness, Native erasure, and ableism.
CHAP was a critical step in Civic Health’s Cohort program, giving both us and our grantees the chance to explore whether our goals and timing of Civic Health aligned with grantees’. We are so grateful for their expertise and candid feedback.
We know Civic Health is about more than grantmaking to the cohort. We’re committed to shifting the culture around reflective democracy. This means supporting the policies that make it easier for BIPOC communities to vote, be elected and otherwise participate in policymaking. It also means joining with funders to ensure we’re collectively supporting a civic engagement ecosystem that meaningfully includes, centers and resources BIPOC organizations and leaders.
In 2020 that has meant convening the Oregon Civic Infrastructure Funders to learn and act together to support civic infrastructure. We began with a trip to Seattle to learn from some of Washington’s civic infrastructure organizations. We’ve continued with three more meetings and bi-monthly meetings into 2021.
We supported existing and emerging policy priorities of BIPOC organizations, including implementing the Oregon Voting Rights Act and exploring ranked-choice voting.
Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities
In 2020 we wrapped up our five-year funding program focused on a simple premise: healthy childhoods build healthy communities, and healthy communities build healthy childhoods. Over the last five years we have invested in a cohort of organizations throughout Oregon and SW Washington focused on families and the communities that raise these young people.
Advocacy
We brought funders from across the state and country together to meet the organizers behind Portland’s Police Accountability measure.
We supported our grantees efforts to elect new and bold leaders across the state, prioritizing candidates with identities missing from decision-making tables: single parents, Native women, young people and more.
We contributed time, money and expertise to a variety of ballot measures that were led or supported by our grantees, including Let’s Get Moving, Here Together, Preschool for All, Yes for Real Community Oversight of Police and Yes for Clackamas Kids.
We joined with the other funders in the Census Equity Funders Committee of Oregon to support the We Count Oregon Campaign for the 2020 Census. The results of this grassroots campaign are phenomenal: leaders from across the state spoke directly with a total of 215,000 people about the census, making over three million phone calls. Despite a hyper-politicized Census and a pandemic, We Count helped Oregon surpass our 2010 participation rates.
Organizational Identity and Capacity
We said goodbye to Community Engagement Officer Michael Reyes and Center for Philanthropy Building & Office Manager Timothy Kay and wished them well on new adventures.
We completed the Look Ahead, implementing our new staff configuration. Stephenie Smith was promoted to Senior Programs and Operations Associate. We welcomed two new staff members, including Anita Rodgers as our Director of Finance and Felicita Monteblanco as our Public Affairs Manager. These two new team members bring enthusiasm and broad experience to our work.
We said goodbye to Donalda Dodson, who has served on our board of directors since 2013. Donalda brought child development expertise, a passion for public health and such warmth to the board. We will miss her!
We hopped on Zoom for virtual galas, facilitated online conversations with partners and friends, and found innovative ways to cheer on the work of grantees and our fellow funders.
We expanded on our case for equity to reflect a deepened commitment to BIPOC communities, particularly at the intersections of disability and geography.
Grantmaking
In 2020, we made grants to incredible organizations and initiatives throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington. Examples include:
$30k to Rural Organizing Project (ROP)
ROP developed a plan to address disinformation during the November election and provide
rural communities tools to track incoming concerns from throughout rural Oregon, including a hotline. ROP used social and traditional media plans to support accurate and factual information about voting and rumor control around disinformation.
$100k to Oregon Worker Relief Fund
The Oregon Worker Relief Fund provides direct cash assistance to immigrant Oregonians who are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are excluded from federal and state safety-nets.
$50K to Since Time Immemorial Fund
This fund, housed at MRG Foundation, is an effort to rapidly deploy resources to tribal communities across the region when opportunity or need arises. This fund was activated in 2020 in recognition that tribal communities are one of the hardest hit, if not the hardest hit, by the pandemic: financially, environmentally, socially, culturally, mentally and physically.
$30k to Reimagine Oregon
A group of Black-led organizations, Black individual activists and protest organizers came together to hold elected officials and their jurisdictions accountable to passing policies around education, housing, transportation and more on a set timeline.
$40k to Reimagine Safety
The Reimagining Safety Fund is a community-led effort supported by public and philanthropic dollars to support Oregon’s Black community as leaders to have the space and time to reimagine what safety could look like for the Black community and for all Oregonians.
$5,000 to the Portland Disability Justice Collective (a project of The Uprise Collective)
Funds went towards an upcoming December event, “As We Are: Disability Justice and Collective Care Conference” in partnership with the Portland Disability Justice Collective, a grassroots group by and for queer/trans, black, indigenous, multiracial folks and people of color (straight/cis/white disabled folks are welcome, but not centered) sick, disabled, Mad/mentally ill, D/deaf/HoH, low vision/blind, neuroatypical, or otherwise chronically ill people who are in Oregon and Southwest Washington, to deepen their understanding, practice, and self-reflection regarding disability justice and mutual aid.
2020 Funded Partners
This list includes grants from both Northwest Health Foundation and our affiliated 501(c)(3), Northwest Health Foundation Fund II.
Advancing Disability Justice
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
Disability Refugee Community
Freedom to Thrive
Micronesian Islander Community
PDX Disability Justice Collective (a project of The Uprise Collective)
COVID-19 and Movement for Black Lives Response
Black Lives Matter Billboard Contributions
Black Resilience Fund
Central Oregon Black Leaders Assembly
Familias en Acción
GoFundMe Billboards
Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington
La Voz
Oregon Worker Relief Fund
PAALF (now Imagine Black)
Portland Equity in Action
Pride Foundation
Reimagine Oregon via Urban League of Portland
Reimagining Safety
Rural Organizing Project
Since Time Immemorial Fund
Snack Bloc
Portland Urban League of Portland
Women’s Foundation of Oregon
Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities*
*awarded in 2019 for 2020 work
Accion Politica PCUNista
APANO Statewide
Building Power for Communities of Color
Coalition of Communities of Color
Consejo Hispano
EUVALCREE
EUVALCREE ACTION
Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO)
Momentum Alliance
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN)
Unite Oregon
Unite Oregon Action
Community Sponsorships
Acción Politica PCUNista
Adelante Mujeres
Airway Science for Kids (ASK)
American Leadership Forum of Oregon
Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO)
Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO) Communities United Fund
August Wilson Red Door Project
Basic Rights Oregon
Bienestar
Black & Beyond the Binary Collective
Brown Hope
CAUSA Oregon
Central Oregon Black Leaders Assembly
Centro Cultural of Washington County
City Club of Portland
Coalition of Communities of Color
Consejo Hispano
Disability Art and Culture Project
Disability Refugee Community
Edúcate Ya
Familias en Acción
Farmworker Housing Development Corporation
Forward Together
Grupo Latino de Accion Directa
Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO)
In4All
KairosPDX
Kúkátónón
Latino Network
LGBTQ Health Coalition of the Columbia-Willamette
Micronesian Islander Community (MIC)
Minoru Yasui Legacy Project
Momentum Alliance
MRG Foundation
Mudbone Grown
Muslim Educational Trust
Native American Youth & Family Center
North by Northeast Community Health Center
OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon
Oregon Community Health Workers Association (ORCHWA)
Oregon Latino Health Coalition (OLHC)
Pacific County Immigrant Support
Philippine American Chamber of Commerce of Oregon (PACCO)
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN)
Portland All Nations Canoe Family
Raíces
Red Lodge Transition Services
Rogue Climate
Rural Organizing Project
Safety and Justice Oregon
Salem-Keizer Coalition for Equality (SKCE)
Samaritan Health Services
Southern Oregon Black Leaders, Activists, and Community Coalition
The Black United Fund of Oregon
The Latino Community Association
The Uprise Collective
Unete
Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation (VGMF)
VOZ Workers' Rights Education Project
Western States Center
World Stage Theatre
Health and Education Fund
Latino Network Action Fund
Oregon Farm to School and School Garden Network
Civic Health: Culture Shifting
Building Power for Communities of Color
Here Together Campaign
JOIN
Let’s Get Moving Campaign
OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon
Oregon Futures Lab
Preschool for All Campaign
Verde
Yes for Clackamas Kids! Campaign
Yes for Real Community Oversight of Police Campaign
Other Grant Programs
Aiden V. Ellison Memorial Contribution
Basic Rights Oregon
Business for a Better Portland
City Club of Portland
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
Funders Committee on Civic Participation
Next Up Action Fund
Oregon Black Pioneers
Oregon Student Association
Rural Organizing Project
Willamette Valley Development Officers (WVDO)