2023 Year in Review

Big changes, big investments and big opportunities. 

2023 brought millions in state funding for us to distribute, staff changes, new connections and the privilege of investing in thoughtful, strategic work across our region. 

A few highlights:

Program Officer Cleo Tung on a site visit with JREP grantee Love is Stronger GV..

We started the year with a Justice Reinvestment Equity Program (JREP) Learning Community that ultimately shaped the Justice Reinvestment Equity Program and led us to select 18 JREP grantees who are now receiving program and capacity-building support. These culturally specific and culturally responsive organizations across the state will receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in state resources to reduce prison use, promote healing and advance community safety in Oregon. We couldn’t be more excited to support their work and be part of their growth. And while the checks have been written, the journey is only beginning for this cohort of grantees: they have convenings, coaching and more to look forward to in 2024.

“For me personally, I am most proud of being part of a dynamic new team that co-created the first-of-its-kind program in Oregon, JREP.  It's the kind of thing that history is made of if done right. As an organization, I am most proud of a well-matched group of individuals who deeply care about the communities we serve and take on the challenge and weighted responsibility to do so in ways intended to be less harmful, affirming and empowering. The idea of legitimate hope comes to mind when I think of NWHF's outputs.” - David Navarro, NWHF Program Officer

Civic Health grantees at the 2023 America Votes State Summit in Washington, D.C.

During the 2023 Oregon Legislative Session, we co-led a coalition of nonprofit organizations alongside the Nonprofit Association of Oregon in advocating for the Nonprofit Modernization Act. Although our bill was amended, reducing its intended impact, it did pass, establishing the Task Force for Modernizing Grant Funding and Contracting. Our ultimate goal is to improve government-nonprofit contracting practices and raise nonprofit employee wages.

The Civic Health C4 Power Program (C4PP) grantees continued to build political power, including coming together for two in-person convenings (in Stevenson, WA and Lincoln City, OR) and preparing for 2024. 2024 is a big year for elections, bringing ballot measures, including campaign finance reform, high expected turnover for state-wide positions, a historic Portland City Council race with new districts and ranked-choice voting, and more.

We worked on translating Disability Justice: An Audit Tool into Spanish and plain language English, and we’re excited to share that the translated versions launched earlier this month!

We also highlighted two Advancing Disability Justice grantees on our blog: The UPRISE Collective and UTOPIA PDX. In 2024, we look forward to revising and recommitting to the Advancing Disability Justice grant program. More to come! 

We re-launched community dinners, hosting our first community dinner since before the COVID-19 pandemic began. We enjoyed meeting new people in Clackamas County and learning more about Oregon’s third most populous county.

We said goodbye to a few staff members and welcomed new ones, including our new Team Support Manager Kayla Mahiko and Accountant Jennifer Matsumura.

We also moved to a new grants database and grantee portal.

“While administrative infrastructure updates like this are not particularly sexy, they are an important part of our strategy to support grantees long term. The new GivingData system has given applicants a much better user experience in our portal, provides new tools for staff to communicate and track work, and allows us to improve the reliability of our data and payment processes. These improvements are essential to supporting our commitment to deep and trusting partnerships with our grantees.” - Quinn MacNichol, NWHF Grants & Data Manager

Thank you to everyone who was a part of our work last year!

Last, but not least, here’s a full list of everyone we funded in 2023:

Northwest Health Foundation, our 501(c)(4)

Civic Health: Capacity Building

• Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon

• Ebony Collective

• Imagine Black

• Latino Network Action Fund

• NAYA Action Fund

• OneAmerica Votes

• Pacific County Voices Uniting

• PCUN

• Unite Oregon Action

• Washington County Ignite

Civic Health: Culture Shifting

• Building Power for Communities of Color

• New Left Accelerator

• Portland For All

• Western States Center

Sponsorships

• 7 Waters Canoe Family

• Adelante Mujeres

• Affect

• American Leadership Forum of Oregon

• APANO Action Fund

• Basic Rights Oregon

• Bienestar

• Black & Beyond the Binary Collective

• Black Cultural Initiative

• Bridge Pomoja

• Brown Girl Rise

• Building Power for Communities of Color

• Capaces Leadership Institute

• Cascade AIDS Project

• Chinook Indian Nation

• Comunidad y Herencia Cultural

• Consejo Hispano

• CymaSpace

• Familias en Acción

• Haymarket Pole Collective

• Japanese American Museum of Oregon

• KairosPDX

• Komemma Cultural Protection Association

• Latino Community Association

• Latino Network

• Living Islands Non-Profit

• Native American Youth and Family Center

• New Progressive Network

• Next Up Action Fund

• North by Northeast Community Health Center

• OneAmerica Votes

• Oregon Black Pioneers

• Oregon Futures Lab

• Pacific County Immigrant Support

• PCUN

• Pendleton Community Action Coalition

• Portland Chinatown Museum

• Pueblo Unido PDX

• Seeding Justice

• Street Roots

• The UPRISE Collective

• Unite Oregon Action

• Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation

• VOZ Workers' Rights Education Project

President’s Fund

• Ballot Initiative Strategy Center

• Black United Fund of Oregon

• CAIR Oregon

• Central Oregon Black Leaders Assembly

• Coalition of Communities of Color

• East County Rising Action Fund

• East County Rising Community Projects

• Forward Together Action

• Four Rivers Welcome Center

• Girls Inc. of the Pacific Northwest

• Gordly Burch Center for Black Leadership and Civic Engagement

• Groundswell Action Fund

• Jewish Voice for Peace

• Latino Network

• Muslim Educational Trust

• Native American Youth and Family Center

• New Left Accelerator

• Oregon Black Pioneers

• Oregon Center for Public Policy

• Oregon Pacific Islander Coalition

• Oregon Student Association

• Pendleton Community Action Coalition

• People's Nonprofit Accelerator

• Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center

• Pride Foundation

• Pride Foundation

• Reaching and Empowering All People

• Rural Organizing Project

• Safety & Justice Oregon

• Seeding Justice

• Urban League of Portland

Northwest Health Foundation Fund II, our 501(c)(3)

Civic Health: Capacity Building

• Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon

• Ebony Collective

• Imagine Black

• Latino Network Action Fund

• NAYA Action Fund

• OneAmerica Votes

• Pacific County Voices Uniting

• PCUN

• Unite Oregon Action

• Washington County Ignite

Justice Reinvestment Equity Program 

• Beyond These Walls

• Black Alliance & Social Empowerment

• Central City Concern

• Clackamas Women's Services

• Constructing Hope Pre-Apprenticeship Program

• HOLLA

• Klamath Full Gospel Church

• Latino Network

• LIFE Art

• Love Is Stronger GV

• Mano a Mano

• Oregon Washington Health Network

• Papalaxsimisha

• Red Lodge Transition Services

• Stronghold a Culturally Responsive Peer Support Program

• The Harbor

• UTOPIA PDX

• Womenfirst Transition and Referral Center

Other Grant Programs

• Disability Justice Dreaming

• Klamath Tribal Health & Family Services

• Latino Network

• Nonprofit Association of Oregon