Meyer Memorial Trust awards 4 C.O. grants
At its October program meeting, Meyer Memorial Trust’s board of trustees awarded 74 grants, totaling nearly $5.5 million for organizations and initiatives across Oregon and Southwest Washington, including four totaling $126,730 in Central Oregon.
The latest awards support efforts as varied as the Lebanon Soup Kitchen, opened 25 years ago after a resident noticed hungry neighbors searching dumpsters for food, Street Roots, a nationally-recognized newspaper that offers vulnerable people experiencing homelessness and poverty an opportunity to earn an income, and Trout Unlimited, which works to conserve, protect and restore North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds.
Twenty-eight of the grants are Responsive Grants, awarded for a wide array of activities in the areas of human services, health, affordable housing, community development, conservation and environment, arts and culture, public affairs, and education. Generally ranging from $40,001 to $300,000, with grant periods from one to three years, Responsive Grants help support goals that include projects to build and renovate facilities, fortify operations and strengthen organizations.
Forty-five of the awards are Grassroots Grants, designed to give smaller organizations an opportunity to compete for funding from MMT. Grants of $1,000 to $40,000 over one or two years focus on a variety of projects, including organizational technical assistance, technological improvements, hiring advisers/consultants, facility construction and repairs, outreach, communication and operating support.
Some awards stand out. A grant of $150,000 helped Literary Arts acquire Wordstock, Portland’s nine-year-old book and literacy festival. After a hiatus, the festival will re-launch as a one-day event next fall at the Portland Art Museum.
A $500,000 grant will help partners realize Rosewood Plaza, a capital project that will house 45 low-income families, a new community training dental clinic and space for offices and healthy activities in Gresham’s Rockwood neighborhood.
The plaza builds on Meyer grantee Human Solutions’ successful completion of the Rockwood Multi-Service Center in 2011 and years of hard work by the Wallace Medical Concern and other partner agencies focused on low-income households, people of color and the uninsured in East Multnomah County.
A $150,000 grant to the Wallowa Band Nez Perce Trail Interpretive Center will help construct a longhouse on the Nez Perce Homeland Project grounds.
There’s also funding this month for an initiative: a grant of $150,000 awarded through the K-12 Education Initiative supports the Oregon Learns Project, which works to secure better outcomes in public education.
Meyer Memorial Trust, established in 1982, is one of the largest private foundations in Oregon, with current assets over $802 million. Over its lifetime, MMT has awarded nearly $643 million via 8,080 grants and PRIs to organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
The Board of Trustees — which includes Debbie Craig, John Emrick, Orcilia Ziga Forbes, George Puentes and Charles Wilhoite — meets monthly to make grants.
Central Oregon — $126,730:
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Grassroots Grants
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Cascades Theatrical Company, Bend
Awarded: $9,500
For capital projects to improve the public visibility of a theater that has hosted live performances in downtown Bend for more than 35 years.
Kids Club of Jefferson County , Madras
Awarded: $40,000
To help purchase and install new playground equipment for the Kids Club after-school and summer program.
Rainbow Youth Golf Education Program, Chiloquin
Awarded: $40,000
To support the ATA Wi’ Learning Center’s delivery of an ethnobotany curriculum based on the Klamath Tribe’s traditional knowledge to students in the Klamath County School District.
Warm Springs Community Action Team , Warm Springs
Awarded: $37,230
To implement a strategic plan to promote the Warm Springs Community Action Team as an individual financial health resource for residents of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation.
