澳超直播

Last year, on the cusp of its 50th anniversary, Oregon Community Foundation delivered more than $321 million in grants and scholarships to nearly 4,100 Oregon nonprofits and 3,025 students. It is the largest charitable foundation in Oregon and the sixth largest among more than 830 community foundations in the United States, ranked by total assets.  

Numbers that large can鈥檛 help but command attention. But a different, less visible currency鈥痶han cash is just as vital to 澳超直播鈥檚 impact on Oregon communities: The gift of volunteer time. 

Each year, more than 1,800 volunteers help further 澳超直播鈥檚 mission to improve the lives of all Oregonians.  

If 澳超直播 volunteers were a city, they would be more populous than Cannon Beach, John Day, or Heppner. If they were musicians, they would be seven times the size of Oregon State University鈥檚 marching band. There are 18 times as many 澳超直播 volunteers, living and serving in communities throughout the state, as there are 澳超直播 employees.  

澳超直播 volunteers review thousands of scholarship candidates and grant applications from nonprofits; serve on dozens of advisory committees; and help guide and decide 澳超直播鈥檚 strategic priorities as members of regional leadership councils and 澳超直播 board of directors. Collectively, they donate 16,500 hours annually 鈥斺�痚quivalent to one person working full-time, five days a week, 52 weeks a year, for nearly eight years. Those hours are worth nearly half a million dollars to 澳超直播, based on estimated value of volunteer time.  

Sonja McKenzie

But volunteers give considerably more to Oregon and to 澳超直播 than can be counted in dollars and cents. Each brings a unique blend of skills, knowledge of their communities, and life experience. Students, parents, retirees, business owners, activists and artists 鈥斺�痑ll infuse 澳超直播 with energy, advocacy, and love for their unique parts of the state. Volunteers are no less than the foundation鈥檚 lifeblood, enabling 澳超直播 to create opportunities and change lives by the thousands throughout Oregon, decade after decade. 

鈥淭he value that volunteers bring to 澳超直播 is just staggering,鈥� says Sonja McKenzie, 澳超直播鈥檚 Community Engagement Coordinator, Volunteers. 鈥淕iving your time is an invaluable investment.鈥�  

Specialists in their communities 

As an example, in 2022, 澳超直播 received nearly 1,000 applications for Community Grants, perhaps the foundation鈥檚 best-known open grant program. Community Grants are awarded to  nonprofits that respond to emerging, pressing needs throughout the state. The program awarded more than $8.7 million in new community grants, including $2.4 million in donor funds, to directly support 371 nonprofit organizations in all 36 Oregon counties. 

澳超直播 200 澳超直播 volunteers serve as Community Grant evaluators, who play a critical early role in a deliberative, multi-stage process that determines which applicants receive funding. If you can think of a nonprofit in your community that serves kids, families, education, the arts, or the environment 鈥斺�痑nd which engages with populations that have been disproportionately impacted by social, economic and racial injustices and inequities 鈥斺�痶here鈥檚 a good chance it has received a Community Grant that was evaluated and championed by local 澳超直播 volunteers. 

澳超直播 typically assigns volunteers to review applications from their own communities and regions to capitalize on their knowledge of local needs and assets and their familiarity with local nonprofits.  

鈥淲e look at volunteers as specialists in their communities. They are leading the work in an advisory capacity, bringing their regional and local perspective, and informing what kind of programming is best suited for their community,鈥� says McKenzie, who since joining 澳超直播 in 2019 has helped to increase and diversify the foundation鈥檚 volunteer corps and strengthen the infrastructure that recruits, trains, and supports them.  

Showing up for Oregon neighbors 

Over several weeks during each grant review cycle, volunteer grant evaluators throughout the state each donate about 15 to 40 hours to the process. They read grant applications and meet in small groups to discuss them, visit nonprofits and interview their leaders, and make recommendations to staff. 澳超直播 board members make final funding decisions. 

Jackie Wirz

Jackie Wirz has evaluated grants for numerous organizations, from small local nonprofits to the National Science Foundation, as well as for 澳超直播. If organizers don鈥檛 do the advance work necessary to ensure the process goes smoothly, it can be a difficult experience, she says.  

鈥湴某�直播 does a fantastic job of creating the infrastructure for grant reviewers, both new and experienced, to understand the approach and the tools that are being used to evaluate the applications, to stick to agendas, and to make sure the resources we need are always available,鈥� says Wirz, a nonprofit executive in Portland. 

The details of a grant evaluator鈥檚 role can appear unglamorous: note-taking, Zoom calls, spreadsheets. Yet these volunteers represent a cornerstone of civic life in the United States since its founding, one that has long been considered essential to a thriving democratic society: Community members showing up, unpaid, to do the work of improving life for other people.  

As Kerry Tymchuk, Executive Director of the Oregon Historical Society, said in 2013, 鈥淓ver since the days of the pioneer-era barn raises, philanthropy and neighbor-helping-neighbor have been proud parts of Oregon鈥檚 history.鈥�  

In return for showing up for their fellow Oregonians, 澳超直播 grant evaluators get the opportunity to dig deeply into challenges facing their regions; be inspired by the work of local nonprofits and their proposed solutions; and through their funding recommendations, make a lasting impact on their neighbors and communities.  

Emma Koontz

鈥淚n our world right now, there's a lot going wrong. But in this process, you see that there鈥檚 a lot that鈥檚 going right, too,鈥� says Emma Koontz, a junior at the University of Oregon who is a grant evaluator for the Portland area. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good way to build your faith in those people and organizations that are doing good things, and advocate for them, and be a part of making progress on big problems, a little bit at a time.鈥�  

Leading in multiple roles  

The number of Community Grant evaluators has doubled since 2021, the result of recruitment efforts led by McKenzie. But the largest number of 澳超直播 volunteers 鈥� more than 1,000 of them 鈥斺�痯lay another role, helping to determine which Oregon students receive the $11.6 million in scholarships (2021 total) that 澳超直播 donors fund annually.  

Volunteers also serve as advisors on key foundation committees, councils and boards; many fill multiple roles at once. They have also been integral to an array of 澳超直播 special projects and strategic initiatives, including GO Kids, which funds local nonprofits that are working to close the opportunity gap; Black Student Success, in which 澳超直播 works with community partners to attack the root causes of education inequity for Black students; and the Latino Partnership 鈥� a 20 year program that addresses challenges facing the state鈥檚 Latino/x community.鈥� 

It is up to McKenzie and her 澳超直播 colleagues to find all of these people 鈥斺�痶hen to interview them, train them, support them, and keep them coming back. A certified volunteer administrator (CVA), McKenzie previously oversaw statewide volunteer management for Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette. She herself is an avid volunteer, as an elected director of the Parkrose School District in Portland and past co-chair of Dress for Success Oregon.  

Disrupting the concept of a 鈥榯raditional鈥� volunteer 

McKenzie and other 澳超直播 staff search for volunteers at professional networking events; in colleges and universities; through referrals from current 澳超直播 volunteers, staff, neighbors and friends; and by frequently posting opportunities to 澳超直播鈥檚 social media channels.  

As is the case at similar organizations nationally, 澳超直播 volunteers tend to be disproportionately older (including many retirees), higher-income, and white, compared to the state population. While this demographic has been and continues to be critical to the foundation鈥檚 success, 鈥渨e want to be mindful that there are other communities out there that also have a lot to offer,鈥� McKenzie says. 

To find volunteers who reflect the full diversity of Oregon communities 鈥斺�痠n terms of age, region, race and ethnicity, occupation, income, ability level, gender, and sexual orientation, among other factors 鈥斺��澳超直播 deploys a range of tactics: Showing up in places where diverse candidates gather, lowering barriers to participate, even changing how 澳超直播 talks about volunteering.  

鈥淔irst and foremost, we鈥檙e intentionally disrupting the concept of what is a 鈥榯raditional鈥� volunteer. We鈥檙e doing that through targeted community engagement and recruitment 鈥斺�痑pproaching diverse communities and looking for folks with a variety of lived experiences, who can bring those perspectives to their work as volunteers,鈥� McKenzie says.  

Wirz had known about 澳超直播 for years before she began volunteering in 2021. After Wirz met Carly Brown, an 澳超直播 program officer for community engagement, at a networking event sponsored by Partners in Diversity, she decided to sign up. 

鈥淎s a bipolar minority woman in science, I just appreciated it so much that they were invested in the success of professionals of color from around the state,鈥� Wirz says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when I decided that volunteering for 澳超直播 was absolutely something that I needed to do.鈥�   

鈥淲e were eager for Jackie to become a grant evaluator because of her experience running a nonprofit organization,鈥� Brown says. 鈥淲hat we learned is that she has a real knack for determining if a grant program鈥檚 priorities are reflected in an application. She brought her curiosity and attention to detail to the role, and that鈥檚 a huge contribution.鈥� 

澳超直播 has lowered the financial and time barriers that keep people from volunteering by providing subscriptions to online meeting platforms, covering the costs of printed materials, and by making meeting times more flexible, so volunteers can attend without missing work. The foundation is also exploring how other philanthropies and nonprofits use honorariums to enable more people, at a wider range of income levels, to participate.  

Making a direct impact  

Even the language around volunteering is changing, to be more inviting and compelling to a more diverse mix of Oregonians. In conversations, McKenzie often replaces the word 鈥渧olunteer鈥� with 鈥渁dvisor,鈥� and emphasizes 澳超直播鈥檚 need to hear from people in every kind of community who can bring their local knowledge, personal perspectives, and life experience to grant evaluation and other roles.  

People of color, especially, often ask McKenzie to describe exactly how donating their time will help improve the lives of Black, Indigenous, Latino/x and other historically marginalized groups in Oregon. 

鈥淭hey want to know that they won鈥檛 be part of a big machine,鈥� she says.  

鈥淚 tell them, with your recommendations about what work is getting funded, you鈥檙e going to see a direct impact. People want to see that we鈥檙e truly looking at marginalized communities and organizations and supporting them. When they understand that 澳超直播 is doing that, they want to be a part of it.鈥�