TWST Blog

This afternoon at the C. Giles Hunt Memorial Library in Sutherlin, seven folks from Elkton, Oakland, and Roseburg asked me some great questions about Meyer Memorial Trust’s grant application and decision making process. We talked about how local support for a project is really important. Folks were concerned that they have been having a difficult time with local fundraising and wanted to know if that would negatively impact their chances of getting MMT support. I explained that MMT program staff and Trustees understand that although economists have announced the recession is officially over, Oregon’s recovery will take longer, since Oregon’s economy lagged behind other states before the recession. And typically, the nonprofit sector follows other sectors in economic recovery.

We talked more about what local support for nonprofit groups could look like. It could mean in-kind volunteering, delivering services or donations of equipment and supplies. Sometimes a contractor will donate all or a portion of a construction project, or a consultant will donate professional services to the organization, such as bookkeeping or board training. Local support also takes the form of fund development, which means personally giving financially to the organization or raising money from other individuals and sources for the organization. Hopefully it means board members and other volunteers are doing both. We don’t have an expected amount or percentage of an organization’s budget that should be raised locally, but we do expect that each group has engaged in local fundraising and can describe that work and their results.

Dan, who was representing a local food pantry, was wondering why a recent grant request to purchase food was turned down if MMT was focusing on supporting organizations providing basic needs services during the recession. I explained that MMT had provided three grant awards totaling $1.5 million dollars to the Oregon Food Bank (OFB) specifically for purchasing food to be distributed to local pantries to the OFB network. We did not make grants directly to local pantries to purchase food at that time, but provided other support such as facility expansion projects to meet the increased volume of food inventory and distribution at the local sites. We also supported the purchase of equipment for freezers and refrigerators to supplement the equipment funds available from OFB. Dan was very gracious saying he understood why MMT made this decision, but I could tell he was not entirely satisfied with it, I think because he sees all the faces of people in need and his pantry's struggles to meet that need.

We talked about how smaller organizations are in need of better tools to do their work, things like a basic database. Linda from Consumer Credit Counseling in Roseburg shared that TechSoup.org was a great resource for free and low-cost software. They had purchased three licenses for a total of $39 to network their computers. This feisty group kept me busy and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We depend on groups like this to keep our feet to the fire to meet the needs of nonprofits across our service area.

Before I sign off I want to share two photos; the first is of the Children’s Room of the Library and the cozy pillows kids can curl up with during reading time.

And here is 4-year-old Honor and her Mom, Lisa. Honor is showing off her awards for participating in the Summer Reading Program pledging to read, or be read to, at least 15 minutes every day. She really was very excited and proud, but got shy as soon as I pulled out the camera.

This was a great trip through Springfield, Oakridge, Cottage Grove, Drain, and Sutherlin. Thank you everyone!

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