Doug Stamm's Blog

Sometimes you get what you ask for…
 
We asked for million dollar ideas4oregon, and we got them. If you’re counting, we had 542 submissions.
 
In short, you blew us away. We are so impressed and grateful that hundreds of Oregonians took the time and devoted their energy to give us their best thinking. It achieved our goals of collecting bold and innovative approaches to difficult topics, bringing to our attention issues and suggestions we would not otherwise have heard and creating positive forward reaching conversations within our state that is beset with so many challenges to talk about. We thank each and every one of you.
 
You gave us a lot to chew on. In fact, more than we could digest in the time frame we originally set for ourselves and way more than one great idea. But we want to report back on what we heard and where we are at this stage.
 
First, we laid out criteria to use in evaluating the ideas:

• would make a real difference rather than contribute an insignificant amount to a much more costly project or endeavor.
• would contribute to lasting effects rather than be gone once the money is spent, and have good potential for leverage.
• would address more than a single need/issue.
• would have the potential of helping all of Oregon rather than a specific area.
• would have symbolic importance, consistent with the message we delivered when seeking ideas (viz., bold, innovative).
• would be for something beyond what we fund in our ongoing grants programs.
• would go to something that involves multiple sectors (more than just nonprofit, also private and public participation).

Many of the submitted ideas met those criteria. After much deliberation, we selected one initial idea to build a Request for Proposals (RFP) upon, but we found we needed to do much more. In fact, later in this message I’ll lay out our response to the three most popular idea categories.

First ideas4oregon RFP:  Support for Communities of Color

But first, the initial idea. Meyer Memorial Trust will be developing a Request for Proposals for supporting development of human capital among communities of color in Oregon.

What We Heard

Here’s an excerpt from the idea as submitted on the ideas4oregon forum:
 
“One of the most profound issues facing Oregon today is the marginalization, discrimination and profound inequality and disproportionality across all aspects of life experienced by communities of color in Oregon… naming of Oregon as “overwhelming White” serves to deeply marginalize and render almost invisible… people of color who live here... Meyer Memorial Trust can help change the tone of the conversations in Oregon and jumpstart action that again makes our state a place where ideas begin and grow by funding the development of human capital in communities of color,…increasing the diversity of voices in Oregon, resulting in richer, more creative thinking… Funding for communities of color is needed to self-organize, network, develop pathways to greater social inclusion, build culturally-specific social capital and provide leadership… Oregon cannot become a place where new, creative thinking flourishes until it becomes a place that provides for the opportunities necessary to make the invisible, visible and empower communities of color.”

Where We Are

Demographics across the United States are changing rapidly and prompting funders nationally and within Oregon to examine their grantmaking and ask themselves if their philanthropic investments are reaching the diversity represented in their communities. We recognize that in order for our philanthropy to be most effective and strategic, MMT must understand changing racial and ethnic demographics within our state. We will draw from national and regional learning and engage communities of color and resources within our state to inform our thinking as we explore this topic.
 
We will be developing a Request for Proposals in coming months, anticipating announcing it in late 2010 or early 2011.
 
As I mentioned earlier, we found we couldn’t choose just one idea among the very many that were suggested. In fact, we determined we need to consider and address the three most popular categories of ideas that emerged from the forum.

More than one $1 million idea

1. Economic Development

What We Heard

By far the most ideas fell into the economic development category. And many of the ideas in other categories, especially energy, had an economic development component. The ideas ranged from micro-loans to angel investment funds to innovation stimulus projects to revolving loan funds to business incubators and much more.

Where We Are

Since inception, MMT has supported a wide range of economic development efforts totaling close to $8 million through our responsive grant programs, including technical assistance and microloans for small business development in rural Oregon and among low income and historically disadvantaged communities, local community development projects, support for Oregon’s biotechnology industry, business education in universities, and so forth.  However, given the overwhelming interest you expressed in this category, we believe the time has come for Meyer Memorial Trust to take a hard look at how we might play a more strategic and proactive role in this area. MMT will spend the rest of 2010 studying this issue in anticipation of launching a coherent and more comprehensive approach in 2011. And we plan to continue to keep you informed and solicit your input as we move forward.

2. Education

What We Heard

The second most popular category of ideas was education, with a wide range of suggestions, including completely rethinking public education, college scholarships for every student, many specific curricula recommendations, more efficient resource utilization, more support for community colleges, etc. A significant number of suggestions for education involved community building, e.g., linking schools more closely with their communities and making better uses of untapped community resources.

Where We Are

These ideas made us aware that we need to do a better job communicating about our Quality K-12 Public Education Initiative that we’ve been investing in for the past seven years through the Oregon Small Schools Initiative and the Chalkboard Project. MMT has invested nearly $17 million in these projects that are designed to improve the quality of Oregon’s K-12 schools and to close the achievement gap and raise graduation rates and college or work readiness for high school students across the state.

Looking back over MMT’s history, we have invested another $75 million in education projects ranging from support for early childhood education and Head Start programs, public and private K-12 schools, community colleges, universities, after school programs, support for teachers and educational advocacy.
 
MMT will continue to make education a top priority in its grantmaking. We consider it the basis for economic development and essential to all other measures of success in our state.

3. Community Building

What We Heard

The third most common idea category was community building. The narrative in many community building ideas expressed a kind of yearning for connection and recognition of the growing importance of local places (neighborhoods, towns, gathering centers), combined with a sense of the need for greater cooperation and connection within and among these local units.
 
At the same time, we noticed that some ideas submitted already have organizations and/or individuals working on them. But Oregon doesn’t have a statewide interdisciplinary clearinghouse of information that might make it easier (or possible) to discover that reality. In some cases, we at MMT know of those efforts. But we wonder how many we don't know about?
 
We experienced something we didn’t expect while following the discussion on the ideas4oregon forum. As temporary and recent as it was, the forum served a “community building” connection function. Witness:

1. P.D. submitted an idea.
2. J.G commented on his idea: “P, this is a great idea and similar to one that I have kicked around with friends a while back… This would make a great Kickstarter.com project too. Feel free to call upon me if you want to pull something together.”
3. C.S. commented: “Love it, P! We should join forces... would love to collaborate.”

 This is a real world example of exactly the void that ideas4oregon exposes (while temporarily filling it!).

Where we are

We are led to the unmistakable conclusion that we need to keep this project alive by establishing an interactive website that serves as a clearinghouse for problems that need solving in Oregon, connects people working toward solutions and solicits the best thinking in the state (with no geographic or demographic limitations) to address issues raised. It can also serve as a powerful way to keep Oregon informed about what people are working on, thinking about, wondering about, hoping for, etc. Through that process, we anticipate ideas will emerge that will interest those who can provide resources when needed to jumpstart projects.
 
As one person who submitted a variation on this idea said, “Oregon certainly has the resources to make this website happen, and it could start immediately. This is a shovel ready project. And, once the website is up, it could be used to refine and implement all the other good ideas submitted in the MMT contest. Everyone’s a winner, here.”
 
We will be gathering forces to move forward with this web project and look to provide another update in in the next few months. If you are interested in helping us with this project, please marie [at] mmt [dot] org (let us kno)w.

Summary

As we’ve outlined above, we are laying the groundwork for major work around economic development. We will be supporting establishing a networked presence to serve as an Oregon clearinghouse for identifying needs, vetting ideas, connecting resources, finding support, and so forth – sort of a permanent ideas4oregon portal that will likely lead to support and success for a number of additional ideas going forward. We plan to continue our commitment to supporting quality education in our state.
 
In addition, we have selected an idea that will result in the for the first ideas4oregon Request for Proposals in coming months.
 
We are so pleased that we captured the attention of a lot of people who don’t normally interact with us through the ideas4oregon project. Thanks again for your thoughtful and inspirational contributions. You can expect further updates over the coming months.
 
Let’s stay in touch. And keep up the great ideas!
 
Doug