And consider this: the amount we have given away ($404.6 million) is more than half (about 60%) of what we have left ($678 million).

Proposed projects could include:

• Efforts to modify project underwriting so that resident services delivery is an allowable project expenses,
• Education of policy makers on the need for ongoing funding of resident services,
• Efforts by nonprofit housing providers to generate increased unrestricted income (through increased contributions, decreased compliance costs, decreased project debt, or increased earned income streams) to finance delivery of resident services,
• Consolidation of nonprofit housing providers so they can generate economies of scale and thereby increase unrestricted income.

MMT welcomes Initial Inquiries for this RFP by August 25, 2008. Please submit Initial Inquiries through MMT's standard online application process. The short project description in the online Initial Inquiry application must be titled RFP Affordable Housing III. MMT anticipates making awards in the form of grants and program-related investments in the range of $100,000-$300,000 to selected projects. Funding awards will be announced by the end of the first quarter of 2009. Please email Ann Lininger if you have any questions regarding this RFP.

More information about this RFP and where it fits in MMT's affordable housing strategy is included in this summary of MMT's Affordable Housing Initiative. In addition, it would be useful to review other information about the initiative on our website and our CEO's most recent report before preparing an Initial Inquiry.

I had intended to write much sooner, but we have so many projects going on it can be hard to carve out time to sit down and talk about them in a reflective way. But that’s what I intend to do here today… forgive the length, but our list is long.

The numbers

Let’s start with the numbers that show up in the rear view mirror. Fiscal year 2007-08 (which ended March 31, 2008) was a milestone year for us in a number of ways:

• We awarded a record amount in new grants and PRIs ($32.4 million)


• We paid out a record amount ($37 million)


• We grew our PRI program significantly, awarding more than twice the previous record amount.

A graph of awards we've made since our 2000-01 fiscal year illustrates these trends: the growth in total amount awarded, directly related to a rapid increase in our PRI program, while the dollar amount in grant awards has leveled off in the last three years.

• We completed and implemented MMT’s first ever comprehensive strategic plan, which prompted us to reorganize our grants programs, launch new initiatives and take a closer look at Mission Investing.

Mission Investing

My last message focused on our recent efforts in Mission Investing. (Mission-Related Investing is defined as financial investments made with the intention of furthering a foundation’s mission while recovering the principal invested or earning financial return), so I’ll begin with an update on that effort. You may recall that MMT engaged representatives of Equilibrium Capital LLC, a private equity investor located in Portland, to assess the state of the MRI market and develop a practical MRI implementation strategy for institutional investors. This unconventional partnership reflects an emerging willingness among financial services professionals and institutional investors to forge new relationships and collaborate as the financial services industry looks to innovate through MRI.

Building a MRI Portfolio

Today we are sharing the outcome of Equilibrium Capital's work with you. Mission Related Investing: Building a Portfolio explores current obstacles to MRI development and sets forth an implementation plan. While originally intended as an internal document, we decided to share it with others because we find it to be a remarkable summary of the state of the field that also provides a map for actions MMT and other foundations can take next. This work also inspires the Meyer Memorial Trust’s deep dedication to the issues of sustainability.

Traditionally, investors work with consultants or so-called “gatekeepers” to identify investment products. The study found that these “gatekeepers” are not aware of the many products and MRI opportunities being developed in the marketplace and therefore institutional investors have become the market drivers for MRI opportunities. That puts them at the forefront of influencing the development of MRI and sustainability domain expertise across the traditional investment value chain. The report suggests a four-step implementation process: 1) objectives setting; 2) investment; 3) evaluation; and 4) integration. The fourth step achieves mission implementation across all organization tools, programs and assets.

Cambridge Associates

MMT was an integral part of the effort to convince Cambridge Associates to develop a MRI research initiative. Cambridge's focus on MRI brings credibility to the movement, given the firm's large market share. This project could have tremendous effect on increasing MRI.

Cambridge intends to expand its knowledge of key players in MRI and build a manager database. The firm will produce annual performance reports for each type of MRI strategy, such as Sudan-free and clean technology. It will define best practices for institutions regarding the establishment and implementation of an MRI program.

As we announced earlier, MMT is partnering with Annie E. Casey and F. B. Heron foundations to issue a challenge to foundations to increase mission related investments to 2% of all U.S. foundation assets over the next five years. Our MRI approach was featured in a recent article in Alliance Magazine, "news and analysis of the latest developments in philanthropy and social investment worldwide."

At this point, MMT has $40 million in investments aligned to its mission, largely in local venture capital, clean tech and buyout funds. We expect that amount to increase significantly in the future.

Updates on MMT’s Initiatives

Restoration of Willamette River Basin

The past six months has been devoted to intensive learning about the people, organizations and issues already involved in restoring the health of the Willamette and to designing a fund that will respond directly to recognized needs while catalyzing a new level of commitment to the river. We have held or attended dozens of meetings (and paddled, hiked along and flown over the river) and are working closely with public agencies, local watershed groups, other nonprofits and scientists to ensure that our Willamette restoration strategies address critical needs and priorities.

Over the summer, we will begin implementing two major strategies in support of this goal:

• An innovative partnership with the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board will allow us to leverage our funds with state lottery proceeds toward restoring channel complexity and reconnecting the river to its floodplain at several sites in the mid-Willamette Valley.


• The second will engage a number of local and regional river restoration groups in applying a “whole watershed” approach to restoration in four to six several smaller tributary systems. Under this approach, restoration efforts will be undertaken in accordance with a rigorous planning and evaluation framework designed to achieve specific outcomes, such as improved water quality, flows, riparian conditions, and species richness and diversity.

In both cases, MMT funds will be targeted to project areas in the middle and upper sections of the basin (above Willamette Falls).

We are still working out the final details of these and other strategies and will announce our decisions soon. Over the next several months we will also continue our efforts to engage other funders in the Willamette so that private and public commitments at least triple MMT’s average annual investment in improving the health of the river. Watch our website to learn more about this initiative, including funding opportunities within and outside the geographic target areas described above.

Access to Affordable Housing

In March we announced the first prong of MMT’s affordable housing initiative, a $5.225 million investment. It included disbursing $4.66 million to support the Housing Acquisition Fund, administered by the Network for Oregon Affordable Housing. The Fund will make loans to finance purchase of buildings and bare land to be used for rental and homeownership projects and will support site acquisition for preservation and new construction efforts. MMT is working with project partners to grow the fund to $50 million. The Fund will begin financing site acquisition this summer. In the current credit environment, as competition for affordable apartments grows and access to permanent-financing decreases, the fund’s buy-hold capacity is more crucial than ever.

This month, MMT’s trustees approved the second prong of the Housing Initiative at $2.42 million, intended to increase affordable housing access in rural Oregon by strengthening providers. MMT has elicited input from 25 experts from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors to help shape this multi-year strategy. The strategy will:

• support efforts to streamline compliance requirements and reposition troubled projects


• provide growth capital to a number of high-performing, geographically dispersed providers so they can expand their operations


• support training and peer learning networks


• support efforts to help manufactured home park residents in Oregon buy their land.

In the third prong, MMT will work with others to promote financially sustainable delivery of tenant support services. MMT has funded the Bridges to Housing project, the Washington Families Fund, and a Neighborhood Partnership Fund resident services project, all of which seek to demonstrate the utility and cost-effectiveness of financing delivery of tenant support services. MMT’s nonprofit partners intend to use outcome data from these efforts to catalyze long-term realignment of public and private resources to fund tenant services. In December 2008, MMT will consider potential follow-on funding for these projects. MMT may also support one additional demonstration project.

Quality K-12 Public Education

The Chalkboard Project

This is the fifth year of the Chalkboard Project, a program of Foundations for a Better Oregon. MMT has awarded $2.78 million (including inkind support) to the project since it began in 2004.

Chalkboard’s major accomplishments over the past year include:

• Releasing first statewide research study on teacher professional development


• Completing first "best business practices" review of a school district – Beaverton


• Awarding two CLASS (Creative Leadership Achieves Student Success) project implementation grants to Sherwood and Tillamook school districts


• Launching joint OEA/Chalkboard survey of teachers on professional development

Chalkboard measures its progress by the relationships it builds with the public, policymakers and education stakeholders through:

• informing and educating the public


• pursuing proven educational practices in state policy


• piloting promising reforms in willing school districts.

Chalkboard’s priorities over the next year include:

• Continue CLASS implementation


• Complete additional business reviews in Yoncalla, Harney County, Eugene and Albany


• Prepare 2009 legislative agenda

The Oregon Small Schools Initiative

In this education reform project, MMT joined the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to create new, innovative high school models that improve graduation rates, close the achievement gap and help prepare more students to be successful in college and the workplace. The Oregon Small Schools Initiative (OSSI) serves nearly 12,000 Oregon high school students; about 45% are economically disadvantaged and almost 40% represent minorities. At this point, MMT has allocated more than $15 million to the project since 2003.

E3: Employers for Education Excellence is implementing OSSI. The original project plan called for converting 18-20 existing large high schools into multiple small schools within the same building, and creating 10-12 new small schools. Currently, the initiative has helped transform nine large comprehensive high schools into 32 small high schools and helped start six new small high schools, for a total of 38 schools. OSSI discontinued partnerships with two comprehensive high schools and two new-start small schools that did not make adequate progress.

The schools are not just smaller; many are built around themes like science, art, health, technology and leadership and entrepreneurship. Each school is putting in place personalized programs for students and a challenging college preparatory curriculum, including first time Advance Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate and Dual Credit courses. As a result, there has been an 80% increase in the number of students taking AP courses, and the number of students taking AP tests has doubled.

After only one or two years, a number of small schools are already showing improvements in key academic areas. For example, RIT scores (measurements of individual student growth on state assessments) are up in many small schools in Portland; seven small high schools in Portland were the only high schools in the district to show an average RIT gain in math from 8th to 10th grade in 2007. Many students in small schools report a much greater sense of belonging and teachers report improvements in student attitude and behavior. Small schools, on average, are showing increases in enrollment and schools open the longest are showing increases in attendance and declines in the percentage of students disciplined.

In recent weeks, the Oregon Small Schools Initiative has been the focus of quite a lot of media attention, some admittedly negative. The transition to small schools has not been easy for many and they are still at a fragile stage of development. Some of the key challenges they have faced include adopting and implementing new instructional practices, developing and retaining strong principals and teachers, and creating a new culture of learning in an education system that is slow to change. MMT engaged in this strategy to reduce the achievement gap to attempt to address a long standing problem resistant to solution. A number of approaches had already failed. We don't choose to tackle challenging problems because we are guaranteed success, we choose them because they are too important not to try to solve. We expect to learn from our attempts and adjust our strategy as we move forward, with the additional wisdom we gain as we go. We also know we need to be patient, because if it were easy, it would have already happened. To demonstrate our continued commitment, MMT recently made a $3 million award to extend the OSSI project by two years.

In the coming year, the project’s highest priority will continue to be a focus on improving teaching in the classroom. Teachers will continue to implement innovative instructional practices such as project-based learning and arts integration, and use unique approaches to teaching math and literacy. We understand that significant high school reform does not happen overnight, and that not all schools will be successful in making this transformation. That said, we are confident that many of these small schools will become exemplary high school models where all students are graduating with the skills they need to succeed in college and work.

Reorganized Grants Programs

It’s important to point out that –- despite our new initiatives and attention to MRI -- the bulk of what MMT does is still responsive grantmaking. Refocusing our grantmaking was a criticial part of our strategic planning work, which resulted in:

• Reaffirming our strong commitment to due diligence in our proposal review process, including peer review


• Retooling our Responsive Grants and Grassroots Grants programs


• Identifying Nonprofit Capacity Building as an area of intentional focus


• Initiating an Emergency Grants program

In the coming months, look for us to:

• announce a program to provide technical assistance to nonprofit organizations and


• issue our first Request for Proposals within our Responsive Grant program.

As you can see, we have a full agenda these days. (We have a number of other projects underway that I haven’t mentioned, but will feature in future messages.) Sometimes it might appear we are trying to do too much too fast. But these are urgent times. We don’t have the luxury of waiting to address the critical issues we face in our special corner of the world. Every day we hear from you about how important it is to support your work, and it requires us to bring a sense of urgency with us to the office every day. We have no time to lose.

Have a great summer,
Doug

These awards bring the total for the current fiscal year (which began April 1) to 108 grants/PRIs for more than $17 million. Since it began operating in 1982, MMT has made 5,690 awards for $463.3 million.

July 2008 awards included:

Albertina Kerr Centers, Portland
Awarded: $300,000
To develop and implement a wraparound system of care for Multnomah County's highest needs children and teens.

CASA of Oregon, Newberg
Awarded: $100,000
To support acquisition of manufactured home parks by resident cooperatives.

Coalition of Community Health Clinics, Portland
Awarded: $155,705
For a care coordinator to coordinate referrals for uninsured clients to safety net clinics.

Crow’s Shadow Institute, Pendleton
Awarded: $180,000
To hire staff to build the organization and expand its programs.

Folk-Time, Portland
Awarded: $120,000
For development staff to establish long term sustainable funding.

Neighbors for Kids, Depoe Bay
Awarded: $85,000
To equip a new building for this organization that provides programs for children and teens.

North Bend Public Library, North Bend
Awarded: $30,000
To help replace the library's roof.

ONE-Northwest, Seattle
Awarded: $300,000
To enhance open technology that facilitates civic engagement in Oregon and beyond.

Oregon Health and Science University Foundation, Portland
Awarded: $500,000
To improve diabetes care in rural Oregon.

Portland Opera Association, Portland
Awarded: $150,000
To increase capacity through critical capital and technology improvements.

Rogue Initiative for a Vital Economy, Ashland
Awarded: $66,000
To implement a strategic plan to increase fundraising capacity.

Salem/Keizer Coalition for Equality, Salem
Awarded: $80,000
To increase minority and non-English speaking parents' involvement in educational systems.

Southern Oregon Adolescent Study and Treatment Center, Grants Pass
Awarded: $210,000
To provide innovative prevention-oriented mental health services in 13 public schools.

Sustainable Northwest, Portland
Awarded: $310,000 grant and $100,000 program related investment loan
To support creation of a distribution center to increase the market for sustainably-produced wood products.

Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, Cornelius
Awarded: $120,000
To add development staff to expand the organization's fundraising capacity.

White Bird, Portland
Awarded: $100,000
To support White Bird Uncaged dance performance series while its regular venue is being rehabilitated.

Here’s the scoop I got from Ellen Bergstone Beer, Executive Director of Film Action Oregon:

Film Action Oregon and Box Office Tickets have teamed up to create the PDX Ticket Network, a new community ticketing and CRM (constituent management relationship) solution for Portland area organizations that’s FREE. Seriously. You sell a $10 ticket, you get $10. Who pays the cost of the service? The ticket buyer pays $1 per ticket plus 5% of the face value. So the service fee for the $10 ticket is $1.50. Compare that with the fees commercial ticketing companies charge!

I know there are alternative ticketing options available like Tickets Oregon and Brown Paper Tickets but PDX Ticket Network goes way above and beyond ticketing.

This program also provides nonprofit organizations with the ticket buyer’s contact information and preferences. It enables:
• Donation database tracking and management
• Membership/subscriptions
• Email/mailing lists
• eMarketing
It’s a 100% web based service that works on all computer operating systems. And it’s all integrated!

This project allows members and organizations to network and work together in ways that haven’t been possible before. Over the next couple of months, it will produce an online community calendar of events, something that everyone I know has needed and wanted forever or longer. A dream come true, you could say.

I love seeing solutions like this emerge from the community! My hat is off to Ellen and project partner George Domurot (President/CEO of Box Office Tickets). And I bet they aren’t done yet… if I were you, I would keep my eye on this website.

Marie Deatherage, Director of Learning & Communication

connectipedia: The Backstory

During our time together here today, I’m going to tell you the story of connectipedia, weaving in the participation of all the key players. Understanding how it came about the way it did and why will help make its intent more clear, I think.

Once upon a time, two to three years ago, the largest private foundation in Oregon had 100% turnover in its full time program officer staff within a year’s time. If anybody ever had a wake up call about capturing and storing institutional memory, it was us. Recognizing that need, building a system to capture and share information became an important element of Meyer Memorial Trust's 2005 Business Plan.

Probably mostly because I was still left and had a reputation for never meeting a technology I wasn’t willing to at least date, I was assigned the task of developing a system that could serve as an archive of knowledge that would remain behind when key staff members left. A way to share what we know and build a kind of collective wisdom. What the field calls a “knowledge management” system.

While it was a fairly new trend in the foundation world, I learned knowledge management had been around in the corporate world for quite some time, so I studied what businesses had done. What had worked, what hadn’t worked. How much it cost. And so forth. I also looked at what other foundations were doing.

I attended the Knowledge Management conference in Boston put on by Grantmakers for Effective Organizations and talked to people at other foundations about their experiences. Some of what I heard was pretty scary: hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on a system that no one really used or found useful.

Our knowledge management system had consisted primarily of popping up over the cubicle wall and saying, “Hey, Charline.” (Charline McDonald, who had been a program officer at MMT almost as long as MMT had existed, was known as the “queen of grantmaking” within our ranks until her retirement in 2005.)

So I thought a lot about our knowledge access and storage needs, and realized that what I needed from Charline was not: tell me everything you know about food banks, if perchance, I was investing a proposal from a food bank. First of all, she didn’t have time to sit down and tell me what she knew every time I looked at a new proposal about a new topic. And if she hadn’t reviewed a food bank proposal for several years, her knowledge might very well be out of date.

What I needed from Charline was a connection to people, organizations and resources who knew the food bank scene. Not information exactly, but connections to information resources.

Very often, those connections were with nonprofits doing the real work. And researchers. Community members. People who really cared. And so forth.

So why, I wondered, would a foundation go to the trouble to build such a useful tool for just ourselves, especially since much of the time the resources we need to access live outside our walls? It really made no sense… Why couldn’t we design and build it so anyone and everyone working for the common good could participate, both using and contributing.

After all, that’s one of MMT’s values… reflecting our founder Fred Meyer’s commitment to truly serve the communities that made his success possible, his desire to innovate. Many times working at MMT I wonder, if FM could be here today, what would he think? Would he like what he sees?

Actually, it seems Mr. Meyer foresaw connectipedia…I found this Fred Meyer quote on wikipedia (of course):
"Use your brain for thinking, not as a storehouse. First, write things down so you don't have to remember them.
Second, learn where to find information so you don't have to remember it." - Fred G. Meyer

Another connection Fred Meyer has to connectipedia is that it is a kind of one stop shopping place for people working for the common good, much like Fred Meyer One-Stop Shopping Centers. We hope and think that would make him proud.

If you want to find knowledge, why don’t you just Google it? you might ask. Well, of course we already Googled everything. But Google often gives us too much information. A search of K-12 education Oregon yields 225,000 results, for example. It just takes too long to wade through results like that. And their awesome algorithm sometimes disadvantages more local sources. It would be much more efficient if we had a way to better target the results we got.

And the targeted results system we needed should have a way to include the knowledge of people working for the common good and allow them to input information about themselves and their connections. It needed to be constantly updatable. An always-on tool for mass collaboration.

1. The wiki and Ward Cunningham

Clearly we needed to use a new technology tool: a wiki. The best known one is wikipedia. Wiki is a software that enables mass collaboration. Anyone with an Internet connection can create, read, update and delete). It’s agile and fast. Changes constantly. Updates continuously. Continual path of growth and improvement. Never need go out of date.

And Oregon is a hotbed of wiki talent. Did you know that the man who invented wikis lives and works here. And he’s here with us today. Meet Ward Cunningham. He’s going to introduce us to wikis and the wiki way…

Ward Cunningham is the computer programmer who developed the world's first wiki. He now serves as Chief Technology Officer of AboutUs.org, a growth company hosting the communities formed by organizations and the people they touch. Ward co-founded the consultancy, Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc., has served as a Director of the Eclipse Foundation, an Architect in Microsoft's Patterns & Practices Group, the Director of R&D at Wyatt Software and as Principal Engineer in the Tektronix Computer Research Laboratory. Ward is well known for his contributions to the developing practice of object-oriented programming, the variation called Extreme Programming, and the communities supported by his WikiWikiWeb. Ward hosts the Agile Manifesto. He is a founder of the Hillside Group and there created the Pattern Languages of Programs (PLoP) conferences which continue to be held all over the world. He has co-authored a book about wikis, titled The Wiki Way, and also invented Framework for Integrated Tests.

Watch Video of Ward Cunningham's presentation.

And yes, it’s true that Ward really did say that WagN is “the first fresh contribution to wiki since he created it 13 years ago.”

2. WagN and Grass Commons, in the form of Ethan McCutchen and Lewis Hoffman

But I kept thinking… I see how wikis work, and they are awesome repositories of knowledge that results from mass collaboration. But what about extracting the information in the most useful way? Sometimes what we need to be able to do is combine information and organize it like a database does. Is a wiki enough?

This is a story about connections. My favorite part is the pink hair connection. At meeting I attended of people working on advancing Open Source in Oregon, a young man came over to me afterward and said, “I see you have a pink streak in your hair, and you see I have one in mine, I think we need to talk.” So before long Brandon Sanders became a friend and one of my scouts, one of the incredibly brilliant people I check in with now and then to just see what’s going on in his head and what next new thing I need to know about. So I kept him posted on my thinking about this whole knowledge management thing…

Then he introduced me to two utterly brilliant geeks with Grass Commonshttp://grasscommons.org/, a nonprofit organization in Eugene: Ethan McCutchen and Lewis Hoffman. They were developing something they called WagN, a wiki tool that had hard core tagging capabilities that gave the contents of the wiki the ability to act like a database. Or as they put it: "It's a wiki you query, an on-the-fly community database, a templating system, an application platform, and a playground .... all in one." Eureka!

So we brought them on the team: They’re going to tell us about WagN and how they wrote connectipedia… and what’s different about connectipedia from other wikis…

Ethan McCutchen co-founded Grass Commons to cultivate the Network of Integrated Consumer Knowledge (NICK), a fusion of his interests in sustainability and software. Having majored in music composition, taught English in Russia and Japan, studied cognitive neuroscience in Scotland, researched primates in Thailand, volunteered in several Latin American countries, and backpacked wherever else he could, Ethan now does most of his exploration online. He’s into system architecture, sustainability indicators, human and computer languages, collaboration, community music, voting systems, and incessant bad jokes.

Lewis Hoffman heads all of Grass Commons’ software development. Previously with Two Radical Technologies (1998-2004) he led development on a powerful, modular, integrated suite of web applications called Advocacy Central. During that time he also completed his master’s in Computer Sciences from George Mason University, focusing on artificial intelligence. He’s also received degrees from Davidson College in German and Physics. An avid outdoor enthusiast and student of sustainability thinking, Lewis was drawn to the NICK project by both its technical challenges and its social and environmental importance. His current software interests include information retrieval and extraction, data integration, and the semantic web.

Watch the Video of Ethan and Lew’s presentation.

3. connectipedia on Parade by Amy Sample Ward

While connectipedia was being developed, I was warned we would run into resistance… just like all wikis do, from those who are not accustomed to mass collaboration and the new tools that make shared learning possible on a scale never before seen. So I figured we better put some content in there to have something to show people what the potential was.

Enter Amy Sample Ward. We contracted with her to start working on content. In the true spirit of the Internet, she went to Spain to do her work.

When she came back, there was way more than enough work to go around, so we brought her on to devote most of her time to getting connectipedia ready to launch from inside. She has been the key to us being here today. She has the right combination of skills and knowledge, determination and energy, dedication and commitment to bring us to the finish line, which is really the starting line, isn’t it.

So now, without further ado, Amy is going to show you connectipedia…

Watch Amy’s demo of connectipedia.

4. And Now a Word about connectipedia's Taxomony

In the course of this project, I learned there is no “best” way to organize information. I highly recommend that everybody interested in information and knowledge read Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger. I was fascinated to learn how other ways of organizing information we all take for granted came about, like alphabetization, the Dewey Decimal System. They all have uses, but they all have limited usefulness.

But we had to start somewhere with connectipedia, so began by using taxonomy of the Foundation Center. As time goes on, we know the system will become more refined, reflecting actual knowledge and use. For example, we have partnered with Northwest Health Foundation on the health section of connectipedia. Its staff immediately recognized it needed to be reorganized to reflect reality and needs of the field, which NWHF staff members have now completed. Next they will will begin populating the health section with content, as they have as good an understanding of that field as anyone.

Thanks NWHF!

5. It’s About the Data: Meet Dataplace

I went to the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco a few weeks ago and probably the most repeated refrain was: it’s all about data. “The network is the computer and data is the currency.” Often what our foundation needs in its work is data. So we’ve given a fair amount of attention to data in developing connectipedia.

Since we are not in the data business, we asked people whose job it is to know and study data to help us identify the best sources for a variety of information categories. Much thanks to Arlene Wallace and George Hough at Portland State Univrsity’s Population Research Center, Oregon’s State Data Center for providing us with a list of best sources of data for a number of indices.

In addition, we want to rely on primary sources whenever possible, and be careful to use public and non-proprietary data so our users are free to use it for their needs.

First, we learned that there are nearly as many opinions about data as there are sources of data. Arguments can be, and are, made in support of using a number of different sources. We came to the conclusion that determining the very best source each category of data was a fool’s errand, because it usually comes down to individual preference and need. And frankly, the differences in numbers between different sources were almost never great.

Rather, we decided to try to identify sources for data that we could offer up to the community for common use. While individual numbers for a particular index might be debatable, can we agree among ourselves on a common data source for the connectipedia community?

And now for another connection anecdote.

When I was at the Knowledge Management conference, at the first morning networking breakfast, I sat next to the Chief Information Officer for the Council on Foundations and told him about my knowledge management assignment, what I was thinking about doing, and asked him who I most needed to meet and connect with. At that very moment, Troy Anderson walked through the door and he motioned him over. "Here’s your guy," he said. "He’s the technology guru of the foundation world."

Turns out, he’s from Oregon!! But of course! Where else would he be from?? Troy is a member of the Coquille Indian Tribe of southwest Oregon. He developed Knowledgeplex, at that time a knowledge management project of the Fannie Mae Foundation. He was in the midst of developing Dataplace.

It quickly became clear that Dataplace was the missing data link in connectipedia. Dataplace developed an API (automated programming interface) so we could integrate it, so when you look for data here, it comes from there. We have only just begun the full integration, so that will get better and better in the weeks to come.

Troy’s going to show what Dataplace can do…

Troy Anderson has been at the forefront of Web technology innovations and media, and entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship for more than fifteen years. A former management strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, Anderson is the current President & CEO of KnowledgePlex, Inc. – a spin-off from the Fannie Mae Foundation – that democratizes information for the affordable housing community on www.knowledgeplex.org and for data on www.dataplace.org.

Previously, Anderson was SVP, Interactive & IT of Standard Media International (SMI), publisher of The Industry Standard and TheStandard.com, the leading publication covering Web 1.0 innovations. Prior to The Standard, Anderson was VP Online Products at Red Herring magazine, another leading publication covering state-of-the-art technologies out of Silicon Valley and beyond. Anderson joined Red Herring from StockMaster.com, the pioneer in online stock quotes and charts, where he was the President & COO.

Anderson has consulted to companies like Caterpillar, US&G, and Amoco; helped set up his tribe’s (Coquille Indian Tribe) economic development corporation; worked at Inside Sports magazine; and was a professional Go apprentice at the Japanese Professional Go Organization – the Nihon Ki-In – in Japan and later the author of the Way of Go, published by Simon & Schuster, on how the game of Go can inform strategic thinking.


Anderson holds a bachelor's and a master's degree from the Stanford University, where he wrote a dictionary of the Coquille language Milluk. He also holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University near Chicago.

Watch the Video of Troy Anderson's presentation.

View Troy’s presentation as a Powerpoint file or a PDF file.

Connectipedia has links to other data for special uses as well (like Oregon Benchmarks), but we believe Dataplace offers us the consensus data we can agree on… and please, let us know what you think, what you find useful, what else would be helpful. We don’t include all the data in the world, of course, but started with the data we find ourselves using most often.

6. The Context of connectipedia

We’re going to hear from one more person today. Another of Oregon’s amazing geeky wiki resources is Mark Dilley, who is on a mission to index all the world’s wikis. That means he is in a position to assess WagN and connectipedia, so we can better understand the value of what we are creating here. Mark is going to give us some perspective on wikis and talk about how wikis can help build communities.

Mark Dilley is well known for being a labor relations specialist, community builder, creative problem solver and wiki enthusiast. Now has the job of wiki builder at AboutUs.org, and is creating WikiIndex, a wiki of wikis. Bascially, Mark is out to harness the powers of wiki for good.

Watch the video of Mark Dilley's presentation.

There are a number of things connectipedia will make possible that are now out of our reach that will lead to increasing and improving our knowledge. For example, we will have the ability to track indicators down to census tracks. If we make an affordable housing investment in a location, for example, we can watch what happens to indicators of housing in that locale, including income, education, crime, etc.

We can look at the grants we award and have new ways of measuring whether our resources are being equitably distributed according to demographic, economic, and social indicators.

The tool is ready to be put to work (and for us to learn how we can keep making it better). We’ve created the platform for building something powerful together. Our biggest challenge today is nudging our culture along to catch up with our technology.

The way we think about knowledge is changing. It’s not just a change in technology. It’s a cultural shift. Together we need to create a culture of learning and sharing what we learn. The view that knowledge isn’t owned. That information is not to be hoarded, but shared. To trust one another with knowledge. Believing that together everyone is smarter.

So now you know the connectipedia story. Now it’s in your hands. It’s future depends on all of us together. We can’t wait to see where you take it. So let’s get busy make it happen…

I just have one more thing to say, Is this an exciting time to be alive, or what?

Assistance League of Klamath Basin, Klamath Falls
Awarded: $14,547
For safety improvements to its resale and consignment shop.

Brookings-Harbor School District, Brookings
Awarded: $25,000
To furnish the career center with computers to assist students with their post-secondary education plans.

Carver School Community Center, Damascas
Awarded: $20,000
To repair the roof of a historic school building now used as a community center.

Central Oregon Environmental Center, Bend
Awarded: $24,750
To support a merger with reSource to strengthen environmental work in the region.

All Outdoors, Bend
dba Central Oregon Resources for Independent Living
Awarded: $7,094
For a new work program that provides people with disabilities additional employment opportunities.

Child Centered Solutions, Portland
Awarded: $22,000
To increase legal representation for children caught up in family disputes.

Community Arts Project, Hebo
Awarded: $10,000
To hire this organization's first executive director.

Community Connection of Northeast Oregon, La Grande
Awarded: $25,000
For a new freezer for the local food bank.

Crag Law Center, Portland
Awarded: $25,000
To increase work with communities along the Oregon Coast grappling with environmental and conservation issues.

Deschutes County Healthy Beginnings, Bend
Awarded: $13,495
To expand and improve services to children from birth to age five.

Douglas Residents Training Facility, Roseburg
Awarded: $15,000
To expand a program that provides independent life skills training for adults with developmental disabilities.

Friends of the Visual Arts, Salem
Awarded: $22,608
For glass blowing equipment used in art classes and for community outreach and education.

HumaniNet, West Linn
Awarded: $20,000
To develop a geo-referenced real time information tool used to deploy aid in disaster relief and community aid operations.

Illinois Valley 2010 Community Response Team, Cave Junction
Awarded: $18,000
To attract and increase tourism to benefit the local economy of this Southern Oregon community.

Illinois Valley Family Coalition, Cave Junction
Awarded: $7,000
To support a program that provides assistance to low-income families in Southern Oregon.

Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Williams
Awarded: $4,770
For technology improvements to enhance the organization's public education program.

LightHawk, Portland
Awarded: $25,000
To support restoration efforts in the Klamath Basin.

Love in the Name of Christ, Oregon City
Awarded: $19,600
For a volunteer coordinator to meet the increasing need in this community for emergency services.

Lower Columbia Hispanic Council, Astoria
Awarded: $20,000
To hire a bilingual project coordinator to increase services to the community.

Medical Foundation of Marion and Polk Counties, Salem
Awarded: $25,000
To improve access to medical care among "working poor" families.

NW Documentary Arts and Media, Portland
Awarded: $10,250
To enhance and expand the documentary workshop program.

Oakland Economic Development, Oakland
Awarded: $19,000
To replace a deteriorating structure at the city park.

Oregon Association for the Education of Young Children, Tualatin
Awarded: $24,934
To enhance professional engagement and quality practice in early childhood care and education.

Oregon Coast Children’s Theatre, Toledo
Awarded: $10,000
To produce a new theatrical performance based on "American Folk Tales" for students and community at schools in rural and underserved communities.

Scappoose Bay Watershed Council, Warren
Awarded: $13,500
To develop a workplan for the conservation and restoration of the watershed that flows into Scappoose Bay on the Columbia River.

Sweet Home Community Singing Christmas Tree, Sweet Home
Awarded: $13,930
To replace an unsafe scaffolding structure used for community performances.

Talent Historical Society, Talent
Awarded: $4,800
For an permanent exhibit featuring the Takelma Indians.

Tualatin Riverkeepers, Tigard
Awarded: $24,693
For a public awareness campaign about storm water runoff.

Upstream Public Health, Portland
Awarded: $24,000
For communication and technology to support strategic public health policy making.

Vanguard Ministries, Salem
Awarded: $20,000
To expand a tutoring and recreation program for at-risk youth.

Washington County Bicycle Transportation Coalition, Beaverton
Awarded: $22,500
To hire an executive director to strengthen the organization's capacity.

Women's Crisis Center, Tillamook
Awarded: $24,530
For continued support of this organization's efforts to open a new shelter.

Here are the numbers:

66 awards at the June program meeting for nearly $6.5 million!

>> 34 Responsive Grants and Program-Related Investments worth more than $3.5 million.
>> 12 grants totaling $2.32 million under MMT's Affordable Housing Initiative as a first step in building affordable housing capacity in rural Oregon.
>> 32 Grassroots Grants worth $576,001.

These awards bring the totals since MMT began operating in 1982 to 5,674 grants/PRIs for $463,434,993.

Affordable Housing Initiative, Responsive Grant and PRI awards are listed below. (Grassroots grants will be added to the website soon.)

Affordable Housing Initiative grants include:

CASA of Oregon, Newberg
Awarded: $60,000
To support training and operation of peer learning networks to benefit nonprofit housing providers that serve rural Oregon.

Columbia Cascade Housing Corporation, The Dalles
Awarded: $200,000
To support expansion of this entity's operations.

Community Connection of Northeast Oregon, La Grande
Awarded: $200,000
To support expansion of this entity's operations.

Community Development Network of Multnomah County, Portland
Awarded: $240,000
To support training and operation of peer learning networks that benefit nonprofit housing providers that serve rural Oregon.

Farmworker Housing Development Corporation, Woodburn
Awarded: $150,000
To support expansion of this entity's operations.

Housing Development Center, Portland
Awarded: $290,000
To help financially strengthen nonprofit housing providers that serve rural Oregon.

Housing Development Center, Portland
Awarded: $30,000
To support training and operation of peer learning networks that benefit nonprofit housing providers that serve rural Oregon.

Housing Works, Redmond
Awarded: $200,000
To support expansion of this entity's operations.

Northwest Housing Alternatives, Milwaukie
Awarded: $300,000
To support expansion of this entity's operations.

St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County, Eugene
Awarded: $150,000
To support expansion of this entity's operations.

Umpqua Community Development Corporation, Roseburg
Awarded: $300,000
To support expansion of this entity's operations.

Willamette Neighborhood Housing Services, Corvallis
Awarded: $200,000
To support expansion of this entity's operations.

The 34 responsive grants and program-related investments included:

Albertina Kerr Centers, Portland
Awarded: $80,000 grant and $100,000 program related investment loan
To help develop a bike rental business to provide earned income to support the organization's services for people with disabilities.

Big Brothers Big Sisters Northwest, Portland
Awarded: $300,000
For infrastructure and technology support to continue strategic expansion of mentoring services to children.

Birch Community Services, Portland
Awarded: $62,745
For a refrigerated truck to increase the organization's ability to provide perishable food to hungry families.

Children’s Institute, Portland
Awarded: $250,000
To enable the organization to support and increase early learning opportunities for at-risk children.

Children First for Oregon, Portland
Awarded: $225,000
To replicate a sustainable funding model for child advocacy organizations.

Elgin Family Health Clinic, Elgin
Awarded: $50,000
To maintain the clinic while transitioning to a new operator and establishing a health district.

Friends of the Children - Portland,
Awarded: $375,000
To support professional mentoring and related services to at-risk children.

Grantmakers of Oregon and SW Washington, Portland
Awarded: $25,000
For in-kind support for this organization's efforts to promote effective philanthropy.

Hearing and Speech Institute, Portland
Awarded: $200,000
To build capacity and rebrand this organization providing developmental health care for children.

La Clinica del Valle Family Health Care Center, Medford
Awarded: $350,000
To build a new health clinic in Central Point.

Lebanon Public Library–Senior Center Trust, Lebanon
Awarded: $150,000
To furnish and equip a new public library in Lebanon.

Linn-Benton Volunteers, Corvallis
Awarded: $30,000
To expand the volunteer center and increase outreach to grassroots nonprofit organizations.

Network of Oregon Watershed Councils, Eugene
Awarded: $195,000
To provide needs assessments, training and technical assistance to Oregon watershed councils.

North Coast Land Conservancy, Seaside
Awarded: $135,000
To build internal capacity of this organization that conserves and protects land on the northern Oregon coast.

Oregon Ballet Theatre, Portland
Awarded: $200,000
For two years of operating support.

Our House of Portland, Portland
Awarded: $170,000
To expand neighborhood housing and in-home care services for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Pioneer Relief Nursery, Pendleton
Awarded: $60,000
To establish a transportation program for families and provide technical assistance to strengthen financial management systems.

QUAD, Portland
Awarded: $86,000
To ensure affordable, accessible living for adults with disabilities by strengthening the organization's fundraising capacity.

South Lane Mental Health Services, Cottage Grove
Awarded: $150,000
To purchase and renovate a building as a mental health clinic.

Stand for Children Leadership Center, Portland
Awarded: $250,000
For grassroots leadership development to move Oregon's schools into the top 10 in the nation.

Third Rail Repertory Theatre, Portland
Awarded: $75,000
To build the organization's capacity by hiring its first paid staff.

We are so excited to have this project off the ground so everyone can become part of it... because that's what will determine whether or not it achieves what we set out to do in bringing it this far.

The "finish line" we reached yesterday is, of course, only the starting line. We are looking to all of us to take it from here, and invite you to join in now.

Anyone can search, browse and read connectipedia. To edit or contribute content, you need to join (click on the "join" or "request an invitation" link and follow instructions.)

We highly recommend you start with the User Guide, which is a pdf file (it can be downloaded and printed if that is more convenient.)

connectipedia uses open web standards so is optimized for Firefox browser, but it should work fine with other web browsers.

If you weren't able to attend the launch or watch the webcast, you can watch a video of it here:

Google Video Part 1 & Part 2.

Download the video to watch later. PLEASE NOTE: This is a 145 MB file, so it could take a while to download. If you are behind a firewall, you might have issues and should talk it over with your friendly IT person.

And as usual, we would love to hear what you think...

This link will be live beginning at 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10th. The launch event will start appearing at 2 p.m.

HOW TO WATCH THE WEBCAST

You need Apple QuickTime 7 to watch this webcast. If you don't have it on your computer you can download it for free here.

(You do not need Quicktime Pro, which costs money. You just need the free player.)

To watch the webcast, click here. Quicktime Player should open and connect to the webcast. If Quicktime player does not open (or if some other player opens, like Real Player or Windows Media Player), open Quicktime Player manually, click on "File" then "Open URL". Paste or type the webcast link address (rtsp://web2.mmt.org/connectipedia.sdp) into the box that pops up and click Ok.

If you are unable to see the webcast (if you are behind a firewall, you might have problems), all is not lost! We are recording the event and the video will be available on the connectipedia website by June 11, 2008!

Why, we asked ourselves, would we set up a system that only MMT could use when the need for good information is shared by other foundations... and nonprofit organizations and public agencies and official decision makers and citizen volunteers and... in fact, everyone working for the common good?? Wouldn't that be a smarter investment for us to make?

What if there was a place where we could all exchange what we learn as we go about our daily business? What if nonprofits could see the data and information that foundations use in their due diligence process? What if organizations and people could easily determine which foundations' interests match their project goals? What if foundations could quickly see what groups are working on an issue they are investigating? And so on...

Well, we are building such a place. A place where people and organizations can connect about subjects and places. A place called connectipedia...

Want to know more? Want to see connectipedia in action? Want to find out how you can be part of all this? Attend the public launch event at:

2 - 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 10
Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center
aka Ecotrust (second floor conference center)
721 NW Ninth Ave.
Portland OR 97209

We would love you to be part of this event and celebration. Several renowned geeks will be there! We're not requiring folks to register, but if you plan to attend, please send a quick rsvp email.

If you can't make it to Ecotrust, you can still witness the launch. We will be webcasting the event.

After June 10th, connectipedia will be open for business!

Deadline for nominations is June 16, 2008. More information about the award is available from OEN, including a nomination form.

This award goes to an organization that has shown entrepreneurship and creativity in addressing business and operational issues, achieving strategic goals, and/or creating jobs. This is not an award that will recognize the "good works" an organization delivers to the community. It is meant to honor the unique, entrepreneurial ways of operating that help an organization fulfill its mission. It is given at the discretion of the OEN Board of Directors and is judged by a panel of nonprofit and foundation leaders from across Oregon.

We at the Meyer Memorial Trust are especially interested in the award because it is a program whose mission is to promote the kind of vision and entrepreneurship that Fred Meyer, whose will established MMT, brought to his own company. To demonstrate our support for this program, MMT is participating in judging applicants for this award and providing financial assistance. We encourage nonprofits to step forward and apply.

The winner will be featured at OEN's annual awards dinner on Sept. 18. At the event, each finalist will be showcased in a professionally produced video.

Amani Center
St. Helens, OR
$51,000
To strengthen this organization that provides child abuse assessment and treatment.

Catholic Charities
Portland, OR
$600,000
To help construct an administrative and services building.

Children’s Justice Alliance
Portland, OR
$191,000
To market a curriculum and expand services for parents involved in the criminal justice system.

Clatsop Community College
Astoria, OR
$400,000
To help renovate the Jerome Street campus.

Concordia University
Portland, OR
$400,000
To help construct a new library and learning center.

Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
Warm Springs, OR
$150,000
To help construct a building to co-locate the newspaper office and KWSO radio station.

Cottage Grove Area Habitat for Humanity
Cottage Grove, OR
$25,000
To help build an affordable home for a low income family.

E3 Employers for Education Excellence
Portland, OR
$3,000,000
To continue support for the Oregon Small Schools Initiative.

Great Basin Society, Malheur Field Station
Princeton, OR
$20,000
For technical assistance to strengthen this organization's capacity.

Harney Education Service District
Burns, OR
$31,500
For a playground for the early childhood center.

Klamath Community College
Klamath Falls, OR
$250,000
To help develop the first phase of a permanent campus.

Lake County Library
Lakeview, OR
$200,000
To help construct a new main library in Lakeview.

Looking Glass Youth and Family Services
Eugene, OR
$250,000
For a residential facility for girls and an educational center that services at-risk teens.

Oregon Coast Aquarium
Newport, OR
$500,000
To repair permanent exhibits and develop temporary exhibitions

Oregon Coast Community Action
Coos Bay, OR
$300,000
To help build a new Head Start facility.

Oregon Entrepreneurs Network
Portland, OR
$5,000
For the 2008 OEN Nonprofit Entrepreneurism Award.

Partnership for Safety and Justice
Portland, OR
$90,000
To build the administrative capacity of this organization.

Rogue Community College
Grants Pass, OR
$250,000
To help construct the Higher Education Center in Medford for Rogue Community College and Southern Oregon University students.

Seaside Public Library
Seaside, OR
$100,000
To help build a new library.

Sherman Development League
Moro, OR
$250,000
To help build a new community library.

Sunrise Enterprises of Roseburg
Roseburg, OR
For a $250,000 grant and $250,000 program related investment loan to help renovate a new facility that expands services for adults with disabilities.

The Union
Grants Pass, OR
$32,800
To relocate a consumer-run mental health center.

Western Oregon University Development Foundation
Monmouth, OR
$125,000
To help establish a nursing program in partnership with Oregon Health Sciences University.

MMT Program Officer Paul Reich weighs in and wants to know what you think:

You will rarely find me advocating for increased government regulation and for some questions, the new form causes me to ask, "Why do you need this information?"

Nonetheless, I think the new 990 is a good idea, particularly regarding governance and increased transparency regarding financial transactions that nonprofits should avoid. In particular, its sections on "Statement of Program Accomplishments," "Governance, Management and Disclosure," and "Compensation Information" are noteworthy. Having been in a leadership position in a number of capacities, I can even see this form being used as a tool by nonprofit executives to improve an organization.

What do you think? Please add your comments below...

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In addition, the IRS is accepting comments through June 1, 2008.

MMT made 319 grants and program-related investments this fiscal year totalling $32.4 million. Since MMT began operating in 1982, it has made 5,582 awards for a total of more than $446 million.

March 2008 grants/program related investments include:

Birth to Three
Eugene
$235,000
To increase the organization's fundraising capacity and market parent education curricula.

Coastal Communities Cultural Center
Lincoln City
$175,000
To renovate a historic school building into the Lincoln County Cultural Center.

Ecotrust
Portland
$100,000
To create a carbon sequestration market in Oregon and to participate in the Western Climate Initiative.

Farmers Conservation Alliance
Hood River
$12,500
For technical assistance to strengthen the organization's accounting systems.

Foundations for a Better Oregon
Portland
$250,000
For continued support of The Chalkboard Project

Friendly House
Portland
$150,000
To increase the organization's fundraising and its program capacity to serve low income seniors and northwest Portland residents.

Mercy Corps
Portland
$1,500,000
For a $1,000,000 program related investment loan and $500,000 grant to construct a new headquarters.

Mid-Valley Rehabilitation
Amity
$100,000
To build two group homes for people with disabilities who are medically frail.

National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance
Hadley
$190,000
To support entrepreneurship education for undergraduate students.

Neighborhood Economic Development Corporation
Eugene
$130,000
To provide comprehensive services to low income families purchasing homes in Marion County.

Network of Oregon Watershed Councils
Eugene
$25,000
For a study related to tributary restoration.

Oregon Community Foundation
Portland
$2,000,000
For the Meyer Memorial Trust donor advised fund.

Oregon Trout
Portland
$150,000
For Willamette River restoration projects that use Streambank, an online permitting and funding tool.

PlayWrite
Portland
$105,000
To build the organization's fundraising capacity and expand its programs.

Portland Women's Crisis Line
Portland
$120,000
To develop diverse sources of sustainable funding.

Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation
Springfield
$31,500
To expand a program serving traumatized bereaved youth.

Sutherlin Seniors
Sutherlin
$75,000
To upgrade and expand the Sutherlin Senior Center.

Umpqua Community Development Corporation
Roseburg
$500,000
For a program related investment bridge loan to renovate Hotel North Bend into affordable housing.