Washington

Filter results by:

Content type
Topic(s)

Washington

August 2016 |

If we want to catalyze a thriving food economy in the Pacific Northwest, where should we invest our philanthropic funds? We commissioned research into the production costs of six categories — no-till grain, grass-finished beef, organic greens, organic storage crops, pastured chicken, and hoop house pork — to identify differentiated and viable production systems aligned with our project's five overarching principles of health, social equity, family wage job creation and preservation. The results have revealed intriguing insights for our regional food economy, venture philanthropy and impact investing. We want to achieve system change to increase more sustainable food production and to build resiliency in rural communities. We want to support enterprise success so that rural communities can generate livable wage jobs and investors can at least preserve capital. We now know where we can do each; we seek the opportunity to do both. Now we're asking a new question: How can we advance system change by supporting success at the enterprise level?

August 2016 |

The Minnesota-based Northwest Area Foundation approved 27 grants worth $5.3 million in the second quarter of 2016, focused on advancing good jobs and financial capability by funding grantees whose work creates enterprise development, access to capital, workforce opportunity, and financial inclusion for low-income communities, with a special focus on those that are Native, communities of color or immigrant. In the Northwest, these grants included more than $1 million for programs in Montana, Oregon and Washington.

July 2016 |

College Spark Washington, a nonprofit funder that helps low-income Washington students become college-ready and earn their degrees, has announced $3.9 million in grants this year.

June 2016 | Philanthropy Northwest

Our "virtual roundtable" interviews feature a group of leaders from across our network who work on a common issue area, illuminating the diversity of place-based approaches to the shared topic. We kicked this series off in February with the CEOs of five healthcare conversion foundations, then continued in March with the Pacific Northwest's seven statewide nonprofit associations, April with four arts funders and May with five rural funders. For June, we interviewed representatives of four banks engaged in Northwest philanthropy: First Interstate Bank, Pacific Continental Bank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo.

June 2016 | Philanthropy Northwest

For each of us, our community, landscape and identity create a fluid concept: place. Environmental thinkers use place as a common ground for deepening local awareness of ecological relationships, with bioregionalism as a compelling manifestation of that impulse, suggesting that political boundaries, governance and public policy must be considered within the natural connections of geographic settings. We regard place-based thinking as the foundation of community relationships as well as the appropriate scale for civic engagement; this concept has also become part of the literature in anthropology, economics, education and political science. We believe it has an important role to play in philanthropy, as well, as The Russell Family Foundation and other Philanthropy Northwest members have demonstrated in their place-based community partnerships.

May 2016 |

At a May 24 Seattle gathering of three dozen social media influencers, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann answered questions about the foundation's views of taking risks and applying new knowledge to solve some of the world's biggest problems. Most questions focused on aspects of Desmond-Hellmann's recent open letter to the community, her first such message since joining the foundation two years ago, sharing examples from the foundation's global health and national education work. On behalf of Philanthropy Northwest, I had an entirely place-based query: "I'd like to hear more about the foundation's home being here in the Northwest. How does that influence the culture and what kind of risks are you able to take here at home?"

May 23, 2016
9:00am to 4:00pm
PDT
Chelan, WA

The Community Foundation of North Central Washington is pleased to host the 8th Annual NPI Summit. Open to board, staff, volunteers and anyone interested in nonprofit work, the summit provides professional development and unique training opportunities from experts in their field. This day-long conference will cover several topics related to nonprofit management and sustainability so that you can bring back tools and resources to better achieve your mission and grow your organization. Keynote speaker Nancy Straw of The Ford Family Foundation will talk about "Making the Most of Being a Rural Nonprofit."