Between the changing political landscape, our membership renewal cycle and planning for major programs (e.g., launching our Grantmakers of Color Network, our two-day workshop for community foundations and our 2017 conference), the first two months of this year have kept us busy at Philanthropy Northwest!

Before we continue at this rapid pace and scale — adding the next edition of Trends in Northwest Giving and the second cohort of our Momentum Fellowship to the mix — we'd like to pause for a moment to welcome five new organizations to our network this year:

• Beneficial State Foundation / Beneficial State Bank (OR, WA): Beneficial State offers a full line of traditional banking services, but with a distinct focus on the traditionally underserved: low-income communities, sustainable businesses and job creation. They look for ways to help nonprofit organizations and businesses that typically find conventional financing out-of-reach, such as specialty agriculture, renewable energy, green building and low-income housing. Bank profits are distributed to the foundation, which is mandated to reinvest those proceeds back into the communities and the environment.
• The Sheri & Les Biller Family Foundation (WA): This family foundation invests in bold ideas that inspire collective action in order to achieve powerful results. They collaborate with organizations in Washington state and Los Angeles County to create innovative, scalable and, when appropriate, exportable program models in the areas of public education, supportive care, theatre enrichment and career pathways.
• Idaho Community Foundation (ID): As the statewide public foundation administering funds on behalf of a variety of donors to support Idaho charitable organizations, the foundation works to works to enrich the quality of life for Idahoans: gathering funds from groups, foundations and individual donors and helping them create charitable funds that meet their philanthropic goals; growing the funds through carefully considered, long-term investments to create a permanent endowment that fulfills donors’ charitable objectives, meets the greatest needs in our communities and supports philanthropy in Idaho; and granting funds to nonprofits, education institutions, cities and counties for a broad variety of worthwhile and critical projects statewide.
• Legal Foundation of Washington (WA): A nonprofit organization created at the direction of the Washington Supreme Court to distribute Interest on Lawyers Trust Account (IOLTA) funds to legal aid organizations across the state, the foundation seeks to ensure access to civil legal aid for all people in Washington and to improve the civil justice system to be more equitable and just. Its work contributes to breaking cycles of poverty and ensuring equal opportunity, serving thousands of low-income people each year by investing in civil legal aid organizations across Washington.
• Washington Research Foundation (WA): As advocates for innovation, Washington Research Foundation supports groundbreaking technology in the life sciences, physical sciences and information sciences by attracting outstanding researchers, constructing state-of-the-art facilities, and supporting promising students. They also help to grow Washington's technology economy by advancing brilliant research and early-stage entrepreneurs.

Philanthropy Northwest members work together and with our team to create conversations, policy positions and resources for the field. We encourage you to take advantage of our many membership benefits, including: 

• Convenings: Special rates for our annual conference (registration opens March 1!) and specialized training programs.
• Resources: Access to our Digital Resource Centers on advocacy, arts funding, disaster philanthropy, diversity/equity/inclusion and impact investing.
• Get on the Map: Access to the Foundation Center's interactive data visualization of grants across our region.
• The Giving Practice: Special rates and one hour free consulting each year from our team.
• Job Bank: Free posting to our Job Bank, which has more than 10,000 visits each month.
• Networks: Invitations to place-based and issue-based conversations, including our Alaska and Montana-Idaho-Wyoming funders groups, our annual Foundations on the Hill delegation, Virtual Roundtable discussions and Communication Matters community of practice.

Through our relationship with the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers, Philanthropy Northwest members also receive special rates for these resources:

• Bromelkamp Company's Pearl Software for Grantmakers.
• Changing Our World Toolkit +Coaching, a 16-week guided strategic planning process for community engagement to help companies develop thoughtful strategies that leverage corporate assets to benefit the community.
• ClickTime, a time and expense tracking services for nonprofits.
• D&O Insurance
• The Foundation Review
• PhilanTrack, an online grants management software.
• Stanford Social Innovation Review

Paul Kim is Philanthropy Northwest's member and donor program associate. He can be reached at pkim@philanthropynw.org.