Climate, Conservation & Environment

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Climate, Conservation & Environment

June 2016 |

Our hearts are filled with sorrow as we grieve with the victims, survivors and families in Orlando, nearly all LGBTQ, Latino/a and young people. We are touched by the calls we've received from members and partners wanting to know how to help. We honor the many advocates, nonprofits and leaders who we know will help the families, and all of us, heal in the aftermath of such violence. Our colleagues at Florida Philanthropic Network have shared their recommendations for supporting victims, survivors and their families. In our own region, we are reminded of the shooting at Umpqua Community College last fall, and are grateful to Anne Kubisch of The Ford Family Foundation for sharing Roseburg's story of community resilience. Our six-state region represents America’s unique tapestry — urban and rural, young and old, indigenous and newly arrived, LGBTQ and straight. Sharing our different perspectives and experiences makes us stronger. Together, we remain committed to advancing philanthropy that supports vibrant, equitable and inclusive communities that honor our past, our people, our cultures — and creates a better future.

June 2016 |

The June 12 nightclub attack in Orlando, Florida was the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. Our hearts are filled with sorrow, and our thoughts are with the victims, survivors and families in Orlando. We are touched by the calls we have received from members and partners wanting to know how to help. Florida Philanthropy Network, Philanthropy Northwest's peer organization based in Tampa, has shared this message in the wake of the tragedy:

May 2016 |

Anne Kubisch, The Ford Family Foundation | Oct. 1, 2015, was a day that rocked our world and broke our hearts. The mass shooting at Umpqua Community College was so personal, so local, so much about us. The kind of tragedy that we somehow thought only could happen in other communities, or in other schools, actually happened to us — in Roseburg, Oregon, a town of 22,000 residents. We needed to cry, help the victims, and put in place a community response to the crisis — all at the same time. Oct. 1 was also the day we discovered the resilience and capacity of the Douglas County community. We are devoting this issue of Community Vitality [The Ford Family Foundation's biannual newsletter] to telling these stories.

April 2016 |

Mitchell Thomashow, Catalyst Fellow | On the first Earth Day, in 1970, terms like biodiversity, climate change, green building, sustainability and dozens of others had not yet entered the public lexicon. Yet going back to the 19th century writings of Thoreau, American culture has contained a prevailing theme of sustainability: the idea of living within our means and living with respect for interconnected ecosystems. As we approach Earth Day 2016 — this Friday, April 22 — Northwest philanthropic institutions like The Bullitt Foundation are playing a major role in contributing to all aspects of this ethos, including conservation, policy and education.

March 2016 | Philanthropy Northwest

Mitchell Thomashow, Catalyst Fellow | If you visit just about any university in North America, you’ll notice an important dynamic: the idea of sustainability has taken root everywhere, from rural community colleges to large urban state universities, bringing diverse stakeholders together. From Oregon's Portland State University to the University of Montana, there are countless bold and innovative sustainability projects stimulating local investment. Across professional levels, political backgrounds and personal experiences, sustainability proponents unify around a common desire to build community on their campus, to respect it and recognize it as a special place that lends meaning to our lives. How can this approach advance our work at Philanthropy Northwest?

March 2016 | Philanthropy Northwest

Rosalie Sheehy Cates, one of Philanthropy Northwest's Catalyst Fellows, recently advised community foundations on how impact investing can be used as a disaster recovery tool.

March 2016 | Philanthropy Northwest

Jeff Clarke, CEO | Poet William Blake wrote, "The true method of knowledge is experiment." Here at Philanthropy Northwest, we honor Blake and the countless others who have offered similar encouragement by taking initiative to conduct learning experiments. Our latest? The Catalyst Fellows, a place-based experiment in thought partnership and network learning. We’ve designed this program to begin and steward ongoing conversations about the important role that different types of capital, each integral to philanthropic strategy, play in creating and sustaining vibrant, equitable and inclusive communities. While there are many important forms of capital, we’ve chosen to begin this work by focusing on influence (advocacy), financial (impact investing) and natural (sustainability) capital.