Submitted by Marjory on Thu, 2010-04-15 12:35

Filed under:

• Social Change in Oregon
• Funding trends
• Giving to Communities of Color
• Racism

Wednesday’s Oregonian included a sobering story about continued discrimination in housing based on race, disability status and sexual orientation. Testers for the Fair Housing Council of Oregon found that two-thirds of the black people looking for rental housing in Ashland and Beaverton faced discrimination compared to white testers with the same credentials. The same was true for half of the testers with disabilities, and 40% of the testers who identified as queer or Latino.

The report gives added urgency to a conversation I was having this week in Roseburg about the effects of racial discrimination in the United States.

I was in Roseburg at the invitation of the Douglas County Funders Forum to talk about foundation funding in communities of color in Oregon; it's a conversation that is growing among foundations nationally. Funders recognize that as the demographics of the country change, our ability to serve the community effectively depends on our ability to talk about racial equity, to serve communities of color well and to reflect the diversity of our communities in our own organizations. Meanwhile, community advocates have given funders a wake up call by highlighting gaps in the amount of foundation funding that goes to communities of color, compared to the size of those communities in the overall population.

Oregon funders are joining that conversation more than ever before, as Grantmakers of Oregon & SW Washington (GOSW) launches the "Giving to Communities of Color" project to assess how much foundation funding is going to communities of color in Oregon.The project was initiated by MRG Board member Suk Rhee at the NW Health Foundation. MRG and the Nonprofit Association of Oregon have been at the planning table since the beginning, and more than a dozen Oregon foundations have stepped up to provide funding and join the project team.

As the Oregonian article makes clear, racial disparities are not a thing of the past. A growing number of people in the funding community are examining their own work to make sure they aren't reproducing those same disparities.

Tom Gallagher, the Director of the Ford Family Foundation's Institute for Community Building, is a good example. At the Douglas County Funders Forum he talked about how the Institute designs culturally specific programs with rural Latino and Native communities because "It's important to us that we not leave parts of the community behind." Suk, Tom & I all serve on the GOSW Board and are working closely with GOSW staff to make sure the research reflects the experience of nonprofits and foundations around the state.

The "Giving to Communities of Color" project will be a valuable tool to help foundations and nonprofits talk together about what is happening in our communities. The results are due out in October, and I look forward to talking with you about what the findings mean for Oregon.