A Portland where, together, everyone’s needs are met.
Extraordinary work is already happening here. People across Portland have spent generations building expertise, relationships, programs, and services to support our neighbors through life’s difficult moments.
A Portland where, together, everyone’s needs are met will require transformation in how we collectively meet people’s needs.
What is possible if we organize our resources, relationships, and wisdom differently?
What We Do
Together is built into the design.
1st: POOL Resources
2nd: FUND
One cohort of 5 organizations
3rd: Learn
What becomes possible Together
Love, Portland’s First Grant Opportunity
$1.5 million.
Five organizations.
One cohort.
Three years.
To explore what becomes possible together.
Applications close November 6, 2026.
Where We’re Starting
We’re starting across five interconnected areas where meeting needs earlier can change what happens next:
KEEPING PEOPLE HOUSED
SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER TREATMENT
DOMESTIC & FAMILY VIOLENCE SERVICES
FOSTER CARE SERVICES
YOUTH MENTORSHIP
Why these five?
Each represents a critical intervention point where meeting needs earlier can help prevent homelessness
Each also offers a distinct vantage point into what people and communities need, and where needs are going unmet.
Together, they reflect how people actually experience life: across interconnected needs and systems, not within a single funding category.
Where we
are now
Homelessness is one of the clearest expressions of needs going unmet, and it is rarely the beginning of a crisis. Meeting needs earlier across these areas can help people live safer, more stable lives while making homelessness a less likely outcome.
Homelessness
18,289
people are receiving or seeking homeless services in Multnomah County as of April 2026
+270/month
the average monthly increase in individuals seeking homeless services in Multnomah County
$500M
was spent on homeless services in 2024.
43% went to outreach and shelter
Only 16%
of people exit shelters
into permanent
housing
20% Identify as Black
When Black people represent just 6% of the census population
The Bigger Horizon
People’s lives don’t happen one issue at a time. Yet philanthropy and public systems often fund those needs separately.
The cohort creates space for organizations working across interconnected issues to build relationships, share wisdom, and ask:
What can we see together that we cannot see alone?
There is no predetermined solution.
We’re creating the conditions for the tried-and-true to meet the yet-to-be-imagined.
Impact Now + Learning Over
Time
The model is designed to respond right now and into the future.
We’ll learn what $100,000 a year in committed, unrestricted funding makes possible for each organization and the communities they serve today.
At the same time, three years of collective work can reveal what is working, what is missing, and where larger philanthropic and public investments could make a greater difference.
Transformation at the scale of our vision will take more than any one organization, program, or grant. What emerges from this cohort can strengthen Portland’s collective capacity to meet people’s needs.
Why organize philanthropy differently?
How we fund the work shapes what organizations are able to do.
there’s over $12B sitting within the largest 50 foundations in Oregon
foundations are only required to deploy 5% of their overall assets, Donor Advised Funds typically have no payout requirements
the median grant size of the largest foundations in Oregon is $23k
Oregon has one of the highest number of nonprofits per capita in the nation
Join Us
Our first cohort is already more than 80% funded. Explore the grant opportunity as a potential applicant, or help us complete the funding as a co-funder
Learn & Educate
Educational resources to learn and grow.
Explore the challenges facing our community, their origins, and how we’ll overcome them, together.
