By Alex Powers, Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Meyer Memorial Trust searches out local needs
A private Oregon trust will try to find out early next month what South Coast nonprofits say their communities need, beginning March 1 in Reedsport.
The trust provides grant application advice and collects information from nonprofit organizations about the needs of regional communities through meetings organized under its Two Way Street Tour program, said program officer Sally Yee.
“We’re going out to the communities so we can know about the communities that we serve,” Yee said. “We’re asking how the economy is affecting communities and what you (nonprofits) are doing about it.”
In Reedsport, the trust funded a pair of additions to the Umpqua Discovery Center. The center received a $140,000 grant in 1996 for its Tidewaters & Time wing; an additional $275,000 was awarded to the center in 2004 for its Pathways to Discovery wing.
Oregon Coast Community Action program coordinator Chris Marsh said the foundation also provided $120,000 over three years to the ORCCA-organized Great Afternoons program.
That program provides day care and preschool for children from local low-income households.
“They (Meyer Memorial Trust) have had a great impact on kids in our community,” Marsh said.
Between 2007 and 2008, the foundation granted the Coastal Douglas Arts and Business Alliance $13,150 for work at a traffic island near the intersection of U.S. Highway 101 and state Highway 38, said Kathleen Miller, president of the local nonprofit group, Coastal Douglas Arts and Business Alliance.
Yee said the trust also occasionally funds rural government projects, but the group never funds infrastructure such as police, sewers or roads.
“We don’t have the funds to replace infrastructure, but we do support municipalities,” Yee said.
She said the trust mostly grants funds to 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporations, or smaller groups that can apply through a nonprofit for funding.
Yee said she will instruct people how to apply for grants from Meyer Memorial Trust.
“We’re a responsive grant-maker. Organizations have to apply. We do not solicit grant applications from the community,” she said.
By hearing what people at Two Way Street meetings have to say about western Douglas County, Yee said, Meyer Memorial Trust can better decide if a nonprofit is seeking funds for reasons that benefit the community.
“Should we get grant applications from that area, it gives us context,” she said.
In 2009, the foundation held 46 Two Way Street Tour meetings in 19 counties in Oregon and southwest Washington state, according to a press release.
The release also noted that the Meyer trust is the largest private foundation in Oregon.
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