As the longtime home of AMRF Board President Tobi Rosen, Oregon is inextricably connected to our work. With a history of systemic harm, a legacy of community-led healing, and landscapes that span rural and urban settings, Oregon is a region with unique challenges and powerful community leaders with culturally-specific solutions.

When Tobi decided she wanted to make a positive change in her own backyard, AMRF began by investing in programming in Portland. Our early funding focused on supporting youth led arts initiatives. From those early days, we continue to support legacy grantees like Adulting IRL and Peer Tribe Foundation. In recent years, we have expanded our strategy to support a wider grantee pool with twenty-five rapidly deployed general operating (GO) grants. Our low-barrier model resources small organizations that are in the communities they serve across the state of Oregon. To complement this funding, we play a key convener role in both funder and grantee circles.

Our Regional Director for Oregon, Whit Guerrero, currently serves as Co-Chair of the Oregon Funders for Housing Justice, a table of funders who have come together with a focus on impacting homelessness across the state of Oregon. AMRF routinely convenes grantee organizations to provide support, coordination, and community. When powerful leaders and community members are given a space to build authentic and joyful relationships; great ideas, movement and inspiration happens, this is a critical investment in supporting our partners. We believe that when communities in Oregon are resourced, respected, and entrusted, they create models of care that can both sustain and scale.