DECEMBER 2007: PHILANTHROPY
The Oregon Philanthropy Awards
This year’s winners of the Oregon Philanthropy Awards, a
partnership between Oregon
Business magazine and the Oregon chapter of the
Association of Fundraising Professionals, shows the spirit of
giving can be strong no matter what your age, your profession
or the money you have in your pocket. What this year’s
winners prove is that it is what you have in your heart that
makes things happen. THE
EDITORS
Photos by Anthony Pidgeon
Kroc Center Initiative Committee
Outstanding Innovative
Project
With her prim skirt suit and well-coifed hair, 65-year-old
Janet Taylor doesn’t give off a cheerleader vibe. But
that’s how she sees herself.
“I’m the cheerleader for our city,” says
Salem’s mayor with an earnest smile. “I just tend
to get right in the middle of things. I bring a lot of
optimism. A lot of enthusiasm.”
So when McDonald’s heiress Joan Kroc and her millions
came knocking in 2004 with money to hand out for a community
center, Taylor enthusiastically threw open the door. Salem was
awarded $56 million from the Ray and Joan Kroc estate to build
and operate The Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps
Community Center.
Half the money will be spent building the facility — a
95,000-square-foot community center replete with an
indoor-outdoor aquatics center, a gym and a chapel —
while the rest will form an endowment to ensure the center will
keep its doors open in perpetuity.
“Everybody just put their lives on hold,” says
Taylor describing the effort she helped lead to turn the eyes
of the Kroc estate to her neighborhood. The three-term mayor
(who will run again next year) is a die-hard fan of the
Willamette Valley city where she’s spent her whole life.
She sees its potential and its problems.
“We’re proud to be the state capital, but we have
a vibrant community other than the capital,” she says.
Landing the Kroc center — a team effort that involved
more than 200 people serving on boards, committees and task
forces — is just one of an array of new amenities that
she’s pushing in the city.
But she’ll also be one of the first to point out the
area’s trouble spots: 63% of children in the area live
below the poverty line; its juvenile arrest rate is above
average. Marion County’s agricultural bent is bringing
more low-income families to Salem.
The community center, open to all, will help move Salem
in the right direction. Taylor is sure of it. “It was
something the city could not afford to do,” she says.
“It filled that need that nobody else could
fill.” CHRISTINA
WILLIAMS
Bank of America
Outstanding Philanthropic
Corporation
Venture capitalists look for promising young companies to
invest in. They look for passion, enthusiasm, vision and a
clear path that will take them to the next level and, if the
markets are timed just right, make everyone who invested very
rich.
What Bank of America does with its Neighborhood Excellence
philanthropy program is not unlike venture capital —
except the riches don’t come back in dollar form.
“We found that general operations funding is
scarce,” says Roger Hinshaw, Bank of America’s
president for Oregon and Southwest Washington operations.
“We look for nonprofits that have had significant impact
but that are poised to go to the next level.”
For example, when Schoolhouse Supplies grew to a level where
it was ready to spin off from the Portland Schools Foundation,
it applied to the Neighborhood Excellence program and was
selected to receive one of the program’s two annual
awards: a $200,000 grant (paid over two years) and a national
leadership training program conducted by Bank of America for
the nonprofit’s director and one of its emerging
leaders.
And when Campfire was looking to establish a childcare center
and Open Meadow Alternative Schools wanted to hire a
development director, both groups were able to get their
expansion capital from Neighborhood Excellence.
What’s in it for Bank of America? A toehold in a
community that gets stronger with every grant.
“The bank gives us the opportunity to choose our
priorities,” Hinshaw says. The priorities for his program
include affordable housing, arts and culture, and early
childhood and K-12 education.
In addition to the 4-year-old Neighborhood Excellence program,
which operates in 44 major metropolitan areas including
Portland and Southwest Washington, the bank’s regular
grant-making through its locally managed foundation continues
apace with awards between $2,500 and $10,000. In all, the bank
made grants of $1.3 million in 2007.
“It’s more than just writing the checks,”
Hinshaw says. “It’s a holistic approach we’re
trying to take.” CHRISTINA
WILLIAMS
Laura and Roger Meier
Outstanding
Philanthropists
Early in their marriage, Laura and Roger Meier considered a
piece of advice from Roger’s mother, Jane Seller Meier.
“She told us to make a difference here, in Portland,
Oregon, in our own community,” Laura says, “because
here, we could truly make a difference through
giving.”
The words resonated with Laura, a native New Yorker, who
realized that because of Portland’s size, philanthropy
could alter many landscapes. Roger, a fourth-generation
Oregonian and descendent of the founders of Meier & Frank,
shared the perspective, and the couple embarked on a lifetime
of supporting the arts, education, hospitals and social welfare
projects.
They began with a gift to the Oregon Symphony, and then turned
to the Portland Art Museum, which over the years received
donations of artwork, financial support and the benefits of a
special fund for flowers. As devoted patrons of the arts, the
Meiers also contributed to the Oregon Ballet and Portland
Opera, in part because they viewed the arts as closely
intertwined with education. As a student, Laura frequently
visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, which
she saw as a learning library packed with artifacts. And Roger
felt profoundly shaped by his own schooling. The couple chose
to give the gift of education to others by supporting a variety
of institutions, including the Catlin 
Gable
School, Jesuit High School and the Oregon Historical
Society.
The Meiers also supported the Oregon Health & Science
University and the Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital, and Roger
built Oregon’s Public Employees Retirement System as the
chairman of Oregon Investment Council, a position he held for
17 years. Under his leadership, the system grew to provide
financial benefits for thousands of Oregonians.
Roger passed away in June 2006, and now Laura continues the
Meier tradition of giving from her home in Portland. A photo
from the The Oregonian reminds her of their partnership: The
arm of the famous “Umbrella Man” statue in Pioneer
Courthouse Square, a donation that was funded by her
parents in New York City and chosen by the couple, reaches out
toward the Meier & Frank Building.
The angle captures the enduring symbols of two families that
merged in generosity here, in Portland, Oregon. LUCY
BURNINGHAM
E.W.
and Mary Firstenburg
Howard and Jean Vollum Award
for Lifetime Philanthropic Achievement
E.W. and Mary Firstenburg have lived lives based on Andrew
Carnegie’s famous saying, “To die rich is to be
disgraced.” In partnership in both philanthropy and
marriage for the past 71 years, E.W., 94, and Mary, 90, have
reinvested more than $20 million in Vancouver-area nonprofits,
hospitals and universities — proof of an unwavering
generosity and optimistic vision of a better community.
The Firstenburgs (pictured in 1954) possess a rare
farsightedness. Incapable of viewing life as something that
starts and ends with them (enhanced by having three children,
eight grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren), they give in
the interest of lasting change. “I like to do things that
will have a long life to them,” E.W. says.
The Firstenburgs’ gifts have touched many: $3 million to
the City of Vancouver for a community center that now bears
their name, $1 million to Innovative Services for the Mary
Firstenburg Family Center for adults and children with
disabilities, $1 million to Washington State University for a
new student commons. And when there’s the possibility of
inspiring other donors, through matching fund programs, the
couple acts, as they did with the Southwest Washington Medical
Center. Their $15 million donation to the hospital, the largest
private gift in Clark County by a living donor, inspired a
second private donor to make a matching donation.
The couple’s capacity for generosity stems from hard
work. At the age of 4, E.W. started selling newspapers for 2
cents apiece on the street corners of Seattle, and he
hasn’t stopped working since.
After his teaching years, E.W. bought a few small banks during
the 1930s, which he grew into First Independent, the largest
privately held community bank in the Vancouver and Portland
metro area. He still logs two hours a day at one of the
branches.
“Others work to make money, but I work because I like to
work,” he says. “What else am I going to do? Sit
around?”
LUCY BURNINGHAM
Community Foundation for Southwest Washington
Outstanding Philanthropic
Foundation
Susan Keil is the director of the Portland city office of
transportation, but that career exists in parallel with her
life’s work in philanthropy. The Oregon Symphony, United
Way, Salvation Army, YWCA and others have benefited from her
leadership and fundraising prowess and the passion she has to
make things better.
Which is why it’s fitting that Keil sits at the helm of
board of directors when the Community Foundation for SW
Washington is being recognized for its excellence: The
foundation is all about making philanthropy more doable —
for anyone. “Very modest people can do very
significant things,” Keil says.
The Foundation, formed in 1984, has grown from zero to $56
million in assets in less than 25 years. But for Keil,
it’s more about the number of people reached than the
amount of money raised. And when she’s talking about the
people reached, it’s not just the children of
southwestern Washington who are playing on playgrounds built
with money from the George and Carolyn Propstra Fund.
It’s people like Alice Suhr, a restaurant dishwasher who
used the foundation to dedicate her life’s savings to
reconstruction projects at Fort Vancouver.
“When people want to give but don’t know how to go
about it, we’re able to match their interest with a cause
that needs funding,” Keil explains.
The foundation is actively courting Clark County’s new
residents, and its leadership is always looking to come up with
unusual ways to engage people who might not think of themselves
as philanthropists. The Vancouver Women’s Foundation was
formed a few years back to pool the might and match the
interests of the region’s women.
The foundation chose to set its minimum fund balance at
$10,000 as a way to make a donor-advised fund attainable by
people at varied income levels.
Keil’s bottom line, which extends to the philosophies
behind the foundation as a whole, is simply this: “If you
really believe you’ve been given to, I don’t know
how you can’t give back.”
CHRISTINA WILLIAMS
Al
Gleason
Outstanding Volunteer
Fundraiser
When Al Gleason discovered in 2002 that the Oregon Coast
Aquarium in Newport was on the brink of financial ruin because
of financial impropriety on the part of the then-president, he
knew exactly what to do. He quietly and calmly crafted a plan.
Then he acted. And as happens with the most effective,
unassuming leaders, people followed.
“You don’t have to be flamboyant to get things
done,” the 77-year-old Gleason says in a soft voice.
“Some people are loud and out front, while others quietly
do the work.”
At the time, the retired PacifiCorp CEO and former president
of the Port of Portland was serving as the chairman of the
board of directors for the Aquarium. Gleason, who lives in
Depoe Bay, felt that it was his duty to approach the crisis
with an unswerving focus. He raised the immediate funds to keep
the Aquarium’s doors open, then developed an essential,
financial survival plan for an important institution. (The
Aquarium, voted one of the top 10 aquariums in the country for
kids by Parents magazine, receives 500,000 visitors a year, a
majority of whom come from out of state.)
Gleason convinced government organizations, corporations,
bondholders and individuals to contribute to the mission and
raised $5.3 million in three years, well exceeding the $4
million goal. Abandoning all other projects for the
more-than-fulltime unpaid job, the retiree says the aquarium
kept him from becoming a “doddering old man.” For
the millions of school children who participate in the Oregon
Coast Aquarium’s educational programs, the City of
Newport and hundreds of volunteers, Gleason is nothing less
than a savior.
With a quiet modesty, Gleason prefers to downplay his
accomplishments but will admit that he has a history of giving
extraordinary amounts of time to nonprofit and community
organizations in Oregon, especially since his retirement from
PacifiCorp in 1995. “Some believe in touching
things lightly,” he says. “I believe in being more
deeply involved.” LUCY BURNINGHAM
Katelyn Tomac Sullivan
Youth in Philanthropy
Thirteen-year-old Katelyn Tomac Sullivan has a big, fat binder
that documents her history of funding cancer research. The
first page shows a piece of paper with a child’s
handwriting on it: Me and my friends are razing money for
breast cancer research. It’s the flier that Sullivan made
as a third-grader, when she found out that her mother was
battling cancer, again. Since then, the Milwaukie girl, who
likes to ride horses and walk to the bus stop in the mornings
with her friends, has helped raise $35,000 for cancer
research.
With her mother, aunt, grandmother and grandfather in mind,
all of whom suffered from cancer, Sullivan started collecting
cans and bottles for their recycling deposits. But the cans
were just the beginning. In the past five years, she’s
grown her fundraising efforts and now operates the nonprofit
Kate’s Kids for the Cure, which has 12 members ranging
from age 11 to 13. The group organizes car washes, golf
tournaments, concerts and bake sales and participates in events
such as the Komen Race for the Cure, and donates to groups such
as the American Cancer Society and the Providence Cancer
Center.
Sitting in an oversized chair with her legs tucked under her,
Sullivan looks like an average middle schooler. And she seems
shy, not wanting to gloat about her accomplishments or get
emotional about how cancer has devastated her family. But put
her on a stage, in front of a large group, and she shines.
Since age 9, Sullivan has told her story to thousands of people
and shared the spotlight with many high-profile
individuals.
Behind every smoothly delivered speech and successful garage
sale, Sullivan’s mom, Deb, works tirelessly, aligning her
child’s vision with the mechanics of the adult world. And
slowly, she’s passing the torch, teaching each member of
the nonprofit the skills they’ll need to succeed.
Katelyn still stands by her original goal: Someday, no one
will die of cancer. “Cancer has affected everyone in my
family,” she says. “I just want to make sure it
won’t affect any other families in the
future.” LUCY BURNINGHAM
Have an opinion? E-mail feedback@oregonbusiness.com
