October/November 2006

Water Markets /Water Wars And a small island called Arcata, California
Jim Tobin

Taking to the Streets to Raise Awareness of Global Warming
Bill McKibben

Interview with Bill McKibben
Meteor Blades

My Low-Carbon Diet
Seth Zuckerman

A Conversation with David Ward
Jody Woodruff

In Tune With the Sacred
Raina Hassan Sanderson

Democracy and the Middle Class
Thom Hartmann

The Great Turning From Empire to Earth Community
David Korten

The McKenzie River Gathering Foundation Turns 30
Richard Moeschl

Transformation Through Film
Marla Estes

Mixed Media Reviews
Debi Weiss

Cosmic Calendar
Salina Rain

BACK TO TOP

The McKenzie River Gathering
Foundation Turns 30

By Richard Moeschl

What would you do if you inherited more than $500,000? Buy a new car? A new house? Travel? Faced with that challenge back in 1976, Leslie Brockelbank and her husband Charles Gray looked around the world and saw that so much was needed. There were problems that needed to be addressed, causes that needed support, lives that needed attention. While half a million dollars would not solve everything, it could begin to make a difference.

Rather than simply making an outright donation to the many worthy organizations working in the world, Leslie and Charles wanted to engage and empower others to help make the funding decisions themselves. They gathered with 30 activists at a cabin along the banks of Eugene’s McKenzie River and hammered out the beginnings of what would become the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation, an extremely efficient and responsive funding organization.

“It was more important to leave my children a better world, rather than a trust fund,” said Leslie Brockelbank.

At first Leslie and Charles thought that by choosing a group of activists and having them give out the money to worthy causes, they would be done. The inheritance would be well spent and the McKenzie River Gathering would have accomplished what it was organized for and would cease to exist.

But it soon became clear that the work of the organization was really just getting started and volunteers began raising more money from the community to fund the organization. Last April, the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation celebrated its 30th anniversary. For three decades MRG has been the driving force in pooling donations from the community to fund social justice groups in Oregon.

The way the foundation works has become a model for other agencies. At MRG, grant-making decisions are made by the people directly involved in carrying out the actual work. People who are affected by the organization’s decisions continue to serve on the board. Staff and donors don’t make the decisions. The feeling from the foundation was: If we want the world to be different, we have to build organizations that operate differently.
MRG Executive Director Marjory Hamann observes: “This changes the normal power dynamics in the foundation world, where typically people who have money but may not have direct experience control how the money is used.”

Today, MRG is the main funder for grassroots progressive organizing in Oregon. The foundation’s programs have dispersed more than $9.5 million through all of its grant making programs. More than $5 million of that has been awarded through its activist-driven grant making program, with an additional $4 million in donor advised grants. Today, MRG gives out more than $400,000 a year to 60-70 groups.

Rich Rohde with Oregon Action has been on the receiving and giving ends of MRG’s philanthropic outreach in Southern Oregon. “I’ve been an organizer for almost 20 years. We were fortunate to receive grants from them early on.”

For the last three years, Rohde has been on the grant-making committee. “I have given donations to them helping other organizations in the valley that have received grants. Six to eight years ago in our organization we had a time when we changed our name from Fair Share. MRG helped fund us during that transition. They really pay more attention to the organizations they are funding.”

MRG does this by holding meetings, providing networking opportunities, classes, booths, picnics. The foundation reaches out to diverse groups giving them a process by which they can discern the best use of the funding they receive.

“I’m just so committed to the process they use,” Rohde says. “It’s thoughtful. The Rogue Valley is not a hotbed of funding for grassroots social change groups. MRG plays a critical role in helping funding and connecting. When we’ve made those decisions, there is a sense of pride and justice.”

MRG continues to play an influential role in the work of many Southern Oregon organizations. In the last five years, MRG has awarded grants totaling $285,000 in Southern Oregon, $120,000 of that was to groups in the Ashland/Medford/Jacksonville area. MRG has contributed to:

• Disabled United in Direct Empowerment (DUDE), Medford, an aggressive advocacy group by and for the disabled community.

• Oxygen Collective (OC2), Ashland, whose focus is on ending the logging of native forests on public lands and encouraging the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to become stewards of public lands, not profit-makers.

• Rogue Valley Oregon Action, Medford, which organized mobile home residents to save affordable housing in Ashland.

• Unete al Movimiento de Conciencia Popular, Medford, a movement of farm workers and immigrants striving to empower and enrich their lives through education, cultural presentations, advocacy and organizing.

• Peace House, Ashland, which functions as a regional center for social action and alliance building on matters of human and civil rights, racial justice, environmental defense, economic justice, global solidarity and peace.

• Human Rights Coalition of Jackson County, Medford, an anti-bigotry group located in a conservative rural region whose work includes a police monitoring project, outreach efforts, housing, and addressing hate group activity and marginalized communities.

The foundation continues to fund groups and activities that traditional funders chose not to support for one reason or another. The foundation is also the lifeline for groups who do not have access to donors with resources.

Paul Rerucha got introduced to MRG about four years ago. “Two local grantees talked about MRG,” Rerucha recalls. “It sounded intriguing. What immediately struck me was the way they engaged the grantees in the process. It wasn’t top down.”

Rerucha discovered, as so many others have, that the more he learned about MRG and the way they worked, the more the organization kept appealing to him as a way of making a difference.

“I see it as a way of leveraging philanthropic funds in ways I couldn’t as an individual,” Rerucha says. “How do you use these limited resources to do what you’re going to do? How do you take a little bit of money and leverage it to do more things?” Rerucha saw in MRG the potential of synergy with like-minded people to have the power of actual impact.

“I’m investing in their vision of a world that is possible,” He says. “They fund lots of small groups for whom the grants will allow them to do big things. Groups I probably wouldn’t give money to. And that opens up my views.”

For Rerucha and other socially conscious investors and donors, the question was where do you put your money so that it’s in line with our personal values?

“Ultimately it’s in a progressive organization that’s going to be a watchdog on greed, oppression,” Rerucha says. “I essentially get to delegate to this organization.”

Many people are eager to use some of their money for the good of society. MRG has put people’s money to work, providing critical support for social justice throughout Oregon. MRG has focused its efforts on such key areas as human rights, race and racism, environmental protection, farm-workers rights, immigration rights, peace, international solidarity and media.

“We all have an opportunity to think about the money that we are stewards of,” Hamann says. “Giving is activism. By pooling our money with other people giving their money, we have the chance to greatly enhance the impact of our money. It will create a much larger amount of money that can go out in grants to people who are taking many different approaches to improving our community. For me, that’s the unique role MRG has.”

The world has changed in the 30 years MRG has been in existence. When Hamann looks at the world as Leslie Brockelbank did back in 1976, she still sees problems to be addressed, causes that need support and lives that need attention. MRG will continue trying to address the underlying cause of those problems and needs that potential grantees are up against. It will continue to support grassroots organizations in the state that are working on important social concerns in their communities.

“We need to greatly expand the amount of support that is available to those organizations,” Hamann says.

As it begins its 31st year, MRG finds itself asking the question: “What is our vision of the world we want to live in?” Rather than creating a vision that’s based on reacting to a laundry list of problems, Hamann says MRG challenged itself to create a vision of a world without oppression.

“We are working for a just world in which people, cultures and ecosystems thrive,” Hamann says. “A world where we can all live out our full potential as individuals and communities, and where we all watch for the places where people in our community are vulnerable. We’ve had conversations about our new vision with people around the state, and we can tell that people would love to live in that world.”

That kind of perspective pays attention to the importance of relationships in addition to political agendas.

“We’re committed to Oregon’s social change movements and to helping the activist organizations we fund be successful,” Hamann says. “And we know how discouraging it can be to work for positive social change in this political climate. Our vision helps us remember what our ultimate goal is, and opens the door for recognizing each other as partners in working towards that vision.”

To learn how you can support the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation or if you are part of a group that is interested in receiving a grant, visit www.mrgfoundation.org or call (503) 289-1517. Richard Moeschl is an Ashland, Oregon writer.