Volunteers

Volunteers serve on advisory and leadership councils, evaluate grant proposals, and oversee programs. This broad level of community involvement in OCF’s activities creates opportunities and mechanisms for volunteer leaders to share knowledge, ideas and resources to make OCF a powerful resource for good. Thanks volunteers!

Board of Directors

The board of directors and standing board committees including Audit, Education, Grants, Investment, Marketing, Nominating, Public Policy, Strategic Opportunities and Strategic Planning committees.

Grant Evaluators

Trained volunteer grant evaluators provide the foundation with valuable assistance in conducting proposal research and site visits, offering local perspective on community needs, and sharing objective findings about grant proposals’ fit with OCF funding objectives.

Grant Evaluator Responsibilities

Volunteer grant evaluators conduct fact-finding investigations of the organizations that apply to OCF for grants, producing both verbal and written reports.  If needed, evaluators will also conduct follow-up reviews to assess the outcome of grants nine months after grant awards are made.  Evaluators are placed in regionally-based teams.  Support is available from a lead volunteer and OCF staff.

Grant Evaluator Qualifications

Skills required include general knowledge of the community and its nonprofit sector; ability to analyze and compare grant applications impartially; ability to communicate concisely, both orally and in writing; ability to conduct careful and judicious grant investigations; understanding of the variety and complexity of community needs; ability to value a diversity of charitable activities in the community; ability to exercise discretion with confidential information.

Grant Evaluators

Community Fund Advisors

Community field of interest funds are developed by individuals or groups of donors to address a particular community need or geographic focus. Community fund advisors develop recommendations for program direction and grant recipients.

Scholarship Advisory Committees

The Foundation places a high priority on education and works to ensure that all Oregonians have the resources available for post-secondary education. OCF administers one of the largest and most diverse community foundation scholarship programs in the United States; 900 volunteers serve on scholarship advisory committees throughout Oregon. Scholarship advisory volunteers help select scholarship recipients and ensure that the original intent of the scholarship fund is carried out.

Leadership Councils

Each Oregon community has its own character and special strengths. OCF’s  leadership councils represent eight regions: Central Oregon, Eastern Oregon, North Coast, Northern Willamette Valley, Metropolitan, Portland South Coast, Southern Oregon, and Southern Willamette Valley. These volunteers provide a way of understanding and responding to distinctive local needs. Council members are volunteers and leaders in their communities, providing information and guidance to the Foundation’s board of directors concerning OCF services and leadership efforts around the state. The leadership councils are catalysts for informed civic action and philanthropic leadership in Oregon.

Leadership Council Responsibilities

• Assess trends and needs in their regions and recommend regional goals to OCF and to their communities on a regular basis.
• Provide guidance to the OCF Community Grant Program on local grant priorities; a rotating sub-committee in each Council will meet with grant evaluators and staff to review current grant proposals and post-grant results.
• Provide guidance to the OCF Strategic Opportunities committee about ways OCF can provide leadership to help Oregon address its most pressing problems; work with the committee to implement solutions.
• Develop regional or statewide strategic leadership initiatives which may include convening leaders and nonprofit organizations, public policy work, grantmaking and leveraging additional philanthropic resources.
• Be vocal advocates for increased philanthropy, helping to develop new philanthropic funds within OCF for the community.
• Meet together with other OCF leadership councils periodically to foster statewide community, discuss statewide trends and issues and recommend future action by OCF and for the philanthropic community as a whole.

Council Member Qualifications

Leadership council members should have demonstrated an appreciation for a variety of charitable activities in the community, and an interest in promoting private philanthropy to support those activities. Members must be willing to represent OCF in their communities and attend leadership council meetings. Members should have a general knowledge of the region and its nonprofit sector and an understanding of the variety and complexity of community needs. A term on a leadership council lasts three years.

Central Oregon Leadership Council Members

Eastern Oregon Leadership Council Members

North Coast Leadership Council Members

Northern Willamette Valley Leadership Council Members

Metropolitan Portland Leadership Council Members

South Coast Leadership Council Members

Southern Oregon Leadership Council Members

Southern Willamette Valley Leadership Council Members

The Giving in Oregon Council

This council of nonprofit professionals, advisors and philanthropists advocates for and measures philanthropy. The council produces the annual Giving in Oregon Report that tracks giving trends in the state.

Giving in Oregon Council Members

Sally McCracken, chair
Gregory Chaillé
Kathleen Cornett
Steven Holwerda
Sharon Kitzhaber
John Korb
Eli Lamb
Ross Laybourn
Kenneth Lewis
Lynn Loacker
Craig McPherson
Andy Nelson
Bill Swindells
Jeffrey Thede
Julie Vigeland
Duncan Wyse

For more information about volunteers at The Oregon Community Foundation, contact Carly Brown, Volunteer Programs Coordinator, at cbrown@oregoncf.org or 503.227.6846.