News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
The hands that hold the purse strings for dozens of foundations gathered in Sisters last week for the 2008 regional conference of Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington.
The event was a chance for grant-making foundations to network and refine how foundations do their work - and a chance for Sisters to showcase how one community has leveraged grant dollars into successful non-profit programs that enhance quality of life.
Doug Stahm, chair of Grantmakers of Oregon and Southwest Washington, was gratified to see Sisters host the 138-person conference. Stahm has ties to the area; he owns a vacation home in Junipine Acres north of town.
Stahm, who is CEO of Meyer Memorial Trust, the largest foundation in the state, said it's important for people running to foundations to get out of the metropolitan areas of the state and interact with communities the foundations serve.
"We've tried to do as much outreach across the state as possible," he said. "We knew about FivePine (Conference Center) and their capability of handling a conference of this size. It couldn't have been better."
National and regional speakers addressed topics ranging from health care to water resources and native fish restoration.
The attendees spent one day in breakout sessions that included a bicycle tour of Sisters and a visit to SOAR; a visit to Sisters Art Works where they discussed the arts as an economic driving force and a session at Aspen Lakes on sustainable agriculture.
At each session, representatives of local non-profits talked about how their organizations - from SOAR to the Sisters Folk Festival - impact the community.
Stahm said that conference attendees were impressed with Sisters, not only for its beauty and for presenting a well-run conference, but also for the degree to which the community has pulled together.
"My sense is that ... citizens who might not agree politically on issues or philosophically on issues have done a pretty good job of finding common ground," Stahm said.
Stahm noted that Sisters clearly has strong schools and a thriving arts and cultural scene.
"You have a very strong arts and culture economy, as well," he said.
Economic factors are very much on everyone's mind, as Stahm acknowledged. Foundations themselves are feeling the impact of a plummeting stock market and an economic downturn.
"Whether you are a small family foundation or the Meyer Memorial Trust, the largest foundation in the state, you've been hit pretty hard in the last six months," Stahm said.
That makes it even more imperative that foundations choose their grants carefully to maximize impact.
Stahm said that foundations have a limited role to play in Sisters' efforts to jump-start economic development (see related story, page 1).
"Foundations can play a catalytic or a leveraging role," he said.
Such a role might include workforce retraining programs, affordable housing initiatives and support of arts and culture that can translate into economic impacts such as Sisters has experienced. Environmental programs can have a big impact, too, Stahm said.
He argues that reintroducing steelhead into Whychus Creek would have a direct economic benefit to Sisters, enhancing tourism and the desirability of Sisters.
"I see our support of Deschutes Land Trust as eventually resulting in positive economic development," he said.
Stahm said the conference itself had an impact on Sisters.
"I know this because everybody was talking about it at breakfast - how much they were spending in the stores here," he said. "So it may be short term, but there was some economic impact."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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