Metro Portland
Championing Equal Opportunity
Joan Taylor, Donor / Portland
“I had everything I needed. I saw all this poverty all around. I wanted people to have a chance.”
Joan Taylor, Donor
Joan Taylor believes in giving everyone a fair shot. “Every person deserves a chance to develop their own unique potential and become a productive member of society,” she says. Over more than 50 years, Joan’s work to expand access to opportunity has touched thousands of lives.
In her early charitable work, Joan co–founded SnowCap Community Charities to aid impoverished, unseen residents of eastern Multnomah County. Later, as her family’s business thrived, Joan served on nonprofit boards and provided financial support to multiple organizations. Keeping up with nonprofits and deciding which projects to support took a lot of effort.
In 2005, Joan’s estate lawyer, Carolyn Miller, recommended OCF for a streamlined giving process and nonprofit expertise. “My OCF advisor helps me clarify my goals, knows my interests and feeds me information when new programs come up that I might be interested in,” Joan says. “It’s fun for me now. It used to be work.”
To date, Joan’s fund with OCF has awarded more than 80 grants supporting housing, education and support services for vulnerable families and children, including Portland Homeless Family Solutions’ Incredible Years Parenting classes, see related story.