Eight Years of Responsive Partnership

Collaborative Funding Approach Serves Unique Needs of Oregon’s Immigrants and Refugees

In Grants Pass, Latino families who visit Project Youth Plus (PYP) find food, basic services and other vital resources that stretch beyond the nonprofit’s primary mission of helping young people succeed in school. In other words, they find Lili Vargas.  

Since 2023, Vargas has provided critical, hands-on help to more than 200 immigrant and undocumented families in Josephine, Jackson and Douglas counties in her role as a community resource specialist for PYP’s Whatever It Takes program. Her position is funded through an innovative model supported by Oregon Community Foundation and other funders. 

Project Youth Plus food pantry

Families “come to us and then Lili sees what services they need. Food boxes. She’s an Oregon Health Plan assister. She’s a certified traditional health worker. We help with immigration fees, gas to see attorneys. Lili comes in and she gives that extra layer to the families,” said Brenda Aguilera, who oversees Vargas’ program.  

Vargas helps parents make doctor appointments, buys space heaters for families, and drives teens to job interviews. She also hosts PYP’s monthly Community Nights, where a recent topic was what to do if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers approach you or someone you know.   

As federal immigration enforcement has ramped up, immigrants and refugees in Oregon communities report being worried and fearful to leave home for work, school, to buy groceries or just get coffee — and they are turning to people like Vargas and nonprofits like PYP. At the same time, federal funding cuts have shrunk the capacity of these groups to help.   

Meaningful help in perilous times 

The Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative (OIRFC) — a partnership between OCF, Meyer Memorial Trust and The Collins Foundation formed in 2017 — is providing crucial support to these nonprofits. Now more than ever, the need far outpaces the Collaborative’s resources.  

In just the first two months of 2025, OIRFC received $2.1 million in funding requests. That's equal to the amount the Collaborative typically grants over an entire calendar year.  

“We expect the total requests for 2025 to rival those in all of the previous years combined,” said Michael McIntosh, Director of Community Programs-Metro at OCF.    

Although philanthropy cannot meet every need or relieve the full impact of government policies, the Collaborative provides donors with a trusted vehicle to offer meaningful help. Over eight years, its grantmaking has fueled immigrant advocacy groups whose efforts have made Oregon a national leader in immigrant rights; provided flexible, responsive support for urgent needs; and invested in leadership development and coalition-building aimed at strengthening immigrant and refugee communities over the long term. 

For the Collaborative’s funders, "it has been incredibly valuable to be able to pool our knowledge and lean on each other during this time,” McIntosh said. “While we certainly don't have all the answers, this collective approach to grantmaking has helped us make smarter decisions and strengthened our response and overall effectiveness."  

Simplified process moves money out the door  

From the Oregon Coast to the Idaho border, more than 404,000 immigrants call Oregon home and account for 9.5% of the population, according to the American Immigration Council (AIC). They make up 12.5% of the state workforce, contributing significantly to the agriculture, manufacturing, transportation and construction industries.  

Of all immigrants in Oregon, an estimated 99,000 (AIC) to 155,000 (Migration Policy Institute) are undocumented or unauthorized — 25 to 40 percent of the total.  

Adelante Mujeres' Early Childhood Education (ECE) program graduation ceremony

To nonprofits that serve immigrants and refugee communities, the OIRFC has made more than 200 grants totaling $21 million to address a wide range of needs: from support for Vargas’ role in Grants Pass, to legal defense and deportation support, to community organizing and refugee resettlement. 

The Collaborative is an aligned fund, which means that nonprofits can apply through a single application to any of the participating funders and have their proposal reviewed by the group. Grants made by the Collaborative can include money from one or more foundations. 

While traditional grantmaking typically has funding cycles, the OIRFC application is always open; requests are reviewed on a rolling basis. This approach has enabled the Collaborative to respond to issues as they arise and move more money out the door.  

“I love that we’ve been able to pivot quickly compared to a lot of things that happen in philanthropy that take forever,” said Carol Cheney, CEO of The Collins Foundation.  

From legal defense to refugee resettlement  

Rural Organizing Project

In addition to PYP in Grants Pass, grantees that have received OIRFC funding include The Next Door Inc., in Hood River; Rural Organizing Project (ROP), which has 90 volunteer-led organizing groups in every rural county in Oregon; and Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), Pueblo Unido and UNITE Oregon in Portland. Their work includes: 

• Supporting statewide legal defense access for immigrants facing deportation 
• Resettling newly arriving Afghan families after the fall of Kabul 
• Supporting Black immigrant leadership by funding pro-Black policy development and political education  

More ‘bedfellows’ needed 

Opportunities abound for Oregonians who want to defend and buoy their immigrant and refugee neighbors who contribute mightily to the state’s cultural and economic vitality. 

“One of the things I think this moment could do is build more strange bedfellows,” said Cheney of The Collins Foundation. “When you think about the hospitality industry, the wine industry, forest and logger types, farmers, and the heavy reliance on immigrants and refugees, they’re all sectors that should be stepping up and responding to this because [otherwise] they’ll go out of business.”  

Consejo Hispano Hispanic Heritage Month

Beyond the current political environment, ORIFC and Oregonians must do more than help immigrant and refugee communities survive, said Sally Yee, Senior Program Officer at Meyer Memorial Trust, who has been a part of the Collaborative since it began. 

“While emergency response grantmaking will continue to be essential in the face of escalating crises, it must be paired with deeper investments in grassroots organizing and coalition-building,” Yee said. “We need to be strengthening the ecosystem so that immigrant and refugee communities can thrive.”   

What you can do:  

• Support the DACA, Immigrant and Refugee Fund
• Read a recent progress report about the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative from OCF, Meyer Memorial Trust and The Collins Foundation.  
• If you have a donor advised fund and would like to support the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative, please contact your donor relations officer.  
• If you are new to OCF, our philanthropic advisors can help you make the most of your giving.