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Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative

OCF along with The Collins Foundation, MRG Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust and Pride Foundation make up the Oregon Immigrant and Refugee Funders Collaborative, a coordinated and collaborative funding approach to address issues of immigration and refugees in the state, and to support local organizations responding to these issues.

Collectively the funders collaborative will consider requests for projects that provide:

  • Legal information/advice, services and representation for immigrants and refugees
  • Outreach and education about policies, programs, services and preparedness (especially for those seeking permanent residency status)
  • Information gathering, research and analysis on immigration and refugee issues
  • Community organizing, civic engagement and advocacy

Ongoing basic needs support (housing, language services, food, shelter), while important, are generally not competitive for this fund. If you are seeking funding for these services, please contact an OIRFC representative prior to applying or consider reviewing other funding opportunities from the member funders. Additionally organizations seeking funding to educate the general public about immigrant and refugee issues and arts and performance requests are not considered.

“No Wrong Door”

Nonprofit and community groups are encouraged to reach out to any of the representatives from each of the participating funders. These representatives communicate with each other and make any information and document available to the rest of the representatives.

COVID-19 Response

The Funders Collaborative remains committed to its original priority of directly addressing the impact of policies and actions implemented immediately after November 2016. However, it also recognizes that immigrants, refugees, and the organizations that serve them are being disproportionately impacted by the current situation; that the pandemic has given rise to yet another wave of racism and discrimination against API and other communities; and that access to safety-net mechanisms may be unavailable to some immigrant, asylee, and refugee communities.

The Funders Collaborative will consider applications from organizations working at the intersection of responding to federal policy changes and COVID-19. Applications for COVID-19 response will be considered from organizations whose work would otherwise be eligible.

We also encourage immigrant and refugee serving organizations to access all of the other resources available to them at this time.

Critical Response Fund

The funders collaborative may consider small requests that need a quick turn-around time. The collaborative has established a small fund to respond to critical needs, when a response needed within 24-48 hours, for small, planned or unanticipated expenses related to funding eligible activities. This may include materials and expenses for education and outreach, training and capacity fees.