(Photo | by Tom Atkinson R3Digital)
Oregon Consumer Justice, an Oregon nonprofit with a mission of advancing consumer protection, has donated more than $1.7 million in emergency response grants, supporting 26 Oregon nonprofit organizations that in turn assist communities across the state in both rural and urban areas.
In determining the grant recipients, Oregon Consumer Justice implemented a trust-based philanthropy model, which uses trust as a starting point to break down the traditional power dynamic between funder and grantee and build relationships based on transparency, dialogue and mutual learning. Trust-based grants place the responsibility of due diligence on the grantmaker rather than the grant seeker and simplify and streamline paperwork to remove unnecessary burdens and barriers for grantees.
“Our goal was to have an immediate impact on consumers who are most vulnerable in our state, so we structured our grantmaking to get financial help quickly to these 26 organizations,” said Oregon Consumer Justice board member Sayer Jones. “Particularly for these first rounds of grants, we focused on helping those impacted by COVID-19 and last summer’s wildfires. We selected nonprofits that serve communities in geographical regions throughout the state, and we’re incredibly proud of how many culturally-specific organizations we were able to connect with and support through this process.”
One organization selected was the McKenzie Community Development Corporation (McKenzie CDC), which fosters and supports economic, environmental and community well-being for the McKenzie River area in Lane County. It received a $25,000 grant in response to the impact of last fall’s devastating wildfires on the region; the organization is currently rebuilding and reuniting the nine communities of the McKenzie River Valley following the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire, which destroyed 450 homes.
“Our community, which skews elderly, has been a target of many scams and predatory practices following the Holiday Farm Fire, from an asbestos testing firm inflating their charge for ground tests by 400 percent to RV dealers selling defective units to our residents,” explained Timothy Laue, McKenzie CDC president. “We are incredibly grateful to Oregon Consumer Justice for this grant money, which will be used to fund partial salaries for two community organizers providing key advocacy — including consumer complaints and protections — for elderly residents of our rural community.”
Imagine Black (fka PAALF/PAALF Action Fund), which helps Portland’s Black community imagine the alternatives they deserve, received a $100,000 grant. The organization envisions a world where people of African descent enjoy the rights, resources and recognition to be a thriving, resilient and connected community. The grant money will be used to support affordable housing practices, anti-displacement, protection against predatory practices, the creation of the Black Worker Center and navigation of the new green economy.
Consejo Hispano of Astoria, a nonprofit that works to equitably integrate Hispanics into the broader social and economic fabric of communities in Oregon and Washington, received a $50,000 grant. The organization aims to provide programs and services that address both the immediate and long-term needs of the community. For example, it helped residents set online appointments to get driver’s licenses once the “Drivers License for All” bill went into effect because individuals either did not have computers, internet access, or they faced language barriers. The grant money will allow the nonprofit to hire an additional case manager to work with rural Latinx communities impacted by COVID and the recent wildfires.
The grants have been made over the past three months, with money coming from a “cy pres” award that distributed unclaimed class action settlement money to Oregon Consumer Justice. In March 2015, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed House Bill 2700 into law, which mandated unclaimed funds be used for the benefit of consumers, not corporations. Before that, companies that lost class action lawsuits were allowed to keep unclaimed settlement money. The new law was applied for the first time in 2019 in the class action lawsuit Scharfstein v. BP West Coast Products LLC. Former Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Jerome LaBarre ruled that unclaimed funds from the class action lawsuit be used to establish a consumer advocacy nonprofit organization; this led to the founding of Oregon Consumer Justice.
GRANT RECIPIENTS
Click HERE for details on each nonprofit and purpose of grant
211info — Portland — $60,000
AGE+ — Clackamas — $75,000
Black United Fund of Oregon — Portland — $76,000
Burns Paiute Tribe — Burns — $10,000
Coalition of Communities of Color — Portland — $85,000
Community Alliance of Tenants — Portland — $75,000
Consejo Hispano — Astoria — $50,000
DevNW — Oregon City — $50,000
East County Rising Community Projects — Gresham — $60,000
Four Rivers Health Care — Ontario — $50,000
Imagine Black — Portland — $100,000
Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization — Portland — $75,000
Latino Community Association — Bend/Redmond/Madras — $50,000
Legal Aid Services of Oregon — Eight regional offices — $60,000
McKenzie CDC — Lane County (Eugene/Springfield) — $25,000
National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) — Washington, D.C. — $10,000
Native American Youth and Family Center — Portland — $75,000
Neighborhood Partnerships — Portland — $100,000
Oregon Food Bank — Five locations, 21 statewide food banks and more than 1,400 food assistance sites — $50,000
PCUN — Woodburn — $100,000
Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives — Portland —$120,000
Rogue Action Center — Phoenix — $75,000
UNETE — Medford — $74,000
Unite Oregon — Portland, Washington County & Medford chapters — $61,325
Warm Springs Community Action Team — Warm Springs — $75,000
YWCA of Greater Portland — Portland Metro — $75,000
The Oregon Consumer Justice Emergency Response Grant Report can be viewed in full here.
About Oregon Consumer Justice
Oregon Consumer Justice is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2019 that is committed to ensuring that all people in Oregon experience a safe and fair marketplace. The organization advances the rights of consumers through advocacy, research, education and engagement and works to bring consumer justice into balance for all Oregonians.
