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It’s the time of year when things can get pretty stressful; the holidays and the end of the year are creeping up, and, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, the rain and cold have returned until spring. But it’s also a time when people join forces and ramp up giving efforts to make huge differences in their communities.
Laurie Roe, senior vice president of community and government relations at Oregon State Credit Union, calls this phenomenon the “ripple effect of giving.” As she puts it, “Every community has needs that no one organization, business or individual can solve alone. But together, our gifts can go farther.”
Opens in new windowAnd it’s true. No matter your position or status, philanthropic efforts make the world a better place for all of us. Just ask the nonprofits who work tirelessly to create positive change, whether it be close to home or globally. Every community relies on them, and each organization has its own unique mission, so you’re guaranteed to find a cause near and dear to you.
Opportunities like the Portland-based Willamette Week’s Give!Guide—an annual campaign that raises money for nonprofits in the Portland metro area—make supporting nonprofits easy. Give!Guide is also a prime opportunity for anyone to get involved, including kids, and demonstrates the true scope of impact that can be achieved when we all come together. But don’t just take it from us.
Albertina Kerr and United Way of Columbia-Willamette are two Portland-based nonprofits participating in this year’s Give!Guide campaign hoping to benefit from the matching opportunities, giving incentives and community collaboration. Here’s how giving, big and small, makes a difference for them.
Turning a Love for Portland Into Action
Opens in new windowWhen Nicole LaRose moved from Western New York to Portland 13 years ago, she planned to stay a few years, but she fell for the city almost immediately. Now, LaRose is director of corporate partnerships for United Way of Columbia-Willamette, a nonprofit that works to bring people, businesses, and nonprofits together to address challenges like early learning, housing stability, and disaster resilience through donations and volunteerism.
LaRose’s job is to build relationships with companies and try to understand how they want to make an impact in our community. Then, she attempts to match their goals and interests with the work United Way is doing. LaRose knows that, “fundraising is all about match making and helping others find ways to make that feel good and meaningful for them.”
Opens in new windowAs for Give!Guide, LaRose is excited to see her employer among this year’s cohort. For United Way, the campaign is an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the needs of neighbors, generate awareness for the incredible work of impact teams on a city-wide scale, and inspire Portlanders to get involved as donors or volunteers.
“Giving turns our care for others into action,” she says. “We see what that generosity makes possible every day. We help families stay housed, connect more than 18,000 children with books through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, and bring people together to support local nonprofits through Hands On Greater Portland.”
Nonprofit employees like LaRose know that giving efforts are most successful when they recognize that everyone is connected, playing key roles in building stronger communities. No matter your giving route or capacity, everyone is part of the solution and every contribution works to solve our communities’ problems.
“I sometimes think about what our community would look like without these efforts,” LaRose says. “More families would face homelessness, more children would miss out on early learning opportunities, and more people would struggle without the support they need.”
120 Years of Community Support
Opens in new windowAllison Stark became Albertina Kerr’s sixth CEO a little over four years ago. She’s responsible for keeping the organization “strong and responsive” to the people it serves: children, teens, and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and mental health challenges.
The nonprofit’s person-centered support helps these individuals “lead self-determined lives.” That can look like anything from a teen finding stability after a mental health crisis to an adult living in a safe, supportive home. Much of that work relies on federal funding, particularly Medicaid, and its future is uncertain. Cuts jeopardize the services that the families and individuals Albertina Kerr serves, and increases reliance on philanthropic support.
Right now, at Albertina Kerr, philanthropy helps maintain essential services, and brings people together around a shared purpose.
“When individuals and businesses support the work of local nonprofits, we can build stronger, more inclusive communities where everyone can participate, contribute, and belong,” says Stark.
Opens in new windowAlbertina Kerr is also a part of this year’s Give!Guide cohort and it uses Give!Guide as a meaningful route of reaching new supporters, building community collection, and raising essential funds for Kerr’s services.
For anyone interested in getting involved, Stark recommends finding an organization whose mission resonates. From there, you can volunteer, donate, or even just help spread the work about its cause. She also recommends keeping an eye out for matching gift opportunities—often coordinated by partners who want to see nonprofits and fundraising campaigns succeed—to bolster your giving impact.
Giving That Goes Beyond a Check
For Roe, philanthropy starts with listening to what communities need. From there, Oregon State Credit Union is intentional about directing its time, resources and talent where those collective resources can help advance educational access, financial empowerment, and stronger communities. At the heart of that approach is a simple belief: Giving in all its forms can connect communities and give each of us a way to make a difference.
Opens in new windowOregon State Credit Union recognizes the opportunity to be a catalyst, using its visibility and resources to elevate the missions of community partners, build greater awareness of their work, and invite others to get involved. “When we can help connect more people to a cause, we can help extend the impact beyond what any one organization could accomplish alone,” Roe says.
Building on its year-round commitment to philanthropy and community impact, and inspired by Giving Tuesday, Oregon State Credit Union is launching its first Giving Tuesday initiative, Choose Your Impact. The campaign invites employees, members, and the broader community to help determine where the credit union directs additional support: feeding families, inspiring young readers, or empowering young people’s financial futures.
For those new to the philanthropy landscape, Giving Tuesday is a national day of radical generosity happening on Dec. 1. On that day, community members, businesses, and nonprofits all over the globe will come together to make magic happen.
Opens in new window“Giving Tuesday creates a shared moment around generosity,” says Roe. “During a busy season, it invites us to pause, look beyond ourselves, and consider how we can support the communities and causes that matter to us. What makes it especially powerful is that everyone can participate.”
Follow along on Facebook and Instagram, or learn more about the credit union’s community impact at oregonstatecu.com.
“Start With Something That Matters to You”
Philanthropy can sound like something reserved for big donors with deep pockets. But as Roe says, “You don’t need to have everything figured out. Find something you care about and start there. Give what you can, volunteer an hour, share a skill or simply help others learn about a cause. No act of generosity is too small to matter. What matters is choosing to begin.”
Give through Give!Guide, now through Dec. 31. And, on Giving Tuesday, Dec. 1, Oregon State Credit Union will also match donations to United Way and Albertina Kerr, up to $5,000 for each organization.
