Oregon Community Foundation

Every day, child care providers help make it possible for parents to go to work.

For many Oregon families, their provider is a home-based small business.

These providers care for children, support working parents and play an essential role in the communities they serve. But their work — and the role it plays in Oregon’s broader workforce — can be easy to overlook.

In Oregon, nearly 30% of child care slots are provided by home-based caregivers. We need more of them.

Meet one Oregon provider and hear what she wants people to understand about the work she does and the important role home-based providers play in Oregon’s child care system.

Watch the full story by Jason Hill Photography at the link in the comments.

"If you have one less person, that creates a lot more work." That's how a Roseburg logging company describes the ripple effect when an employee can't find child care.

Across Oregon, the child care shortage is squeezing families AND the businesses and hospitals that depend on them. Communities across Oregon have become child care deserts for infants and toddlers.

The good news: rural communities are stepping up. Home-based child care businesses are emerging as a practical solution where full centers can't survive — and support from workforce boards, local coalitions and funders is helping them grow.

Photo:
Spirit Sprouts, a home-based child care business in Roseburg.

What if a rent assistance program could help residents improve their credit scores?

That was the unexpected discovery of an innovative partnership among Hacienda CDC, REACH and Northwest Housing Alternatives. What started as a program to help people afford housing also helped many improve their credit scores and increase their housing options.

Oregon Community Foundation supported the collaboration, and we're proud to see its impact continue.

Join us at the 2026 Housing Oregon Conference, where OCF Program Officer for Economic Vitality and Housing Jocelyn Beh will lead a panel discussion about the program on Sept. 28-29.

Housing Oregon's annual conference brings together affordable housing professionals from across Oregon and beyond to share ideas, build connections and advance solutions for working families, seniors, people with disabilities and other vulnerable communities.

Learn more and register by Sept. 15: housingoregon.org/conference

"TRUE GAME CHANGER."

That's how Oregon Children's Theatre's Producing Artistic Director Jenn Hartmann Luck described the support they received from Oregon Community Foundation, talking about the organization's comeback this week. After pausing public programming in 2025 to strengthen its operations and rebuild its mission, OCT returns in 2027 with two new productions, expanded education programs and a three-year plan for growth.

Luck said our support was more than funding. It was an endorsement of OCT's vision and its future, and that endorsement played a crucial role in the organization's comeback.

Believing in arts organizations like OCT is believing in the communities we share. That belief is only possible because of the donors who work with OCF to show up for organizations like OCT when they need it most.

Read about OCT's reimagined mission and what's ahead: https://www.octc.org/oct-reimagined

Photos by North Light Photo.

When wildfire smoke settled over Warm Springs and other Central Oregon communities this summer, OSU Extension Service staff had a simple, low-cost solution ready to go: a box fan and a furnace filter, taped together, can clean the air in a room.

It sounds almost too simple to matter. But as 2026 shaped up to become one of Oregon's worst wildfire seasons on record, hundreds of these DIY air filters, along with thousands of N95 masks, have reached families dealing with hazardous air quality, including people managing asthma and other breathing conditions who had been stuck indoors for days.

What made the fast turnaround possible was funding that was already available when the need showed up. Support from Oregon Community Foundation's Disaster Readiness and Response Fund, together with the Oregon Disaster Funders Network and the OSU Extension Director's Fund for Excellence in Extension, meant Extension staff could buy supplies and get them into communities within days, not weeks.

To everyone who has given to the Disaster Readiness and Response Fund: this is what your support makes possible. Big impact does not always come with a big price tag.

Thank you to OSU Extension Service for sharing this story and these photos, and to our partners across the Oregon Disaster Funders Network.

Photos:
1. Briana Stacona of Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon assembles a box fan with filter. Photo by Ariel Cowan
2. Deschutes County box fan filter assembly party. Photo by Ariel Cowan.
3. Rows of completed box fan air filters ready for the public at the OSU Extension office in Prineville. Photo by Shawna Holland

What if we gave artists the resources to take big creative risks?

This year’s Creative Heights grants support 12 projects exploring ideas that invite us to see Oregon — and one another — in new ways.

- Fifteen artists making baskets and woven works for the East Oregonian Gallery at the Pendleton Center for the arts

- An Iraqi-American filmmaker bringing veterans together over home-cooked Iraqi meals

- A new bilingual play inspired by Southern Oregon wildfire stories

- An Afro-Fantasy film created with Portland students and Black community members

- And much more

Since 2014, Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights initiative has invested roughly $1 million a year in bold arts and culture projects, supporting 165 projects across Oregon.

We’re excited to see where these artists take us next. 🎨

Photo: Sahar al-Sawaf, "One Bite for the Godless"

Explore all 12 Creative Heights grantees at the link in comments.

Housing is the foundation of strong communities. When people can’t afford to live where they work, families, employers and local economies all feel the impact.

That was President and CEO Lisa Mensah's message during our community reception in Central Oregon — and it's the reason Oregon Community Foundation launched the Building Hope Fund.

Through the Building Hope Fund, OCF is committing $100 million to help finance middle-income housing across Oregon. But lasting progress will require more than one investment. It will take donors, foundations, financial institutions, developers, nonprofits and communities working together.

Our board also learned from housing, economic development and land use leaders about the opportunities and tradeoffs shaping Central Oregon's future. Those conversations reinforced that Oregon's biggest challenges are best solved in partnership.

We invite everyone who wants to think big with us to join the work of the Building Hope Fund.

“We can't solve this with compassion alone,” Lisa says. “We need more capital, and we need it from many hands.”

Every Oregon community depends on water, but managing it has never been more complex.

Our Board spent a day on the Deschutes River to hear from Tribal leaders, scientists, water managers and conservation partners.

The conversations reminded us that Oregon's biggest challenges are also shared opportunities.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this day of learning possible.

Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Deschutes River Conservancy, Oregon Water Caucus, Oregon Water Resources Department, The Nature Conservancy, Central Oregon Irrigation District, GSI Water Solutions, Inc.