Clatsop Nonprofit Project

Dear colleagues and participants in the Clatsop Nonprofits
Collaborative Project:

We are pleased to inform you that a grant request for
$25,000 was submitted on March 20 to Meyer Memorial Trust.
If approved this grant will enable substantial planning and
evaluation of ways that two or more of our groups might
share space, equipment and/or services.

We expect notification of the foundation decision on May 14,
with approved funds available on June 15.

Big thanks to all who provided information about their group
to include with the application. We’re attaching a document
with this information (edited in some cases to comply with
the foundation’s brevity request), as well as the narrative
proposal for our project.

There may well be other organizations that want to be part
of this project. To the extent possible we want to
accommodate those that seek involvement.

The vision at the heart of this project is to strengthen our
nonprofit community by finding ways to collaborate, thereby
improving our service to our clients and the community.

Warm regards,

Peter Huhtala Scott Reuter

Peter Huhtala of Columbia River Business Alliance and Pat Burness of The Clatsop County Women’s Resource Center attended the Meyer Memorial Trust “Nonprofit Colocation and Shared Resources” workshop in Portland last week.

Together they reported what they learned last week to as many nonprofit organizations as we could gather, both at the Blue Scorcher Cafe meeting on March 2nd, and at the “Nonprofits and Friends” meeting on March 3rd. (If you weren’t able to attend a meeting IT”S NOT TOO LATE for you to participate! Contact us.)

A plan of action was developed at the meetings. Peter will write the Meyer Memorial Trust proposal with input from all participating groups as needed.

Peter asked all of the participants to email a half-sheet description (This can be as simple as a mission statement.) of their organization to him to speed the process up.

Meyer Memorial Trust has asked that all groups also go to the MMT website to register. (When you get to the MMT site – look down the center column to where it says “Applying for a Grant?” – and click on “apply online” – this will take you right in to their registration area, ask you 3 simple questions to determine if your group meets their qualifications, and then take you right to the registration page – it only takes a minute, I just did it myself – have your nonprofit’s info and especially the EIN number ready – you can find this on any recently filed 990 form. NOTE: More detailed instructions are available here.

Here are the organizations that have agreed to participate so far:

• Clatsop County Developmental Training Center Association, Inc. (dba Coast Rehabilitation Services)

• Clatsop Community Action

• Columbia Riverkeeper

• Clatsop CASA (court-appointed special advocates for children)

• Hope House

• The Lower Columbia Hispanic Council

• The Clatsop County Long-Term Disaster Recovery Committee

• Commission on Children and Families

• North Oregon Coast Symphony

• Lifeworks Northwest

• The Astoria Regatta Association