With a $2M “First Leaf ” Community Campaign
Portland, Oregon – October 3, 2024 — The Willamette Valley Wine Foundation, a Portland, Oregon-based nonprofit organization, today announced its official launch in support of its mission to enhance the health, homes, and livelihoods of workers in wine-growing communities throughout Oregon’s esteemed wine growing regions in the Willamette Valley.
Formed in 2019, the Willamette Valley Wine Foundation was established as a means to cultivate and strengthen vital partnerships addressing the most pressing inequities impacting rural communities – access to affordable housing, healthcare, quality early childhood education and care, and career development opportunities.
Led by a diverse 16-member Board of Directors, the Foundation’s leadership is composed of individuals who bring practical, culturally relevant, lived experience to their work along with proven track records of success and effective solutions-based mindsets. Unique to the Foundation’s model of funding is its focus on leveraging philanthropic support into additional funding for focused initiatives from already available public and private sources.
“The decision to form the Foundation was inspired by the rich tapestry of experiences that comprise the viticulture industry of the Willamette Valley,” said Rosie Andalón, Board Chair. “We envision a future where every individual and family has access to the resources they need to thrive,” she added.
To date, the Foundation’s initial fundraising initiative, the “First Leaf Campaign” has raised just over $1.3 million since late 2022, and aims to achieve its first $2 Million fundraising goal in early 2025. With support from many individual donors and wine industry leaders, including Jackson Family Wines, and local funding organizations like the M.J. Murdoch Charitable Trust, the Foundation seeks to promote its purpose to convene various resources, leverage collaboration, and forge powerful, lasting partnerships.
“We believe in the power of integrating philanthropy to create sustainable solutions that not only address the region’s immediate needs, but also lay the groundwork for long-term systemic change,” Andalón continued. “We are especially proud of the ways the Foundation has already enhanced several public-private partnerships to fund coordinated initiatives within our core areas of focus. We look forward to reaching many milestones over the next few years as a result of these community-based efforts.”
Some of the projects funded by the Foundation’s inaugural work include:
Primeros Pasos
Founded in collaboration with the CAPACES Leadership Institute (Woodburn, OR), Primeros Pasos is a cohort of organizations that create quality Early Childhood Education and Care for Latino families in the Mid-Willamette Valley. The cohort trains and recruits new educators for licensed family childcare homes. Since the fall of 2023, the Foundation has funded support for two cohorts of 18-20 learners.
Workforce Development for Community Health Workers
Similar to the need for workforce development in the early childhood education and care sector, in partnership with local healthcare providers already serving agricultural workers, the Willamette Valley Wine Foundation is working to coalesce, support, and launch a training program for a network of community health workers to expand services – including patient navigation – in several areas of greatest need.
Stratus Village Housing Project
Through advocacy and partnership work, the Foundation supported the Housing Authority of Yamhill County’s Stratus Village project, a 175-unit affordable apartment community in McMinnville, Oregon facilitated $6.2 million in Agricultural Workforce Housing Tax Credits awarded in late March 2024 to close a funding gap and move the project forward.
About the Willamette Valley Wine Foundation
Rooted in the collaborative spirit of early Oregon wine innovators, the Willamette Valley Wine Foundation exists to transform communities by enhancing the health, homes, and livelihoods of workers in wine-growing communities throughout the Willamette Valley.
