Reflecting on our Legacy in This Moment
By Truman Collins
In this very challenging and difficult time, The Collins Foundation is holding on to our long-held value of supporting communities that have been under-resourced. We believe that when all people have authentic access to opportunity, everyone in our society benefits.
The Collins family has a long history of supporting organizations that bring people from different backgrounds together to work on common problems. Our decades-long support of ecumenical and racial equity work grew out of a strong Methodist tradition on both sides of my family dating back to the late 1800s and before.
My grandmother, Mary L Collins served on the Portland YWCA board early in the 1900s and was Chair of the Committee of Color. She made a significant contribution to create a permanent building, later known as the Black YWCA, in the Alberta neighborhood of Portland. She did that almost 100 years ago in 1926; 20 years before she and her three children founded The Collins Foundation in 1947.
In the first six decades of the Foundation’s existence, we funded many organizations just getting their start. A number of those nonprofits were led by and served Black and Latino communities, and are now major organizations continuing to do vital work.
We also have a long history of supporting immigrants and refugees. Helping them become successful members of our society is both morally right and of benefit to all. My parents sponsored a former German prisoner of war after World War II who later became a citizen and a passionate patriot of this country. Throughout the history of our nation immigrants and refugees have contributed so much to this country, from doing some of the most difficult work to innovation, entrepreneurship, and everything in between.
Over the last decade, The Collins Foundation has invited community members with diverse lived and professional experiences to join our board of trustees. We make better, more informed decisions with these added perspectives. The Foundation has also changed its approach to grantmaking. We are focusing on a more relational model based on connection and conversation, funding more organizations led by and supporting historically underfunded and threatened communities, and supporting organizations as a whole rather than individual projects.
Our legacy and our deeply held values have stood the test of time and prepared us for this moment in history. The Collins Foundation will continue our grantmaking rooted in our family’s dedication to a just and equitable future for the people of Oregon. We're ready to move ahead in partnership with the organizations and communities we support.