A Message to Our Former Board Members
Happy Summer,
Next year will be our 30th anniversary. Over these nearly 30 years NWHF has led or contributed to some incredible work, and your leadership and steady board governance was instrumental in that. Thank you!
While you no longer serve on the NWHF board, the legacy of your ideas, connections, and actions remain.
While you all may get our regular updates, we hope to stay in better touch with this small group of leaders who have shaped NWHF. This message and future board alumni communications are an opportunity for us to stay connected, share updates on our projects and happenings this year, and look towards the future as we plan for 2027. But don’t be shy! We love reconnecting with each of you. Never hesitate to reach out to any of us—and breakfast, lunch or coffee is on us if you’re ever around the office!
Modernizing the 1997 Hospital Transfer Act
You may have followed the Community First Campaign which we invested in that called for transparency and public input as OHSU looked to acquire Legacy Health. While that acquisition ultimately didn’t come to fruition—it showcased several important areas for improvement in state law.
Heading into the 2027 legislative session, NWHF will be taking the lead in a bill to protect charitable assets in healthcare mergers and acquisitions and have a champion in Senator Campos.
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Oregon grants tax-exempt status to nonprofit charitable organizations on the condition that their assets serve a public charitable purpose. Like all states, Oregon treats these assets as charitable trust funds rather than private property, meaning that when nonprofit organizations are sold or converted to for-profit entities, their charitable assets must be preserved for continued public benefit rather than diverted to private gain. Remember - that’s how NWHF was formed in 1997!
Because most Oregon hospitals, health systems, and some health insurers are nonprofits, future healthcare mergers and acquisitions—particularly amid financial pressures in the healthcare sector and potential Medicaid cuts—could generate billions of dollars in charitable assets. While Oregon’s Health Care Market Oversight (HCMO) program reviews healthcare consolidation for its effects on access to care, it does not address the disposition of charitable assets resulting from those transactions.
At the same time, the Attorney General’s authority under the 1997 Hospital Transfer Act (HTA) lacks sufficient clarity and overlaps with portions of HCMO, creating uncertainty for transaction participants and limited transparency for the public. (Fun fact: bringing this truly full circle, the Physicians Association of Clackamas County - our predecessor- was a chief supporter in passing the first HTA in 1997.
To address these gaps, Oregon should modernize the Hospital Transfer Act and align it with HCMO by establishing a coordinated review process for significant charitable transactions that meet HCMO’s materiality standards. The updated framework would provide clear timelines, public engagement opportunities, fair-market-value requirements through independent appraisals, conflict-free governance standards for any resulting charitable foundations, mission alignment with Oregon’s health equity goals, full cost recovery for state review, and five years of reporting and oversight by the Attorney General.
Similar approaches have been adopted in states such as Montana and Minnesota. Modernizing Oregon’s charitable asset oversight laws would help ensure that when nonprofit healthcare assets change hands, the resulting charitable resources remain protected, transparent, and invested in improving the health of Oregon communities for generations to come.
Shared Infrastructure and Learning Program (SILP)
Over the past two years our Programs Manager Cleo Tung has taken the lead on a complex shared infrastructure project that involves convening, connecting across organizations and shaping what the 501(c)(4) landscape looks like for years to come.
This work builds off the Civic Heath initiative that Jen Matheson led from 2020-2024 which resourced 501(c)(4)s that serve BIPOC and an effective power-building ecosystem. We invested directly in new, emerging and established organizations. We provided general support, infrastructure development grants, coaching and technical assistance, opportunities for peer-to-peer exchanges, data access and more.
What resulted from that program was pages and pages of reflections but one major takeaway was a concern about the sustainability of these organizations as they all look to grow in size, scope and more.
The 2.0 version of the Civic Health program is called SILP—Shared infrastructure and learning program. This program’s focus is to provide the space for our 501(c)(4) grantees to rethink their current structure; the video above provides additional detail. This program has involved multiple in-person gatherings to learn and deepen understanding as well as trips to Oakland, California and Delray Beach and Miami, Florida to learn from peers across the country.
Recently, the SILP cohort voted to pursue building a shared back office (SBO)! Over the summer our current Civic Health grantees will:
a) hear from experts about what it takes to be an anchor organization that helps build out a SBO
b) decide if they are building one bi-State SBO to serve Oregon & Washington or two state-based SBOs
c) socialize the SBO with a broader set of the nonprofit movement ecosystem.
And of course, NWHF is committed to supporting the broader ecosystem:
Multi Entity Compliance Cohort
The Multi-Entity Compliance Cohort to support folks managing finance/operations/risk of c3/c4/PAC organizations, which started a few weeks ago. Hear directly from a participant about their experience so far.
Emerging Electoral Justice Leaders
Our Electoral Justice Leadership Cohort just wrapped up with leaders across the region deepening their political strategist skills through a multi-month partnership with re:power.
Community Dinners
We have hosted two community dinners this year, one in Eugene, Oregon and just last month in South Bend, Washington. While different both in menus and attendance, each was delightful in its local feel. The staff and current board members feel lucky to have had the opportunity to connect to so many community leaders.
Defending Democracy
This past March we announced our $3M commitment to defending democracy
Much of our investment will support Protect Oregon's efforts to support organizing, training, narrative and cross-sector collaboration against authoritarianism and for a better democracy. The team at NWHF have really enjoyed Scott Nakagawa’s perspective on democracy via his substack at The Anti-Authorian Playbook.
JREP
We shared earlier this year in our newsletter that the Justice Reinvestment Program (JREP), which we had the honor of distributing to 18 organizations, would no longer be funded by the state. I hope you will take the time to read reflections from our participants OWHN, Beyond these Walls, Tayas Yawks and a goodbye letter from our Programs Manager Cleo Tung.
While JREP winds down, a partnership with Meyer Memorial Trust, The Naito Foundation and the Yarg Foundation is bringing together justice-focused grantees across the state for an opportunity to strategize among their peers. We look forward to sharing with you some of their next steps!
What we’re reading:
Highlights of what I and the team are reading these days:
How the Pro-Democracy Movement Misread the Signs of Its Own Danger and What an Honest Reckoning Demands Now
Imagine Black Reframes Black Civic Power: Joy is the Strategy
In a political landscape defined by urgency, alarm, and burnout, one Portland organization is making a bold and deliberate choice: JOY.
Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology
But beneath that familiar red-blue partisan divide is a much more nuanced picture: Many Americans hold a complex mix of values and beliefs that don’t always fit neatly into either major party.
Jen is off to new adventures!
Finally, after over 10 years at Northwest Health Foundation Jen Matheson is off to new adventures. Jen Matheson started nearly six months after I started working at NWHF. We were both strangers to philanthropy but not to each other. Our nonprofit lives had been intertwined across the previous decade through jobs, volunteering, coalition meetings and lobby days.
And now she is leaving NWHF after 12 years, three job titles and immeasurable impact on our work. Make sure you receive our newsletters, as my goodbye letter to her will post soon!
If you would like to learn more about any of the projects above please do reach out. Enjoy safe and happy summers.
All the best,
Jesse