RWN Foundation: Oregon Arts & Culture Grant

The RWN Foundation: Oregon Arts & Culture Grant supports innovative arts and cultural organizations that enhance community well-being. Focused on historically marginalized groups, it promotes access to arts education and cultural programming. The foundation seeks to fund initiatives that celebrate diverse traditions and foster social equity, particularly in Oregon. Grants are typically smaller, averaging $10,000, and are unrestricted, allowing organizations to allocate funds as needed to maximize impact.

Our grants support organizations working all over the world to mitigate the climate crisis, reduce health disparities, and build communities that are socially equitable and environmentally sustainable.
Our grants are trust-based. Because we respect the expertise of our nonprofit partners and understand that they know best how to spend their funds, all of our grants are unrestricted.
Current Funding Trends
Under-represented areas:If you work in these areas and are eligible within our funding priorities and restrictions, please consider applying.Nonprofits that work internationally or domestically outside of Oregon, including regional and national organizationsClimate crisis mitigation, especially aggressive efforts to curtail or prevent new greenhouse gas emissionsInternational long-term health equity initiatives and health equity initiatives addressing aging and supporting eldersSystemic initiatives and advocacy/policy work in any of our funding prioritiesOver-represented areas:We value these types of work and still seek applications from these categories, but applicants may find these categories slightly more competitive if current trends continue.Arts initiativesOregon frontline nonprofits across all sectorsFrontline services, especially organizations supporting people with mental health or substance use needs and organizations supporting survivors of child abuse and domestic and sexual violence
Funding Area: Oregon Arts & Culture
Our Oregon Arts & Culture* grants seek to support imaginative arts and cultural organizations that nourish our humanity and help build healthy, soulful, and vibrant communities.
This includes (but isn’t limited to) organizations that:
Prioritize artists, arts students, and audiences from historically marginalized communities, and celebrate and preserve diverse traditions and heritage.Increase under-resourced communities’ access to, participation in, and social and economic benefit from arts and cultural activities.Provide arts, arts education, or cultural programming that overlaps with our other funding priorities.Work in research, policy, or advocacy to improve outcomes, access, and funding for arts, arts education, and culture at a statewide level.
Oregon Arts & Culture grants receive a smaller portion of our annual grants budget. Accordingly, these grants tend to be smaller than grants in other categories, typically averaging $10,000. Applicants with annual incomes under $5 million are often more competitive than organizations with larger annual incomes. Systems-change organizations may be more likely to receive larger grants.

Eligibility

To be eligible for Ronald W. Naito MD Foundation funding, your organization must:Be a Section 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization that is classified as a public charity under Section 509(a) 1 or 2 of the United States tax code or have a fiscal sponsor with documented Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).Have an office or affiliate office within the United States and a US EIN. Foreign organizations with active US-equivalency determinations may also be considered.Comply with Ronald W. Naito MD Foundation’s anti-discrimination policy that ensures it does not grant to organizations that discriminate based on race, ethnicity, color, sex, religion, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, disability, marital status, genetic information, veteran status, or other factors protected by law.Past grant recipients are eligible to reapply as long as their grant term will have expired by when funding will be issued and as long as their final report has been submitted when we begin application review (not when we begin LOI review).Note: we do fund, and encourage applications from, statewide arts/cultural advocacy or policy organizations.Note: 501(c)3-run arts educational programs that operate across multiple schools will be considered.Note: We will consider supporting history, heritage, and cultural organizations or projects that explain or interpret a religious community’s experience or traditions as long as they are open to the public, non-proselytizing, and not based in a school or house of worship (eg. Oregon Jewish Museum and Holocaust Education Center).

Ineligibility

We don’t fund:Arts and culture organizations that are based in or serve states/regions other than Oregon.Organizations that don’t center under-resourced communities (including both artists and audiences). Organizations with budgets greater than $10 million.We used to fund education. We no longer fund education, but we do fund some arts education initiatives under our arts and culture grants. We do not fund arts education initiatives that are housed in private, charter, or public schools, colleges, or universities. School bands, choirs, etc.PTAs and school boards.Aquaria, zoos, and tourism or experiential attractions.New: Playgrounds and other non-program-related capital projects.Summer camps, outdoor schools, hospital-based arts, children’s theatres, educational travel, one-off workshops, or other one-time or short-term arts educational or arts opportunities.Individual artists, including organizations that center the work of a single performer or creator.New: Programs that have a tuition element, even if there are tuition waivers or subsidies. (This is a new criteria: if you are a past partner that this affects, please reach out.)Artists residencies and educational retreats.Financing requests for independent films, books, podcasts, etc.Faith-based organizations.