Portland is Awesome

Oregon has more nonprofits per capita than any other state in the union and the bulk of those are located in Portland.  In some ways this is a really good thing.  When Robert Putnam was writing Bowling Alone he bet a steak dinner that the phenonema was nation-wide.  He lost.  He lost because of Portland.  We are a city that is socially and civilly engaged.

Oregon is not a wealthy state and all of the nonprofits struggle to stay afloat financially.  But Portland’s nonprofit community is small and tight and very collaborative.  I see this time and time again through CNRG’s monthly nonprofit networking and free training events at CubeSpace, through the Nonprofit Continuum Conference and through events like the one I attended last night coordinated by Carole Zoom.

Carole Zoom is trying to support the nonprofit community (and herself) by coordinating an efforts to help Portland nonprofits buy a building of their own.  This is something she did while living in Eugene and now that she lives in Portland, she wants to duplicate it here.  Last night was the initial meeting for this effort and she expected about 20 people.  I stopped counting when we got to 60.

Not all of the organizations that were in that room are in a place to participate in the purchasing of a building.  Some are not ready financially, some are not ready organizationally.  But, when we broke into small groups to discuss what could happen if organizations could make mortgage rather than rent payments, there was a incredible transformation that took place.  Every group that reported back talked about the synergy that came from those small, short conversations.  Groups that had never spoken suddenly started brainstorming ways to work together to achieve their mission, serve their target populations and generally be creative in the face of great needs and minimal budgets.  That is why Portland is Awesome.