FriendsPDX Voted Oregon's Most Admired Nonprofit for Nine Years Running in PBJ

Since our founding in 1993, Friends of the Children—Portland (FriendsPDX) continues to receive recognition for our unique, courageous, and proven mentoring model. For the ninth year in a row, we have been voted the Portland Business Journal’s #1 Most Admired Company in the nonprofit category. FriendsPDX has been in the top three list of Oregon’s Most Admired Nonprofits since 2012.

FriendsPDX is a professional mentoring organization that specializes in serving youth who are navigating the intersecting challenges of the impacts of poverty and complex trauma. FriendsPDX makes a 12+ year commitment to each youth in our program that begins in kindergarten and lasts through high school graduation. Mentors are salaried, full-time professionals who spend time each week with young people they walk alongside. The organization is committed to helping youth reach their full potential and develop the skills necessary to experience personal and professional fulfillment in adulthood.

Organization-wide, 92% of youth go on to enroll in post-secondary education, serve our country or enter the workforce, 83% of youth earn a high school diploma or GED, 95% of youth remain free from juvenile justice system involvement, and 98% of youth wait to parent until after their teen years.

“With so many exceptional nonprofits that the Portland Business Journal has highlighted, we are deeply honored and humbled to receive this celebration of our 30 years of impact as Oregon’s Most Admired Nonprofit”, said Traci Rossi, Executive Director of Friends of the Children-Portland.