Exciting News from Friends of the Children—Portland

Hello friend of FriendsPDX!

I hope you are well and have had an enjoyable summer. I’m reaching out to share some exciting news. As you may have seen or heard in the news, Friends of the Children—National has received an extraordinary gift of $44 million from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott to help further strengthen and expand the organization’s long-term mentoring model. The unrestricted gift provides $15 million to the organization’s national headquarters and splits $29 million in direct donations to 12 of the organization’s chapters including $7.7 million to the Portland chapter.

This is the largest single donation ever received by our chapter and it provides powerful momentum for the organization’s program. We are enormously grateful and truly humbled to be a recipient of this extraordinary investment. We plan to use it wisely along with the generous support we receive from the community—from people like you—to help achieve our strategic priorities, which include:

• Deepening our impact with the youth currently in our program as well as with families and alumni.
• Providing better mental health support to youth and families as well as training for our staff.
• Expanding our reach to serve many more children, youth, and families in this community.
• Strengthening our financial foundation so we can fulfill our mission to impact generational change for years to come.

Thank you for your continued commitment to our work and the children and youth we walk alongside. We invite you to join us in reflecting gratefully on this wonderful news and would welcome any questions you might have.