2008 Penney Family Fund Grants

In 2008, the Penney Family Fund awarded 29 grants totaling $465,000.


1000 Friends of Oregon • Portland, OR • $15,000
A renewal grant for statewide organizing and advocacy work on the "Blueprint for Oregon's Future Campaign" to engage the public in sustainable land use planning.

ACORN Peru/ACORN International • New Orleans, LA • $5,000
Fiscal Sponsor: ACORN International
A renewal, discretionary grant for this grassroots membership-based organization in Lima, Peru, part of the international program of ACORN, a community organization of low and moderate-income families that act to improve conditions in their neighborhoods.

American Rivers • Nevada City, CA • $15,000
A grant to support work on the Klamath River Basin Restoration Project to secure a final Klamath Basin Settlement Agreement and Hydropower Agreement for one of the West’s largest, most important and most contentious rivers.

Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) • Ventura, CA • $15,000
A renewal, general support grant to promote economic and social justice in the Central Coast region of California, with an emphasis on community organizing and policy advocacy to expand living wages, health coverage, and environmental justice for working people.

Children's Institute • Portland, OR • $45,000
A renewal grant to continue building a comprehensive early learning system for Oregon's vulnerable children and to research the most effective investment strateges for a viable birth-to-five system.

Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) • Huntington Park, CA • $15,000
A renewal, general support grant for CBE's environmental health and justice organizing, advocacy, and leadership development programs in Northern and Southern California.

Democracy Reform Oregon • Portland, OR • $25,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Western States Center
A renewal, general support grant for work to increase access, accountability, and participation in the political process and in governmental decision-making.  An additional $25,000 is made as a matching grant, contingent upon raising new funds.

East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) • Oakland, CA • $10,000
For EBASE's work to build labor, community, and faith-based coalitions to win strategic policies that increase incomes for low-wage workers and support organizing in the growing, low-wage service sector in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Ella Baker Center for Human Rights • Oakland, CA • $2,500
A discretionary grant for the Campaign for Green-Collar Jobs, which creates opportunities for family-sustaining careers in the movement to “green” America, while promoting environmental stewardship and voice among communities historically left out of the discussion.

Four Freedoms Fund • New York, NY • $10,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Public Interest Projects
A discretionary grant for the Four Freedoms Fund, which connects local, often ethnic-specific groups to coordinated state and national campaigns for comprehensive immigration reform, civic engagement and integration, and protection of civil liberties and human rights.

Grassroots Exchange Fund of Common Counsel Foundation • Oakland, CA • $10,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Common Counsel Foundation
A renewal grant to Common Counsel's Grassroots Exchange Fund, which provides small travel and technical assistance grants to encourage community organizations to seek assistance from one another and to build regional and national networks.

Green Schools • Berkeley, CA • $2,500
Fiscal Sponsor: Social & Environmental Entrepreneurs
A discretionary grant for work to transform K-12 schools in California by supporting “green” actions by students, teachers, parents, and policymakers to eliminate toxics, purchase and utilize resources sustainably, create green school yards and buildings, serve healthy food, and teach stewardship.

Hoopa Valley Tribe • Hoopa, CA • $15,000
To support the Hoopa Tribe's efforts to protect and restore salmon fisheries in the Klamath Basin, and gain full recognition of the Hupa people's rights to fish and water resources.

Karuk Tribe of California • Orleans, CA • $15,000
To support the Karuk Tribe's efforts to protect and restore salmon fisheries in the Klamath Basin, and restore related traditions, customs, language and ancestral rights.

Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) • Los Angeles, CA • $15,000
A renewal, general support grant for work to reduce working poverty in Los Angeles through research and community organizing, with an emphasis on developing and implementing Community Benefit Agreements.

Northwest Early Childhood Institute • Portland, OR • $10,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Hearing & Speech Institute
A renewal grant in support of the Institute's work on improving the quality of the early childhood healthcare system, and on educating physicians about critical child care issues so that they can be more effective voices in the public policy arena.

Oregon Action • Portland, OR • $15,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Fair Share Research & Education Fund
A renewal, general support grant for work that promotes economic justice and democracy through community organizing, with an emphasis on building power among traditionally disenfranchised sectors of society.

Oregon Child Care Resource & Referral Network • Salem, OR • $35,000
A renewal grant for the Quality Indicators Project, a pilot project to measure and improve quality of child care by collecting and storing data on seven research-based indicators of child care quality from child care providers.  This data will be stored in local child care resource and referral databases, shared with parents seeking child care, and reported to the community.

Oregon Tradeswomen • Portland, OR • $15,000
A renewal grant to promote the success of working women in non-traditional trades, such as the construction, mechanical and utility trades, through education, leadership training and mentorship.

Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) • Woodburn, OR • $20,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Willamette Valley Law Project
A renewal grant for ongoing PCUN programs to build leadership in the Woodburn/Salem Latino and farmworker community to strengthen labor and immigrants’ rights, and to promote community and economic development initiatives such as community -based radio programming.

Portland Jobs With Justice Education Fund • Portland, OR • $5,000
A renewal, general support grant for the coalition's efforts to defend the rights of working people and organize multi-issue campaigns for social and economic justice.

San Francisco ACORN • San Francisco, CA • $10,000
Fiscal Sponsor: ACORN Institute
For work to challenge gentrification and displacement in San Francisco's Southesatern neighborhoods by providing low income families the tools  necessary to be present and participate in the decision-making that impacts their housing, education, and workforce oopportunities.

Stand for Children Leadership Center • Portland, OR • $45,000
A two-year grant to organize grassroots voices to move the K-12 schools in Oregon into the top 10 nationally in student achievement, high school graduation, and college preparedness.

Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE) • Los Angeles, CA • $10,000
A renewal grant for SAJE's economic justice and popular education work to build power and advance a comprehensive grassroots community economic development strategy in the Los Angeles Figueroa Corridor.

Sustainable Northwest • Portland, OR • $25,000
A renewal grant to support Sustainable Northwest's assistance for the hydropower negotiations within the Klamath River Basin Restoration Project.

The Klamath Basin Coalition • Eugene, OR • $15,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Institute for Fisheries Resources
A renewal grant for this federation of 15 local, regional, and national organizations working on a comprehensive restoration program to restore the damaged ecosystems of the Klamath Basin in northern California and southern Oregon which takes into account both people and natural resources.

The Piper Fund • Amherst, MA • $5,000
Fiscal Sponsor: Proteus Fund
A renewal grant to advance comprehensive public financiing in targeted set of states and to successfully implement existing and new systems.

Water Watch of Oregon • Portland, OR • $15,000
A renewal grant to support the Klamath River Basin Restoration Project and the development of strategies that will bring regional demands for water back into balance with what the Klamath Basin ecology can supply.