The Ronald W. Naito MD Foundation supports local, national, and international initiatives in the following categories: climate, health equity, and sustainable communities. We also support Oregon-based arts and cultural* organizations.

We offer unrestricted grants, mostly ranging from $5,000-$40,000. We occasionally fund smaller and larger requests, and we are moving toward more multi-year grants. We try to keep a balance between organizations providing frontline services and organizations working to create and advocate for systemic solutions.

Funding Priorities:

-Climate

This includes (but isn’t limited to) organizations that:

• Support or lead upstream policy, advocacy, or other reform initiatives that deter new fossil fuel investments, accelerate decarbonization, and promote renewable energies, both domestically and internationally.

• Advance grassroots organizing by Indigenous, BIPOC, and other frontline communities, or that work to advance climate justice in systems or markets.

• Regranting organizations that can pool our resources with other funders’ and direct them to impactful, proven organizations.

-Health Equity

This includes (but isn’t limited to) organizations that:

• Increase historically marginalized communities’ access to sustained health care either internationally or domestically, including both frontline service providers and initiatives that advocate for policy or market reforms.

• Focus on lasting health outcomes, such as eyesight restoration, disability supports, eldercare advocacy, reproductive justice, trans health, and other health interventions that impact individuals’ long-term capacity to thrive.

• Increase equitable, sustainable access to healthy foods, including sustained nutritional interventions, nutritional policy, and food sovereignty and systems initiatives.

• Improve health outcomes through clean air, water, hygiene, and anti-toxin/-pollutant advocacy, policy, and frontlines interventions.

• Provide ongoing support and empowerment to people experiencing violence, displacement, poverty, and other traumas.

• Combat misinformation contributing to adverse health outcomes.

• Diversify participation in health research, policy, and medical care to advance more equitable health outcomes.

-Sustainable Communities

This includes (but isn’t limited to):

• Social justice, civil rights, and anti-hate initiatives that build sovereignty, community, and resources for people whose wellness and success are threatened by systemic prejudice or injustice.

• Triple-bottom-line initiatives that help historically marginalized communities gain access to sustainable economic capacity and lasting health benefits.

• Environmental justice work that impacts the health and success of historically marginalized communities, and that help communities adapt to the impacts of the climate crisis.

-Oregon Arts & Culture