Leach Botanical Garden

Leach Garden News

Our newsletter is published four times a year. The featured article and a link to the newsletter in full are displayed below.

Of Non-Profits, Benefit Auctions, and Rhodies

The Non-profit Association of Oregon (www.ORnonprofits.org) was publicly launched at a statewide teleconference held on June 13. I am pleased to announce that Leach Botanical Garden was one of 140 founding members of this new association.

All of Oregon’s 13,500 non-profits are eligible to join and were officially invited to do so at the press conference.
The NAO was formed to provide a non-profit networking system throughout the state, and a sampling of what they will offer includes updates on public policy, human resources management tools, board resources and foundation and federal grant opportunities. The organization was spear-headed by TACS (Technical Assistance for Community Services) and was 15 years in the making.

Speakers at the teleconference included Secretary of State Bill Bradbury and Attorney General Hardy Meyers. Satellite links covered the entire state, from Salem to Enterprise, Fossil, La Grande, Bend, Lakeview, Medford, and Portland. Steering committee co-chair, Jay Bloom commented that Oregon was one of only a few remaining states that had not formed an association of this type and joked that it was probably due to the fact that Oregonians are notoriously independent.

On the serious side, that traditional independence can be exhausting for under-funded and understaffed non-profits whose functions are often carried on the shoulders of devoted volunteers. A representative of the Friends of Fossil Library commented that they are relieved that they will no longer feel a sense of isolation.

But even those of us in Portland, with its concentration of non-profits, often share this feeling of isolation. “Interdependence� may well be the keyword of the future.

The NAO was formed at a most opportune moment for us here at Leach in our attempt to deal with ever-growing financial concerns and the challenge of following our mission and at the same time, meeting the needs and interests of a changing society in order to remain viable.

The potential of what we can contribute to and gain from partnerships with other organizations and shared resources is endless. Having an association that will help keep us connected and informed can make that potential a reality.