Mikayla Stephens with a trio of Labrador puppies at Dogs for Better Lives in Central Point Thursday.

Two Southern Oregon nonprofits have received six-figure grants from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust for service work that reaches beyond the region.

Dogs for Better Lives, headquartered in Central Point, received $336,500 to hire and support a vice president of program for three years. The new VP will oversee the nonprofit’s core task: acquiring, training and placing service dogs with clients nationwide.

“This is the largest private foundation grant we’ve ever received,” said Harvey Potts, the vice president of development, adding: “That’s a big deal for us.”

David’s Chair — a White City-based nonprofit that helps mobility-challenged people enjoy the outdoors — received $150,000 to buy new track chairs for Oregon Coast communities. These joystick-controlled devices use rolling tracks, like those on tractors and tanks, to transport their riders into areas that wheelchairs cannot manage.

The Murdock grants are part of $26.2 million given to more than 90 Pacific Northwest nonprofits, according to a winter 2023 report from the foundation. In Oregon, 24 nonprofits received a total of $5.7 million.

The foundation supports organizations that work in health, education, human services, scientific research, and arts and culture, according to the Murdock website.

Clients of Dogs for Better Lives include people who have autism or who are completely or partially deaf. Dogs are also placed at facilities with licensed professionals — teachers, therapists, counselors, police departments — where the dog is trained to perform key tasks.

A therapist at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Jackson County uses a service dog when she needs to talk with a young child who is stressed, nervous or uncomfortable. The dog helps calm the child and, when the young one is on the floor, puts its front legs up on the child’s lap — a trick called a “squish,” Potts said.

“It really does provide for a calming effect when you’re dealing with a child that (is) currently dealing with some traumatic experience,” Potts said.

Dogs’ VP of program is a new role — one that had been open for about two years. The nonprofit managed to hire someone soon after receiving the grant, Potts said. The work — including managing program department employees — had been shared among leadership team members.

“They really needed to have their own vice president leading the program and working with them full-time,” Potts said.

The hire — whose name has not been publicly announced — started Monday. She lives in Ohio and will travel to Dogs’ campuses in Central Point and Massachusetts. The grant will fully fund the position for a year, then partially over two years.

David’s Chair, a national program, so far has used its grant to set up track chairs at the Seaside Elks Lodge and — in partnership with the Tillamook Coast Visitors Association — the Manzanita Visitors Center, said Steve Furst, the CEO and founder, in an email.

The nonprofit plans to place track chairs in cities as far south as Brookings, said Kirk Mickelsen, the director of fundraising and development.

Part of the grant may go toward the nonprofit’s Tow and Go program, which allows people to take a track chair in a special trailer to a location of their choice, Mickelsen said.