At the end of 2023, Oregon Community Foundation President and CEO Lisa Mensah had just wrapped up her first year on the job and had helped OCF celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Now, a year later, Mensah, an Oregon native, continues to tour the state, absorbing its beauty and talking to its residents about what they love about their communities – and the challenges they face. She doesn’t see an Oregon divided between its urban cities and its rural places; instead, she sees a state where people everywhere are working together to tackle big issues – and she sees many places where Oregon Community Foundation can help.

In a wide-ranging interview held Nov. 8, 2024 in her Portland office, Mensah reflected on her second year at the helm, Oregon Community Foundation’s work during the year and some of her plans for the organization. Here are excerpts from the interview, lightly edited for clarity and concision.

MIKE McINALLY: When we sat at this table a year ago, you had just wrapped up your first year as Oregon Community Foundation’s president and CEO. What has surprised you, delighted you, concerned you in your second year?

LISA MENSAH: I did it again; I got to all eight (OCF) regions. I’m just shocked at what a stunningly gorgeous state we have. I made it to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. I went horseback riding. I have been to the coast multiple times. I’ve been down to South Coast. I have spent fall in the Rogue River Valley. You know, this state is just stunningly beautiful, and that, I think, goes to the heart of why so many of us care.

McINALLY: One of the things we talked about last year about your travels in the state was that sense of pride you saw that Oregonians have in their communities, regardless of their size, regardless of whether they’re in a city or in a rural area – and how Oregonians in those communities are working hard to make their communities better places.

MENSAH: That’s right. That’s exactly right. The urge to “make it better,” I think, is the next level of pride. … You’re saying, “Yeah, I am here. What time do I have on the Earth? I want to make it better, leave it better.” There’s a real sense of legacy, and that’s really beautiful. And I think that persists.

McINALLY: Let’s talk about how OCF worked with people in communities across the state this past year to “make it better.”

MENSAH: We did a lot in the arts this year, and that’s an interesting place to see how people love and understand their communities. … We really worked with our philanthropic partners, particularly the Miller Foundation, and with our legislators to say (that) the COVID shock to our arts institutions isn’t over. … This is a deeper hole, and it’s a longer rebuild. … We were able to announce a $52 million partnership, with $20 million from Oregon Community Foundation, $20 million from the Miller Foundation and $12 million from the state. We called it a love letter to the arts.

And we did something special with (the OCF) money. We said $12 million of it, right off the top, is going to be supporting our big, major institutions, allow them to plan their next seasons, really get ahead of this and start to rebuild. Eight million dollars is going to be devoted to small- and medium-sized arts institutions. Today (Nov. 8), we’re announcing 21 new grants. We’re spending nearly $600,000 to build community, to help arts and culture organizations rebuild. This is part of the arts rebuild, and we’re not done. This is the first chunk of that $8 million.

McINALLY: From time to time, I hear people say, “well, the arts are nice to have, but they’re not essential.” I assume OCF has a different take on that question.

MENSAH: We have a different view on that. … And we have the numbers to prove it. We do know that arts in Oregon are a big fundamental part of the economy. So, even if you’re not artistically inclined, can’t make a stick figure, can’t carry a tune, what’s undeniable is that we have an economy that is highly related to the arts. This is a big employment sector.

McINALLY: What were the factors that made you and the board and other foundation leaders decide that you needed to do more to support these arts organizations?

MENSAH: One of the biggest factors was the trust that these institutions had in us, because they spoke and brought their numbers very candidly to us, they worked with our staff to show business plans for recovery and to show the severity of what the past three years had wrought. … So one of the first factors was really understanding the severity of need and the fact that there were plans in place.

The other factor that moved us, board and team staff here, is that we knew this was an unusual moment, and the severity (required) us to act boldly now or face potential loss of institutions … You know, really, this was our moment, soldier up or you lose something that generations of people have fought for.

McINALLY: Are there other areas where you see people across Oregon working to make their communities better?

MENSAH: The challenge of child care. … I see the huge dedication of people trying to solve this problem, and they do it because for legacy reasons. They do it because they know if you blow this chapter of children’s lives from zero to age 5, you’re really setting children, families, the whole community, up for way more difficulties down the line.

It’s lucky that Oregon Community Foundation has had a 20-year journey in the whole field of child care and early learning and support for parents. I think one of the things we celebrate is when a state follows us. So, there has been an early learning department established now in Oregon and we think that this formalized support at the state level for early learning would not have happened had not philanthropy pushed. …

So then comes the pandemic, then come shifts in our economy, and they reveal that … the needs for child care are severe. They’re severe for our employers. They’re severe in our school system. They’re severe for parents, they’re severe in households of every stripe and income levels and across the whole state. I think almost every place in Oregon is a “child care desert.” …

But here’s the exciting thing about Oregon Community Foundation: We’ve been around a lot of the solutions for all of these 20 years. So we see the severity of child care deserts, but we’ve also seen the solutions. We’ve seen what it takes to support parents. We’ve seen what it takes to support providers. … So what can we bring to this table? I don’t have news today to give you, but I can tell you that the elements are here. We have a track record. …

I hope we’ll be able to say more about how we intend to shed a light on the bright spots that are working and how philanthropic dollars can combine with public dollars to make a difference (with) this need.

McINALLY: And you believe part of the foundation’s work is to spotlight programs and initiatives that are working throughout the state.

MENSAH: I think our foundation’s sort of special sauce is to be able to elevate those bright spots and give people a sense of what it would look like to solve some of these issues and then build on that.

McINALLY: What else has stood out for you in your second year at Oregon Community Foundation?

MENSAH: One of the signature programs of the Oregon Community Foundation is our community grants work. We have one of the few open doors in the state. So anybody can apply, any qualified nonprofit can apply. You can ask for as much as $40,000, so these are smaller grants than many foundations do. But this year, in our two cycles … we’re going to reach $11 million of community grants.

Remember, I had 13 years (working) in a much larger philanthropy back east, and it didn’t make sense to me immediately why a $20,000 grant would be a game changer. But what I’ve really learned is that often this community grant is a first grant. It’s the door-opener to our other donors, even inside of OCF.

I remember we met a Native group of women (in Pendleton) who were starting an egg business. It’s called Rez Chicks (Fresh Eggs Cooperative). … You know, we were one of their first grants. …. I get letters that touch me so deeply, people saying, “this was our first grant.” Now, there are older institutions that get community grants, and it’s for something that is just going to take off. So it’s really exciting.

McINALLY: What are your biggest concerns after two years with OCF?

MENSAH: The severity of need is still a deep concern.

McINALLY: You travel the state. You see firsthand the need across Oregon. How do you avoid getting dragged down by that accumulation of need?

MENSAH: This is where it helps to have had a national career (before starting work at OCF), because there’s nothing I’ve seen here that seems unfixable. We only have 4 million people in this state, and I’m sitting with the most generous people, and we’ve actually had a win in going and talking to the Legislature (about funding the arts). So nothing seems of a scale that you just wring your hands and say, “How could we possibly solve issues like housing or day care?” My perspective is that systems will move to solve these things with the right kinds of partners, and we’ve got all of the cards to help push on those things. It’s hard, but no, I’m not going to get defeated.

McINALLY: What have you learned in your second year with Oregon Community Foundation? What do you know now that you didn’t know 12 months ago?

MENSAH: Most of my lessons have been internal. … I would like to move fast, and moving fast is hard, even with a team of 120 people who are willing to move fast. … I want to accelerate our current work and add new things. And both are hard. It’s hard to run faster at the things you’re good at and it’s hard to do that and add new things. … You need to make sure that the tools are here and you have to keep the story clear about why we’re trying to go faster and grow more. And keeping the story clear, both internally and externally, is tough.

The great thing is, I’ve learned people want to be on this journey, our donors and our staff and our board. I am a little impatient. I want to do everything at once and we’ve been biting off a lot. I don’t really think the answer is, just slow it down, don’t do as much. I think the answer is, give people more tools and give people the story, the rationale that makes them want to keep fighting, to do the hard work.

I think I’m asking Oregon Community Foundation to do something complicated, and I think we’re going to make it, but it is complicated. We need to be an organization that has a good groove that has allowed people to entrust us with over $3 billion of money, and money is a serious business that needs (procedures) and ways of doing things. We’re not throwing that book out. I am simultaneously asking an organization that knows its business to add on entrepreneurial aspects, which require us to do some new things, some bolder things and some quicker things. And it’s this combination of steady as she goes, good, powerful work, plus entrepreneurially get ready to do the new thing, probably differently, probably faster, and probably at a different scale. That is a complicated dance to do. …

We’re one of the few places that can take that kind of entrepreneurial risk, and it’s because we have the systems. We’ve got people who get up every morning and know how to send a check out for the $11 million of community grants. Thank goodness. I have no idea how to run the check machine.