Commitment to Equity
What We Believe
At Northwest Health Foundation, we believe in a future where everyone has the opportunity to lead a healthy and successful life, however they define health and success.
We can’t achieve that future without examining the parts of history that continue to shape who gets access to the things that drive health, things like a good education, fulfilling and sustaining work, a supportive environment and the resources we all need to take care of our family, friends and community.
Today, our society still sorts opportunity and access to health along lines of race, gender, geography, disability and other aspects of identity. We think this bias is wrong. And we choose to work towards a region, country and world where that is no longer true. For us, this is equity: acknowledging that our present reflects our past and that we can repair historic and current wrongs to create a future where everyone and every community thrives.
To achieve equity, our foundation gives our time, money and other resources to those who are furthest from power but closest to solutions. We lead with race, because we recognize race as the largest factor of bias. Too often, the color of a person’s skin determines whether they see themselves reflected by elected officials and other decision makers, whether they have access to certain opportunities, how they’re treated on a day-to-day basis, and more. Read more about our racial equity lens here.
We know intersecting factors like gender, geography, disability and class compound to create even greater barriers to health for Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC).* We recognize these intersections and choose to uplift two in combination with race: geography and disability.
When we say geography, we mean more than simply an urban and rural divide—we mean all the ways that where you live shapes your access to opportunity. This includes communities of color living throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington and Native and Tribal communities that have been here since time immemorial. Read more about our geography lens here.
Disability also shapes opportunity, as too few of the places we learn, work or play choose to meaningfully include—much less follow—the leadership of disabled Black, Indigenous and other people of color.** Read more about our disability lens here.
We know and celebrate that people of color, across geography and disability, are a growing presence in our region. But presence alone is not enough to achieve equity. When people of color are not only present in our communities, but powerful, our region moves in the right direction. Towards equity. Towards a more just democracy. Towards health for everyone.
Guiding Principles
Our commitment to equity guides our principles, which help us decide how we do our work, where we invest and with whom we collaborate:
Intersectional Approach: We prioritize investing in efforts to better the lives of Black, Indigenous and other people of color (BIPOC) while considering the impact and intersections of geography and disability.
Root Causes: We prioritize efforts to improve the social, economic, political and environmental conditions that impede equity through legislative, electoral and other means.
Community-Based Leadership: We prioritize investing in and building relationships with organizations and coalitions led by those closest to the problems they seek to address.
Accountability: We assess ourselves to make sure our funding, investments, leadership and organizational practices reflect our commitment to equity, including where our money comes from and who we give it to.
Values-Aligned Partnership: When we join with other funders to achieve collective outcomes, we work to ensure these partnerships prioritize equity in funding strategies by establishing shared values before we begin grantmaking.
* BIPOC: acronym for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. We choose to use this term to recognize that although racialized policy and practice affect all people of color, that Black and Native people specifically endured the brunt of the violence in the founding and building of America and were and are uniquely targeted by government policy, all of which have continuing negative impacts.
** Identity-first versus people-first language: Communities and individuals with disabilities have different preferences around the language used to describe them. In acknowledgement, we choose to alternate between identity-first language and people-first language in our writing.