Our Strategy
Philanthropy for more vibrant communities.Thy Tran, AMRF grantee and co-founder of Ascending Flow.
What We Do
Our Strategic Approach
Grantmaking
We identify and promote community leaders and amplify the ideas and work of local organizations and individuals.
Advocacy
We connect, align, and partner with community organizations and other foundations to build effective long-term strategies.
Gathering
We embrace intentional gathering as a practice, creating transformational and meaningful relationships across our shared work.
Grantmaking
Housing Justice & Homelessness
Harm Reduction & Substance Use
Mental Health & Wellness
You're the Expert
We embrace trust-based philanthropy. For us, this means that all of our grants are unrestricted, core operating support. Nonprofits need flexible funding to carry out their missions–plain and simple. We assume that our community partners know best how to manage resources for their organizations.
Focus on What Matters
Our team aims to simplify, simplify, simplify. We want our grantees focused on their mission-critical work, not distracted with a lot of paperwork. Our grant applications take five minutes to complete, at the end of which, the organization will receive a conditional approval or denial. Reporting generally entails a coffee date with one of our team members. That’s it.
Build Meaningful Connections
In addition to dollars, we offer our grantees meaningful partnership. Our team helps community partners leverage larger investments, especially sustainable government funding, and make new connections with other funders and mission-aligned nonprofits in their region. We work to amplify the connective tissue in our core geographies – Mendocino County, San Diego County, and the state of Oregon.
Advocacy
Housing Justice & Homelessness
Harm Reduction & Substance Use
Mental Health & Wellness
Expanding Our Impact
As a small-family foundation, AMRF knows that we must partner to make an impact. Our staffing model centers collective effort. Our team members have the time and resources to build transformative relationships and work in coalition at the local, state, and federal levels. We work with community partners to amplify their priorities.
Motivated by Personal Experience
Our team believes that collaborative leadership can be the most impactful advocacy. All AMRF team members join us from outside philanthropy, often with direct service experience, and with a personal connection to our mission. Their voices are central to funder collaboratives, nonprofit boards, and commissions.
Gathering
Housing Justice & Homelessness
Harm Reduction & Substance Use
Mental Health & Wellness
Bringing People Together
AMRF embraces intentional gathering as a practice. Our team hosts and co-hosts events to spark new partnerships, deepen ties, and strengthen the community fabric. Inspired by Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering and adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy, we bring people together to create something more powerful than the sum of its parts. AMRF believes that relationships are the bedrock of a healthy community and that the cultivation of strong networks is its lifeblood .
Centering Social and Emotional Needs
Our theory of change is that by intentionally gathering partners to collectively address how we engage with one another, we can positively change the cultures in which we work and live. We see caring for the social and emotional needs of people as a primary driver for change, not as a secondary strategy to tactical agendas.
Resiliency in Decision-Making
Strategic planning processes and other kinds of decision-making meetings can help with medium term action, but our team sees a need for long-term investment. We know that our vision for change will take generations to achieve. If new actions emerge from an AMRF convening, fantastic. But our team’s priority is to create a container that reminds participants that they are interconnected and to engender resiliency and creativity across the group. Rather than predetermining an immediate outcome, AMRF believes that we may not see the fruits of our labor in this lifetime. We have faith in the power of bringing people together.
