A Letter from Our CEO
There are some years that clarify what matters most.
For me, 2025 was one of those years.
Across our region, I heard from funders and community partners navigating enormous uncertainty. Federal policy shifts, funding disruptions and attacks on the work of equity and inclusion created real challenges for many organizations and the communities they serve. At the same time, I saw something else emerge across our network: a willingness to stay the course, forge forward and continue showing up for community even when the path forward was unclear.
That spirit shaped much of our work this year.
We convened conversations to help philanthropy navigate a rapidly changing landscape, bringing together legal experts, communicators and sector leaders to make sense of new context, federal actions and their implications for our communities. We mobilized our network through advocacy alerts and
policy resources and led a regional delegation to Foundations on the Hill to advocate for the charitable sector and the communities depending on it.
This year also required courage in new ways.
When our Thriving Communities grants were abruptly terminated, we made the decision to challenge that action in federal court because we believed communities across the Northwest deserved access to the resources Congress intended for them. That decision reflected our values and our responsibility to the communities at the center of this work. We successfully secured a favorable ruling restoring access to the grants, an important affirmation of the checks and balances of our system of governance.
Alongside these challenges, I saw tremendous creativity and care throughout our network. We concluded our 12-year Building Community Philanthropy initiative, releasing Toward Transformation, a guide grounded in the summative lessons from community philanthropy organizations advancing equity in their work. We launched a re-imagined website designed
around accessibility and connection. And through our peer networks, learning opportunities and gatherings, people continued building relationships and sharing ideas across differences and geographies. Finally, with collective action, we resurrected the Washington Food Fund last fall in response to the potential loss of federal food benefits.
One thing this year reinforced for me is that philanthropy is strongest when it is rooted in relationship. Not just transactional partnerships, but the kind of trust and accountability that allow people to navigate difficult moments together.
Thank you for being part of this network and for the many ways you continue to lead with courage, generosity and care. It is a privilege to do this work alongside you.
With gratitude,
Jill Nishi CEO, Philanthropy Northwest
Milestones
February
We brought a delegation to Foundations on the Hill – our annual trip to Washington, D.C. – to meet with congressional leaders and advocate on issues of critical importance to our sector and communities.
May
We mobilized our network with action alerts on “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act” and its potential impacts on our communities.
April
We took legal action to challenge the termination of our Thriving Communities grants and restore critical funding for communities across the Northwest.
June
We released Toward Transformation, a data-driven guide exploring the equity journeys of 20 community philanthropy organizations and the lessons they learned along the way.
We sent out the PNW Vibe Check, a survey to benchmark our membership’s progress on implementing equitable practices.
August
We launched season three of our Can we talk about…? podcast focused on community philanthropies working to advance equitable philanthropy.
November
We welcomed three new board members and a new slate of board officers.
We reactivated the WA Food Fund to address food insecurity across Washington state.
We hosted a CEO and Trustee Conversation with Deepak Bhargava from Freedom Together Foundation to hear his analysis of the deep structural challenges confronting democracy and why philanthropy must rise to the occasion.
October
We hosted our annual membership meeting, Defining American: Philanthropy’s Role in Building Belonging in the Northwest with Jose Antonio Vargas.
September
We introduced the Montana Funders Group, our new peer network for funders and philanthropists based in or serving Montana communities.
December
We launched our new website.
In 2025, we lived into our mission, vision and values.
OUR MISSION
We grow philanthropy’s capacity to do transformative work toward redistributing resources and power to underinvested communities in the Northwest and beyond.
OUR VISION
Equity and racial justice for all communities.
OUR VALUES
Equity: We promote systems and practices that support just outcomes for people regardless of race, ethnicity and intersectional identities, including gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, disability, religion and immigration status.
Integrity:
We hold ourselves accountable for acting in alignment with our values and maintaining high standards of transparency, honesty and openness.
Racial Justice: We stand for a society where Black, Indigenous and People of Color communities have the dignity, resources, power and self-determination to fully thrive.
Place: We are inspired and grounded in the diversity of our region’s people and cultures, and we honor its lands as the traditional and present home of Northwest Indigenous peoples.
Courage: We aspire to catalyze change in the philanthropic sector by being bold with our actions and our voice.
Joy: We create space for creativity, connection and fun in our work.
Empowering People
RESPONSIVE PROGRAMS AND RESOURCES
In a year where philanthropy was tested, we provided access to learning opportunities and tools to help our network hold steady in our shared commitment to redistributing resources and power to underinvested communities.
Philanthropy Northwest Network Calls
We hosted expert-led conversations on pressing and emerging issues impacting our sector.
In 2025, call topics ranged from understanding implications for philanthropy with a new presidential administration, preparing a proactive communications strategy, being a good partner to grantees during challenging times and more.
Leading through Uncertainty: A Peer Conversation for Foundation CEOs
As foundation leaders faced a complex climate, we convened foundation CEOs monthly to build community, share tools and collectively problem-solve as a regional network.
Annual Membership Meeting with Jose Antonio Vargas
With immigrant communities facing mounting threats nationally and locally in 2025, we invited Jose Antonio Vargas to our membership meeting to talk about how philanthropy can evolve its structures and systems to better respond and strengthen immigrant communities.
Empowering People continued
CEO and Trustee Conversation with Deepak Bhargava
We convened CEOs and trustees for a conversation with Deepak Bhargava from the Freedom Together Foundation to reflect on the broader forces shaping our shared future and explore how Northwest philanthropy can play a meaningful role in ensuring democracy endures and thrives.
BY THE NUMBERS
1,850 unique participants engaged in
Philanthropy
Northwest programs
Philanthropy in Today’s Policy Landscape Resources
We uplifted timely stories from our network on how policy changes were affecting our community partners and created resources to help funders navigate. Check some examples out below:
• Open Letter to Funders from Business Impact NW
• Cutting Through the Noise: A Resource List for Funders to Step Up Their Impact in 2025
Peer Networks
Organized by region, identity, funder type or role, our peer networks provided spaces for members and partners to connect and grow together as leaders.
These peer networks included:
•Alaska Funders Group
•BIPOC Folks in Philanthropy Group
•Black Folks in Philanthropy Group
•Corporate Funders Group
• Montana Funders Group (we launched this new funders group in 2025!)
•Regional Community Philanthropy Group
•Rural Funders Group
MAKING CONNECTIONS
Our staff met with our members, partners and community leaders across our six-state region to deepen our connections and better understand our network’s aspirations and challenges.
THE NEW PHILANTHROPYNW.ORG
We redesigned our website with our members, our community and our mission at the center.
Improvements focused on easier navigation, a more personalized account experience, a more user friendly member directory and simpler ways to opt in to listservs.
Strengthening Organizations
31
36 BY THE NUMBERS and clients served projects completed
THE GIVING PRACTICE
The Giving Practice, our national consultancy, partnered with philanthropic organizations nationwide to advance transformative change towards a more equitable and effective sector.
Strengthening Organizations continued
PODCAST
We kicked off the third season of our podcast.
Season three of Can we talk about...? shared a collection of lessons from community foundations, identity funds, United Ways and public foundations across Washington and Oregon working to advance racial equity in their organizations.
BY THE NUMBERS
800 podcast listeners
PNW VIBE CHECK SURVEY
To benchmark progress toward racial equity across our network, we surveyed member organizations on their practices, challenges and efforts to advance a more equitable Northwest.
Power of Practice
Informed by the results of our 2025 Vibe Check Survey, we created Power of Practice, a data experience that offers a window into our collective progress and the roadblocks we’re navigating along the way.
TOOLS AND INSIGHTS
We created practical tools, guidance and insights to support our network in their racial equity journeys. Some of which included:
• Toward Transformation: A Collection of Lessons from 20 Community Philanthropies Working to Advance Equitable Philanthropy
A guide that brings together data, stories and lessons from 20 community philanthropy organizations’ equity journeys, including six years of trends and data visualizations.
• Equity Readiness Checklist
A tool to help you assess if your organization is equipped with the right knowledge, skills, mindsets, relationships and leadership to embark on an equity-centered strategy process
• Equity Journey Tracker Template
A tool to help you capture and reflect on your organizational equity journey.
• Exercise: Hangups, Hunches and Hacks
A tool to help you reckon with strategic tensions, prototype experiments and build a test-and-learn culture at your organization.
• Equity Centered Strategy Series
A multi-part blog series to help funders develop organizational strategies that are rooted in and center equity.
Building Thriving Ecosystems
PUBLIC POLICY AND ADVOCACY
sector and worked with policymakers
priorities and historically overlooked
Amid an uncertain policy landscape in 2025 – with growing threats to the charitable sector’s independence and ability to serve our communities – we focused on equipping our network with the tools, expertise and preparation needed to respond and take action. This included:
Philanthropy in Today’s Policy Landscape Series
We launched this series to analyze emerging policies shaping the philanthropic sector. With executive orders creating widespread fear and threatening decades of progress on racial equity, we convened legal experts to help our network understand the implications of anti-DEI action and understand advocacy strategies to defend and protect equitable opportunity.
Rising Together Series
Our Rising Together series created space for learning, dialogue and shared strategies around strengthening democracy. We convened discussions on philanthropy’s role in defending democratic institutions and highlighted pooled funding as a tool to advance structural reform at the local level.
Action Alerts
We activated our network through targeted advocacy alerts on the “One, Big Beautiful Bill Act,” providing members and partners with clear, actionable ways to respond to its potential impacts on our sector and the communities we serve.
Foundations on the Hill
We led a regional delegation to Washington, D.C, joining hundreds of foundation leaders from across the country to meet with elected officials and advocate on issues of critical importance to our sector.
Building Thriving Ecosystems continued
BY THE NUMBERS
180 community members from the Northwest served as peer reviewers More than
715 grant applications reviewed
THRIVING COMMUNITIES PROGRAM
Since 2024, Philanthropy Northwest, in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has been working to distribute $48 million in grants across Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, including tribal nations within this region.
Thriving Communities Awards
In 2025 we awarded $26.2 million in grants to 86 organizations and tribal entities that are working to address the environmental and public health challenges that matter most to their communities.
WA FOOD FUND
As SNAP uncertainty strained an already fragile food system, we reactivated the WA Food Fund to mobilize philanthropy and community partners and keep food flowing statewide, distributing $4.2 million to support individuals and families facing food insecurity.
JOB BANK
Our job bank connected our job posters with a wide pool of mission-driven professionals looking for job opportunities in the Northwest’s nonprofit and philanthropic sectors.
BY THE NUMBERS
156,518 views on our job bank
Looking Ahead
Here’s a sneak peek at what we are working on in 2026 and beyond.
Celebrating Our 50th Anniversary
For half a century, Philanthropy Northwest has been a community and peer network working to collectively strengthen and transform the philanthropic sector. Throughout the year, we’ll mark this milestone with moments of connection, reflection and joy.
Bringing Our Network Together at the PNW26 Conference
We’re excited to convene in Anchorage, Alaska this October for our conference where we will look toward the next 50 years for our network, with programming centered on the future of philanthropy, technology and impact, and community-centered approaches.
Equipping Funders to Strengthen Their Advocacy Work
We’re creating a practical and actionable guide that helps funders understand, navigate and engage in policy advocacy to advance equity and support stronger communities.