Crossroads Carnegie Art Center brings Missoula Children’s Theatre to Baker City with support from the Edna E. Harrell Community Children’s Fund, which is managed by the Oregon Community Foundation. OCF is opening a regional office in Baker City later this year. (Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald, File)

BAKER CITY — Oregon Community Foundation is expanding into Eastern Oregon to open a regional office in Baker City later this year.

“It’s very exciting,” said Ginger Savage, executive director of Crossroads Carnegie Art Center, which has received OCF grants to support programs. “Baker City will become this philanthropy hub.”

OCF was founded in 1973. In 2024, the foundation distributed more than $211 million in grants and scholarships, with money going to every Oregon county. Also, individuals, families, businesses and organizations can work with OCF to create charitable funds to support specific causes.

Edna Harrell, with family history in Baker County that dates to the Oregon Trail, set up such a fund with OCF. Since 2014, the Edna E. Harrell Community Children’s Fund has granted more than $100,000 to programs that benefit children in Baker County and North Powder. A committee of local residents, including Harrell, decide on the grants.

“My children grew up with friends who weren’t able to afford equipment for football, or equipment for softball,” Harrell said.

This fund, she said, was “an opportunity to help.”

“I’m following in the tradition of my grandfather and my mother — why shouldn’t we give back to the community?” she said.

Local scholarships are established in honor of her grandfather, J.W. Stuchell, and her mother, Mildred Rogers.

Harrell’s donor-advised fund can receive donations, which are tax-deductible.

Regional partnerships

According to a press release from OCF, “the new office reflects OCF’s belief that regional partnerships matter — especially in communities where distance, geography and lack of resources can be barriers to opportunity. By opening a hub in Eastern Oregon, the foundation aims to better connect with partners, respond more directly to community needs and amplify the region’s strengths.”

“We know that thriving communities begin with local voices and shared vision,” Lisa Mensah, president and CEO of Oregon Community Foundation, said in the press release. “Opening a regional office in Baker City brings us closer to the people and places we serve in this region so that we can deepen our partnerships together.”

The Baker City office, the press release said, “builds on decades of rural partnerships and collaborative initiatives with fellow funders such as The Ford Family Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, The Roundhouse Foundation and The Collins Foundation.”

“This is more than an office,” said Maurizio Valerio, senior field coordinator for The Ford Family Foundation. “It is a philanthropy hub — that we have been building towards for many years — with OCF as its anchor, bringing multiple funders under one roof to encourage a deeper level of connection and a more efficient way of serving our community.”

OCF has also partnered closely with the Leo Adler Foundation, which is based in Baker City and awards community grants and college scholarships in Baker County and North Powder.

“Having them pick Baker is a win-win for all these rural communities,” said Carrie Folkman, chairperson of the Adler Foundation. “We’re super excited to partner and collaborate, and to have a place for our local nonprofits to go for information. It’s going to open doors.”

Hiring, community events

OCF plans to hire staff locally later this year to support outreach and engagement across eight counties in Eastern Oregon, according to the press release.

“The goal is to create a shared space for community partners and other funders that will continue reflecting the foundation’s statewide mission,” the release said.

Details on job opportunities and future community events will be announced in the coming months. To learn more, visit oregoncf.org.