About Us

Community First: Shaping Our Health Foundation Together.

We are a public engagement campaign to empower community based organizations and leaders to make sure that any philanthropic resources created through a historic healthcare merger are governed by the communities most impacted by health inequity. 

As community-based organizations, we have a once in a generation chance to shape grantmaking programs for equity through the money—estimated at $600 million—coming from the proposed OHSU/Legacy Health merger.  

These resources  must be governed with a strong commitment to health and racial equity, transparency, and community-led decision-making. By centering our diverse community's priorities, we aim to create a foundation—or strengthen existing foundations—that truly serve and uplift all.

Our Why

For this mission of health equity to succeed—and before the State approves the merger—we need to speak up.

Legacy Health is proposing to start a new foundation with only their current board members in charge from the start. We don’t blame them, but that’s not health equity.

Legacy says they are invested in addressing our diverse community's health needs.  As they put it, they want to create a foundation that is “reflective of, focused on, and accountable to under-resourced communities..."

We’re excited at what this could mean for our communities. But we need to do our part to ensure that promise actually happens.