The generosity of this community is breathtaking.  The 2019 Give Orcas campaign has reached the final day. We did indeed meet and then beat my goal of 500 donors and are are now at 572 donors who have contributed over $209,000, fully funding 11 proposals. THANK...

What a remarkable week! We knocked the socks off our old record on unique donor game day with 432 donations raising $24,500 (last year was 302 donations for $20,000). Fantastic! Congratulations to the Early Childhood Education folks for top place with 92 donors,...

Wowza! What a great start to the Give Orcas campaign! So far, we have had 114 individual donors contribute $57,000 in just TWO DAYS! The grantees are doing a great job engaging the community and seem to be having fun, as demonstrated in this video from the Senior...

On your mark, get set, GIVE! The 2019 GiveOrcas campaign will open this Wednesday, May 1st and run through May 17th. (www.giveorcas.org) There are 25 proposals in this years catalog that support a wide variety of programs serving the full span of the community. We are...

As part of OICF's due diligence to our stakeholders and community, the OICF Investment Committee conducted a review of Cornerstone, our financial advisers. The committee researched compliance, fees, and performance, as well as surveyed our fund owners. This week, they...

The OICF Give Orcas Grants Committee (pictured above) wrapped up its deliberations this week, vetting and ranking 25 proposals that will be in the GiveOrcas campaign in May. Thank you to the many community members who served on the committee this year! They were...

It was lovely to open the paper this week and see the smiling face of former OICF intern, Iris Parker Pavitt, and learn about her great new job with the Rain City Rock Camp (you can read the article here). Iris worked with us during her senior year and launched...

The OICF Board has voted to make a $150,000 recoverable grant to the Island Loan Fund, a program under OPAL Community Land Trust’s umbrella. This grant is in keeping with OICF’s current focus on affordable housing, as the Island Loan Fund provides real estate loans...

Rural communities such as Orcas are uniquely reliant on nonprofits and local philanthropic support to meet needs and provide ongoing services. While the island has all the needs of larger communities (such as access to housing, food security, early childhood...

I returned from my vacation and jumped directly into our audit. For many folks this might sound like a complete buzz kill, but I actually look forward to the scrutiny. I like the reassurance that oversight brings, knowing that our systems are working, we are compliant...