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...

March 8 is the deadline for the 2019 Give Orcas proposals. So far, we have received over $245k in requests from 24 programs. These include a mix of new applicants seeking seed funding for start-up projects as well as capacity building requests from organizations that...

OICF hosted the kick off meeting for the 2019 GiveOrcas campaign on February 21. We had representatives from about 30 organizations. It will be interesting to see how many submit proposals. At the meeting, we announced our plans for a single focus GiveOrcas campaign...

Well, it has been quite the week. Orcas got enough snow to shut the school down for five days. We had to resort to the Navy for a few medical evacuations. Roads went from snow covered to ice and have now turned to slush.  Thankfully, the County road crew has been out...

Our balmy January has given way to a frigid February. The temperature dropped just as the Northeastern winds kicked into high gear the weekend of Feb. 2.  For those of us who live on the Eastside of Orcas, Sunday night was scary with flying debris hitting the roof and...