While the holidays are always a whirlwind of eating, shopping and celebrating, they are also a time for giving thanks and giving back. In that spirit, we would like to say a resounding “Thank you!” to all of the patients, community members, providers and staff members at The Portland Clinic who made the foundation’s 2019 Giving Tree drive a tremendous success.

For those of you who haven’t heard of The Portland Clinic Foundation, it is a small nonprofit that brings together a community of supporters who are interested in giving back to neighbors in need. The way it works is simple: people donate what they can to the foundation, we pool these resources, and then every year we open up a grant application process and give 100% of those contributions back to carefully vetted nonprofits. In 2019, we granted $60,000 to 28 diverse and remarkable organizations across greater Portland, including Portland Street Medicine, Milagro Theatre and With Love.

The Portland Clinic Foundation and its supporters try to be good partners to our nonprofit grantees by providing them with more than just money: we also help promote their volunteer needs and host in-kind drives for them throughout the year.

One of our favorite drives is the Giving Tree, an annual holiday event that collects goods for any of our grantees. It’s always popular, especially because the requests are so wide-ranging and so fun to shop for.

This year, 14 of our current and past nonprofit partners requested items that ranged from diapers, tape measures and children’s books to service dog treats, winter coats and hygiene products. As with last year, donors came from all corners of our community and contributed an astounding number of goods. We estimate that at least $10,000 in new items were given; together, your donations filled to the brim eight full-sized SUVs! 

We’re so grateful to the hundreds of you who contributed to this drive: your gifts were amazing. Thank you also to our volunteers who collected, sorted and delivered all of the donated items. And finally, we are grateful to our nonprofit partners — thank you for all that you do in our communities, and for letting us participate and partner in your work! 

If you’d like to help out with a future Giving Tree drive, please swing by any branch of The Portland Clinic in late November/early December, grab a gift tag off the tree, and return the purchased gifts, unwrapped, to any of our locations.

Finally, if you’d like to give back to the foundation without waiting for the next Giving Tree drive, donating is easy: you can either donate online or send a check to: TPC Foundation, 1221 SW Yamhill, Ste. 400, Portland, OR 97205. All contributions are tax-deductible, and 100% of your gift will be given back to the community through our grants program. Thank you for your consideration!

A few Giving Tree experiences:

• “I personally had fun doing this delivery; the gentleman I met with was genuinely thrilled when he saw the things donated! Loved his smile, made me feel really good all weekend long.”
  • Joyce, who delivered to Voz Workers’ Rights Education Center, which works with vulnerable day laborers to build their professional skills
• “The Children’s Book Bank was ecstatic when I dropped off the books collected from the Giving Tree drive. The work they do there is quite impressive — the primary goal is to get books into the hands of under-privileged children and promote early literacy.
  • Kelly, who delivered to The Children’s Book Bank, which provides low-income children with home libraries in order to increase literacy and improve educational attainment
• “It was nice to be able to deliver to an organization that is near to where I live, as it is an area that has lots of need.”
  • Adam, who delivered to Pathfinder Network, which provides mentorship and services for youth with justice-system affected family members

To learn more about The Portland Clinic Foundation, please visit our website or email us at [email protected].