For more than 40 years, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust has supported projects of significance throughout the Pacific Northwest in areas, such as education, science research, and arts and culture. At its most recent quarterly meeting, Murdock Trust's program director, Jan Kennedy Ferguson, announced her retirement.Ferguson served as the trust's program director for 20 years, during which time she facilitated more than 600 grants worth a combined $105 million, which equates to roughly 10 percent of the trust's overall grantmaking since its creation in 1975. During her time with the trust, Ferguson championed programs benefiting women's health and rural communities. Also, according to executive director Steve Moore, Ferguson served as a role model and leader for everyone involved with the Washington-based trust.Among others, Ferguson's nonprofit expertise led to the distribution of grants to the Ruby Valley Hospital, Union Gospel Mission, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, and the Riverstone Health Foundation. Kim Newman, who has been affiliated with the foundation for eight years through its Partners in Science program, has been hired to replace Ferguson as program director.
A nonprofit organization created to fund arts, culture, scientific research, health and human services and education projects throughout the Pacific Northwest, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust is led by trustees Jeff Grubb, John Castles, and Jeff Pinneo. In regard to education, Murdock Trust has supported numerous institutions, including Portland State University (PSU). With its grant funding, PSU purchased a high-performance computing cluster to further its computation-intensive research regarding the effects of transportation chokes and pollutants on regional and global atmosphere quality. Utilizing data obtained from their studies, researchers at the school's Center for Climate and Aerosol Research hope to create changes that will help reduce pollutants while, at the same time, allow for the continued efficient movement of goods and people. The computer, named Gaia in honor of the Greek goddess of Earth, helped the school's research team more effectively analyze methane emissions in Earth's atmosphere that were collected from the Olympic Peninsula as far back as the 1970s. A subsequent study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and highlighted a significant increase in methane emissions between 2000 and 2009 compared to the prior two decades.
Based in Vancouver, Washington, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust focuses on providing grant opportunities and enrichment programs to communities throughout the northwestern United States and Alaska. Recently, the Murdock Trust allocated a grant of $152,000 to Central Oregon’s Latino Community Association (LCA) in the city of Bend.LCA is a group which aims to encourage diversity in Central Oregon through the empowerment of local Latino families. LCA provides individuals with advancement opportunities through workforce education and training programs, health and dental service partnerships, cultural enrichment events, and family support services.With the provisions of the $152,000 grant including that it be used over the course of three years, the LCA plans to hire a full-time development manager to help advance its mission. The development manager will primarily be involved in assisting the nonprofit’s leadership with its fundraising program, grant application processes, and special events committee. To receive the full $152,000, the LCA will need to raise $26,000 in matching funds during year two of the grant, and $50,000 in matching funds in year three.To read more about this, please visit https://www.ktvz.com/news/latino-community-association-receives-152k-grant/805359742.
Founded in 1975 based on the wishes of the late Melvin J. “Jack” Murdock, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of residents from Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and its home state of Washington. Earlier this year, Steve Moore, executive director and CEO of the Murdock Trust, sat down for a public discussion about the organization with Vancouver Business Journal co-publisher John McDonagh.The talk took place at an event known as the Boardroom Breakfast, where community leaders and other Washington residents gathered to learn about Mr. Moore’s nonprofit organization, his interest in and support for higher education, and his leadership in the city of Vancouver. Mr. Moore discussed his past schooling at the Asbury Theological Seminary, as well as his experience learning from the Dalai Lama in India some years ago. In line with Mr. Moore’s own interest in religious study, he noted that his nonprofit organization is unusual due to its willingness to give grants to both faith-based and non-faith-based organizations.Mr. Moore noted that the trust he oversees originally aimed to provide grants to groups located across the country, but that leadership later realized concentrating the funds in a single region could have a much deeper impact. Today, the group primarily focuses on financially supporting organizations in the Pacific Northwest. It has bestowed over $950 million in grants and programs since its inception, fueling the work of 6700 organizations in this large regional community.To read more about this, please visit https://www.vbjusa.com/news/ten-things-we-learned-about-the-m-j-murdock-charitable-trust/.
