Volunteers beautify school grounds during Comcast Cares Day
In this list, you will find local Black-led nonprofit organizations in the Portland Metro region. Explore their missions, reach out for volunteering opportunities, and donate to support their cause.
The following organizations have collaborated with United Way in many different partnerships and activities, please feel free to engage with them.
| Organization | Collaboration scope |
|---|---|
| AYCO - African Youth Community Organization | The AYCO mission is “to settle the past, engage the present, and hope for the future.” AYCO strives to strengthen a sense of cultural identity within immigrant communities while also enhancing capacity toward integration and hope for the future. |
| Black Parent Initiative | The Black Parent Initiative (BPI) was established in 2006 to help families achieve financial, educational and spiritual success. BPI was founded and organized on a large body of educational research that demonstrates the importance of parental and family engagement in attaining educational success for children. |
| Black Resilience Fund | The Black Resilience Fund is an emergency fund dedicated to healing and resilience by providing immediate resources to Black Portlanders. |
| Black United Fund | The mission of the Black United Fun of Oregon is to assist in the social and econmic development of Oregon's underserved communities and to contribute to a broader understanding of the ethnic and culturally diverse groups. |
| CAIRO | CAIRO is a statewide, grassroots not-for-profit organization that aspires to organize Oregon’s African immigrants and refugees (AIR) communities with a view to inspire hope so they rise above the circumstances that marginalize them |
| Coalition of Communities of Color | The Coalition of Communities of Color's mission is to address the socioeconomic disparities, institutional racism, and inequity of services experienced by our families, children and communities; and to organize our communities for collective action resulting in social change to obtain self-determination, wellness, justice and prosperity. |
| IRCO - Africa House | Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization's Africa House is the only culturally and linguistically specific one-stop center targeting the increasingly diverse and rapidly growing number of African immigrants and refugees living in Oregon. Receiving national attention for moving beyond intercultural strife to be the only center serving Africans from every country in the continent, Africa House is led by an advisory board of cross-cultural community leaders and staffed by a multicultural, multilingual team. |
| Kairos PDX | KairosPDX is a non-profit organization focused on delivering excellent, equitable education to underserved children, their families and their communities. Through innovative pedagogy, community collaboration and family partnership we are closing Portland’s persistent achievement gap in measurable, sustainable ways. Our mission is to eliminate the prolific racial achievement and opportunity gaps by cultivating confident, creative, compassionate, leaders who exceed expectations at each milestone ages 0-10. We do this through a three-pronged approach that includes:- A K-5 Learning Academy, - Family Connections Programming, - An Early Learning Network |
| Portland Chapter NAACP | Ensuring the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and eliminating racial hatred and discrimination. |
| Reimagine Oregon | Dismantling systemic racism |
| Self Enhancement, Inc. | Self Enhancement, Inc (SEI) is dedicated to guiding underserved youth to realize their full potential. Working with schools, families, and partner community organizations, SEI provides support, guidance, and opportunities to achieve personal and academic success. SEI brings hope to individual young people and enhances the quality of community life. |
| Urban League of Portland | The Urban League of Portland’s mission is to empower African-Americans and others to achieve equality in education, employment, health, economic security and quality of life. |
| Wild Diversity (LGBT+ and POC outdoors org) | Wild Diversity helps to create a personal connection to the outdoors for Black, Indigenous, all People of Color (BIPOC) & the LGBTQ+ communities, through outdoor adventures and education. |
Other Black-led organizations in the Tri-County region
- Black Lives Matter Portland
- Care Not Cops
- Don't Shoot PDX
- Equitable Giving Circle
- Momentum Alliance
- Portland African American Leadership Forum (PAALF)
- Symbiosis PDX
- Y.O.U.th
Find more tools and materials on our Racial Equity resources page, to increase your own understanding and to help others work toward racial justice.