1803 Fund Gives Out First $8 Million in Grants

The fund for the Albina neighborhood started in 2023 with a $400 million donation from Phil and Penny Knight.

Albina Music Trust is one of 11 grant recipients from 1803 Fund. (L-R:) Calvin Walker of Albina Music Trust, D'Artagnan Caliman and Rukaiyah Adams of 1803 Fund, and Ken Berry of AMT. (1803 Fund)
By Rachel Saslow

Eleven organizations found out that they are among the first crop of recipients of grants from 1803 Fund this week. The fund started in 2023 when Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, pledged $400 million to invest in North Portland’s Albina neighborhood.

On Dec. 9, fund leadership announced an initial investment of $8 million to 11 Portland organizations, divided between “place” and “culture.” They are:

Place

  • Albina Vision Trust
  • Portland Housing Center
  • Taking Ownership PDX
  • Williams & Russell CDC

Culture

  • Albina Music Trust
  • Friends of Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center
  • Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon
  • Oregon Black Pioneers
  • Portland Art Museum
  • PRISMID Sanctuary
  • World Stage Theatre

The grants, officially called “For The Future” partners, are a five-year program where the organizations will band together to share ideas and opportunities, according to the 1803 Fund. The organization did not immediately respond to an inquiry about what amount was given to each group.

“These grants make real a vision that started in 2020,” says 1803 Fund CEO Rukaiyah Adams. She wrote the Fund’s original business concept after George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis.

The mission of 1803 Fund, one of the largest Black investment funds in the world, is to grow and strengthen Black life in Portland. Their work centers on Albina, the historic heart of the Black community. The name 1803 comes from the year that York, the Black explorer, joined the Lewis and Clark expedition as a slave to William Clark. (A bust of York was temporarily installed atop Mount Tabor in 2021.)

One of the recipients, Albina Music Trust, documents the legacy of Albina’s music community through archival media preservation, events, a record label and other programs.

“Reflecting on AMT’s past decade of work, it is nearly inconceivable to consider how profound this moment is for us,” the organization said in its newsletter. “We are ecstatic (and humbled) to be a part of this work.”

Arts funding in Portland has been top of mind this fall. The city’s Office of Arts & Culture’s experienced a backlash after its Oct. 30 list of grant recipients was criticized for snubbing smaller arts organizations.

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