President and CEO of Oregon Community Foundation Announces Departure

Max Williams helped lead the state’s Project Turnkey, which created nearly 900 new shelter beds and units across the state.

260A1504 Residents of a Southeast Portland apartment complex watch a passing protest march on Nov. 3, 2020. (Wesley Lapointe)
By Tori Lieberman

Former Republican legislator Max Williams announced on Wednesday that he is stepping down from his role as president and CEO of the Oregon Community Foundation, the largest charitable organization in state. He will continue to serve as CEO until a new one is hired.

Williams spent 10 years leading the organization and, during that time, grew OCF’s endowment to $3.2 billion. He’s a former Republican lawmaker who represented Tigard and led the Oregon Department of Corrections for eight years until 2012, when he departed for the OCF.

During this time, WIlliams oversaw the creation of the Oregon Impact Fund. Founded in 2018, the fund lends money to nonprofit and for-profit organizations that improve affordable housing, access to health care, education, natural resource management and job creation in underserved communities. The fund recently invested in La Clinica, a health center that serves migrant and seasonal farmworkers in Jackson County. It also loaned $50,000 to the Community Housing Fund that helped create 116 units of affordable housing.

Williams also helped navigate the state’s emergency housing response to the pandemic by leading a the massive Project Turnkey, which legislators approved in November 2020.

Project Turnkey was a $75 million investment for 865 new shelter beds, a portion of which were acquired by counties purchasing motels and hotels. A portion of those beds went to people who lost their homes in the Labor Day fires of 2020. The rest of the money was doled out to counties for their own houselessness response. Within seven months, OCF allocated $65 million to projects around the state that increased the number of shelter beds by 20%.

Williams is only the third CEO of the foundation since its start nearly 50 years ago.

During his time as CEO, he created one of the country’s largest community foundation research teams, aimed at connecting with local communities.

“As OCF embarks upon its next strategic planning process and approaches its 50th Anniversary,” Williams said in a statement, “we reach a natural inflection point and perfect time to invite new leadership in to help chart the next chapter of OCF’s work around impactful giving.”

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