The Robison Foundation for Jewish Elders awarded its inaugural round of grants this week, allocating some $340,000 in funds to 17 local nonprofits, both to support the field of Jewish elder care and as a learning tool as the newly launched philanthropic organization charts its path forward, the group’s executive director, Sonia Marie Leikam, told eJewishPhilanthropy.

The Portland, Ore.-based Robison Foundation was founded some 14 months ago with funds from the sale of the city’s Cedar Sinai Park facility, which was forced to close down due to financial troubles following the COVID-19 pandemic. While it no longer cares for “Jewish elders” directly, the foundation, which is named for Hannah Robison, whose sons provided the funding for the nursing facility, said that it looks to ensure that they  are “cared for, included and honored.”

According to Leikam, who was hired in August, the process of identifying grantees was rapid as the organization “really wanted to get money out the door” before the end of the year. This was made more complicated by the High Holy Days, she said, but the foundation was determined.

“We saw two paths that folks who have done this have taken in the past. The first path was to hold onto the money and take time to intentionally plan. The other one was to start giving out money as a learning tool,” she said, adding that the organization opted for the latter. “We really saw this as a way for us to learn and for the community to build trust with us.”

The organization allocated most of its grants to local Chabad houses and Jewish family services for their programs catering to older Jewish adults. The largest grants went to the city’s Eastside Jewish Commons ($56,000), the Chabad of Northeast Portland ($50,000), Portland Jewish Family & Child Service ($85,000 for two programs), Nehamah Jewish Chaplaincy Services ($50,000) and BB360 ($46,000). 

A grant of $20,600 went to the Jewish Association for Death Education for two programs and $21,000 went to the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland for two programs. Smaller grants went to the Tigard Chabad Jewish Center ($6,000), Chabad Center for Jewish Life – SW Portland ($6,600), Chabad of Gresham ($3,000), Chabad of Hillsboro ($3,000) and Chabad of Lake Oswego ($1,800). 

These allocations, coupled with rapid “ChikChok” grants that the organization gave out earlier this year, bring the organization’s total giving for its inaugural year to $360,000. As the foundation studies the field and gets a better sense of its focus, Leikam said the annual allocations are expected to roughly quadruple. 

“Within 1-2 years, our goal is to allocate $1.5 million,” she said, noting that this is dependent on the economy. 

Next year, the foundation plans to survey elderly community members and to speak with local organizations that serve them in order to set the “pillars” that it will focus on. 

The grants so far were meant to take “a chance on programs that others may not have been willing to take a chance on,” Leikam said. She offered an example of the Chabad of Northeast Portland, which is working to further develop its “Chesed Connection/Shabbat Hugs senior visits and volunteer engagement” program to make it “more organized and systemized so it can roll out to all of the Chabads in our region.”

“Their response was, ‘Wow, we’ve never had anyone give us money just so we can plan and think this through.,’” Leikam said. “And that was really rewarding for us, because that’s what we want. We want intentional and strategic service to our seniors.”