Portland Schools Fundraising Decline: Equity Efforts Fall Flat

The latest incarnation of Portland Public Schools’ districtwide foundation has raised just $200,000 so far this fiscal year, with just four months left until schools let out for summer break.

That relatively meager total is orders of magnitude less than the $2 to $4 million dollars that the previous system, which allowed individual schools to run their own foundations, regularly brought in each year.

Under the former system, schools could use some of the money raised by families at auctions and jog-a-thons to cover salary and benefit costs for teachers and other education professionals. That was enough for a modest staffing boost in a district that this year has floated plans to cut an estimated 300 employees in order to plug a $50 million budget deficit.

But school board members in 2024 voted 5-2 to dismantle that system, citing equity concerns, in favor of expanding a districtwide foundation, known as the Fund for PPS. The decision left some bruised feelings in its wake, particularly in more affluent school communities.

That new effort has gotten off to a bumpy start, including transitions and vacant seats on its parent advisory committee, a first year of operations in which expenses exceeded revenues, and a long search to hire a permanent executive director. Board chair Jackie Wirz told school board members this week that by the time board members decided on a candidate, the person had accepted another job.

Instead, they’ve contracted with former Portland Rose Festival Chief Operating Officer Nick Brodnicki to serve as interim executive director, with a contract that extends through the end of the school year. Brodnicki told school board members this week that he is aiming to raise $1 million by that time.

“We have a long way to go to reach our $1 million goal, but by uniting PPS and our broader community, we’ll get there for our students,” he said in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

That $1 million roughly matches the amount that the Fund for PPS spent this year to support regular, small-group literacy tutoring at 80% of the district’s elementary schools, math tutoring in high schools and food pantry programs in 20 schools.

The money used for those initiatives was carryover donations from the final year of fundraising by local school foundations, which previously had to give one-third of whatever they raised after the first $10,000 to the Fund for PPS for redistribution among less affluent schools. Under the new system, local school foundations may keep whatever they raise, but are not allowed to use that money to pay for extra staff. Instead, they can pay for items like classroom materials, events or visiting artists.

Via email, Brodnicki declined to specify how much he is being paid by the Fund for PPS.

At a school board meeting Tuesday night, Wirz said she and her fellow Fund for PPS board members, along with Deborah Kafoury, chief of staff to district Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong, have begun reaching out to local PTAs to try to rebuild relationships with donors who were frustrated that they could no longer help offset cuts at their own children’s schools.

Brodnicki said there is some evidence that those efforts are beginning to pay off. He said community members raised $37,000 last fall after an appeal from the Fund to support school food pantries and direct food donations for families in need when the government shutdown partially froze food stamp payments.