Seeding Justice (formerly known as the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation) is a far-left grantmaking foundation based in Portland. The organization funds far-left advocacy groups engaged in a wide range of causes including immigration, climate change, LGBT, racial justice, Native American communities, anti-war activism, and abortion access.

Seeding Justice considers the history of American philanthropy to be fundamentally racist, and advocates for reformed grant structures, such as donor-in-movement funds as an alternative to donor-advised funds.

Philosophy

According to Seeding Justice, American philanthropy has “abhorrent origins—steeped in racist, sexist, classist, heteronormative and ableist oppression—its extractive systems are shrouded by distrust… Philanthropic wealth in the U.S. has only been made possible by the attempted genocide of Indigenous people, the enslavement and trafficking of Black people, the cheap labor provided by immigrants, and the privatization, commodification, and destruction of our natural environment.” ¹

These trends in American philanthropy allegedly manifest in the modern age through overly restrictive conditions on grants given to organizations led by racial minorities, which are “limited to strings-attached funding, overburdened with cumbersome application and reporting requirements, and forced into a ‘nonprofit starvation cycle,’ where they are pressured to do increasingly more work with less resources.” ²

In contrast, Seeding Justice awards grants with minimal oversight to racial minority-led organizations. ³ Grant recipients are never asked to give written grant reports, though they may be asked for grant meetings to update Seeding Justice. ⁴

Donor-Advised Funds

Seeding Justice criticizes donor-advised funds (DAFs) in their current form for absorbing a significant portion of available philanthropic donations while (as of 2022) only disbursing about 72% of their funds. Seeding Justice has created “donor-in-movement funds” (DMF) as an alternative structure. Each year, 50% of a DMF’s funding is given to Seeding Justice’s grantmaking committee to be disbursed to Oregon-based far-left groups, 40% of funds are disbursed to organizations of the donor’s choosing, and 10% are disbursed to Seeding Justice for operational support. ⁵

Grants

Seeking Justice offers grants through numerous funds. As of March 2024, Seeding Justice operates three major funds, the Justice Fellowship, the Oregon Community Climate Investment Fund, the Oregon Reproductive Health Equity Fund, as well as numerous smaller funds, including Rapid Response Grants, the Ambo Fund, and the Child Care Capacity Building Fund. ⁶ Past funds include the Bigotry Fund, the 9/11 Critical Response Grants, Democracy and Rights Fund, and the Oregon Worker Relief Fund. ⁷

Seeding Justice gives preferential grant treatment to organizations that are run or staffed by racial minorities. Smaller organizations (with budgets under $700,000) are also prioritized. ⁸

In 2021, Seeding Justice spent $3,391,180 on grants between $6,000 and $510,000. Recipients included the Affiliated Tribes of Northwestern Indians, the African Youth and Community Organization, Causa of Oregon, the Civil Liberties Defense Center, the Climate Justice Initiative, the Coalition of Communities of Color, Critical Resistance, the Institute for Nonprofit News, the Northwest Workers’ Justice Project, Red Lodge Transition Services, Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, and the Tides Foundation. ⁹

Seeding Justice funds many left-wing organizations in the Portland area, including the Cascade AIDS Project, the Black United Fund of Oregon, PCUN, Unite Oregon, Causa, Columbia Riverkeeper, and NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon. ¹⁰

Funding

In May 2022, Seeding Justice launched the Oregon Reproductive Health Equity Fund with a $15 million donation from the Oregon legislature. The fund, which supports abortion access, is almost three times larger than Seeding Justice’s revenue in 2021. ^{11 12}

Also in 2022, Weyerhaeuser, a timber company, settled a lawsuit with Columbia Riverkeeper in which the former agreed to pay $600,000 to Seeking Justice in restitution for illicit pollution of the Columbia River in Portland. ¹³

Leadership

Se-ah-dom Edmo has been the executive director of Seeding Justice since December 2018. She is also the chief executive officer of Indigenize, a for-profit company that advertises for Native American-run companies, and sits on the board of Oregon Consumer Justice. ¹⁴

Sharon Gary-Smith was the previous executive director of Seeding Justice (then-known as the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation). He left the organization to become the executive director of the Portland NAACP. ¹⁵

1. “Movement Building.” Seeding Justice. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.seedingjustice.org/movement-building/.
2. “Movement Building.” Seeding Justice. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.seedingjustice.org/movement-building/.
3. “Movement Building.” Seeding Justice. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.seedingjustice.org/movement-building/.
4. “Frequently Asked Questions.” Seeding Justice. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.seedingjustice.org/general-fund-grants/.
5. “From Donor Advisors to Donors in Movements.” Seeding Justice. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.seedingjustice.org/donor-in-movement-funds/.
6. “Homepage.” Seeding Justice. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.seedingjustice.org/.
7. “Support Us.” Seeding Justice. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.seedingjustice.org/support-us/.
8. “Frequently Asked Questions.” Seeding Justice. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.seedingjustice.org/general-fund-grants/.
9. “Seeding Justice Form 990.” ProPublica. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/930691187/202301299349302465/full.
10. Bakall, Samantha. “We are Seeding Justice!” Seeding Justice. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.seedingjustice.org/we-are-seeding-justice/.
11. Yang, Maya. “Pro-choice states rush to pledge legal shield for out-of-state abortions.” The Guardian. May 11, 2022. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/11/abortion-pro-choice-states-safe-havens-funding-legal-protection.
12. “The Oregon Reproductive Health Equity Fund.” Seeding Justice. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.seedingjustice.org/reproductive-health-equity-fund/.
13. Brynelson, Troy. “Environmental group, timber firm Weyerhaeuser to settle over pollution claims at Longview timber mill.” OPB. May 10, 2022. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.opb.org/article/2022/05/10/weyerhaeuser-timber-producers-longview-washington-columbia-riverkeeper-environmental-group/.
14. “Se-ah-dom Edmo.” LinkedIn. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/se-ah-dom-edmo-566762161/
15. Tebor, Celina. “Portland NAACP elects new leadership.” OPB. December 2, 2022. Updated December 5, 2022. Accessed March 6, 2024. https://www.opb.org/article/2020/12/02/portland-naacp-has-a-new-president/.