Brief History

Formed in 2011 from the estate of John and Betty Gray, the Yarg Foundation is a private, 501(c)(3) family foundation led by Gray family members.

• In 2012, Yarg commenced a 10-year $10M initiative to support land trusts in Oregon. The work was developed, supported and led by national groups, the Land Trust Alliance (LTA), as well as the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts (COLT).

• In 2018, the Yarg board identified these areas of interest 1) Justice Reform, 2) Affordable Housing and Services, 3) Climate Change, 4) Civic Engagement, and 5) Reproductive Health.

• In 2020, Yarg continued to grant in identified focus areas and formed two multi-year initiatives: Justice Reform and Healthy Families.

• In 2020-2021, Yarg committed $2 million to impact investments in affordable housing and economic development CDFIs. In response to Covid-19, Yarg also granted $1.8M to organizations providing domestic violence shelter and services, as well as organizations centering culturally-specific and BIPOC communities, housing and medical services.

• In 2021, Yarg prioritized relationship-based philanthropy grant-making approaches and to allocating 10% of corpus granting level over several years.

• 2022-2023 has seen a further deepening of Yarg’s commitment to the Justice Reform Initiative and Healthy Families Initiative with concentrated funding in these issue areas in Oregon. Remaining funding has been focused on Civic Engagement work.