We coordinate effective collaboration.
Our work is grounded in supporting communities to solve complex challenges where people, nature, and community prosperity intersect. How do we do this? By bringing people together across boundaries and differences to build community, make decisions collaboratively, and do hard work together.
Interested in working together?
Technical Assistance
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Grant Writing
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Capacity Building
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Communications Support
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Policy & Research
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Facilitation
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Strategic Planning
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Water Infrastructure Expertise
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Technical Assistance ✳︎ Grant Writing ✳︎ Capacity Building ✳︎ Communications Support ✳︎ Policy & Research ✳︎ Facilitation ✳︎ Strategic Planning ✳︎ Water Infrastructure Expertise ✳︎
Our Services
Organizational Capacity Building, Collaborative Network Development, and Technical Assistance.
Organizational Capacity Building
Strengthening individual organizations so they can be effective collaborative partners and community leaders.
SERVICES INCLUDE:
Governance development and board support
Strategic planning and organizational transitions
Fiscal sponsorship and financial systems
Grant management and compliance
Organizational setup, restructuring, merging, or dissolution support
Project management systems and processes
Communication strategies and tools
Collaborative Network Development
Convening and sustaining collaborative networks that bring partners together to identify and solve complex challenges.
SERVICES INCLUDE:
Collaborative process design and facilitation
Stakeholder engagement and coordination
Community engagement planning
Policy research and funding navigation
Conflict management and shuttle diplomacy
Communication strategies for collaborative work
Moving networks from shared vision to joint action
Technical Assistance & Expertise
Providing subject matter knowledge that enables informed decision-making and effective implementation on complex challenges.
CORE EXPERTISE AREAS:
Water Systems & Infrastructure
Disaster Resilience & Climate Adaptation
Land Use & Restoration
HOW WE APPLY THIS EXPERTISE:
Policy development and navigation
Funding strategy, planning, and grant applications
Spatial analysis and mapping
Options evaluation, project roadmaps, and viability studies
Planning processes
Case Studies & Partnerships
Facilitating the Lost River Working Group, Klamath County, Oregon
Willamette Partnership is supporting the Lost River Working Group, a collaborative initiative coordinating restoration activities making an impact on water quality and quantity in the Lost River watershed. Through this effort, we aim to increase water availability, support culturally-significant species recovery, restore habitat, and maintain productive working lands through close collaboration among local, state, federal, tribal, and private partners. We work to overcome both policy and practical barriers to implementation while securing funding to achieve our collective goals of improving water security, water quality, and ecosystem health throughout the Lost River system.
WHAT WE DO:
Collaborative Decision-making Support
Restoration Project Coordination
Project Funding Applications
Stakeholder Outreach
Finding Solutions to Mapleton's Water Infrastructure Challenges, Mapleton, Oregon
Mapleton’s wastewater system was at the brink of failure. The Mapleton Commercial Area Owners Association (MCAOA) had been searching for a way to fund replacing this critical infrastructure without burdening its customers. MCAOA’s unusual incorporation status restricted its access to the types of funding that typically support wastewater utilities in updating infrastructure.
With the technical assistance support from Willamette Partnership, we researched and reviewed options for Mapleton’s infrastructure. After much consideration, our project partners determined the only way forward would be to merge Mapleton Water District and MCAOA’s assets. This would create a new special district with the right designation for the community to be eligible for federal funding and financing to replace its failing wastewater infrastructure. We identified a policy pathway to make the merger legally feasible, supported both entities through the merger transition, and helped to secure state funding to draft a Facilities Plan.
In early March 2026, the Mapleton Water District submitted a $1.1 million request to the Economic Development Agency's Disaster Supplemental Grant program to fund the modernization of the community's wastewater system. Willamette Partnership drafted the proposal on behalf of the District, working closely with Verdantas, the District's Engineer of Record, to ensure this generational opportunity to invest in the community's critical infrastructure meets their needs today and supports economic development in the future. The District will learn whether its proposal has been awarded by Fall 2026. If not successful, then the District plans to seek Clean Water SRF or USDA Rural Development construction loans to finance the required work.
Organizational Capacity Building, Enterprise, Oregon
When Wallowa Resources (WR), a community-based natural resource organization in Enterprise, Oregon, needed support developing a new five-year strategic plan, they turned to Willamette Partnership. WP's team led a four-phase engagement that drew on our core services across process and decision support, community connection, and administrative systems. Beginning with a thorough assessment phase - document review, surveys, one-on-one interviews, a community survey, and virtual and in-person listening sessions - WP gathered diverse perspectives from staff, board members, tribal partners, and community members to ground the plan in lived experience. That data informed a facilitated full-day workshop where WR's team collaborated to develop strategic objectives, program actions, and a framework for decision-making. WP then translated that work into two polished documents, a strategic plan and companion implementation plan, before presenting the final products to WR's staff and board.
The engagement is a strong example of how WP's organizational capacity building work delivers structured, high-quality planning support, so organizations can focus on what they do best: leading on-the-ground work in their own communities.
