Nancy Bales

Gray Family Foundation

https://grayff.org

Biographical Abstracts

Nancy Bales is the executive director of the Gray Family Foundation, a supporting organization of Oregon Community Foundation (OCF). In this role, she guided implementation of the Oregon Environmental Literacy Plan, a statewide initiative housed at Oregon State University Extension. With this momentum, Bales successfully lobbied the Oregon legislature to pass Senate Bill 439, naming OSU Extension as the organizational home for a statewide outdoor school program aimed at every fifth or sixth grader statewide. She subsequently worked as a member of the Oregon Outdoor Education Coalition in partnership with the university to successfully pass a statewide ballot measure, reaching full funding beginning in 2018 that currently stands at $56.4 million per biennium. Bales also served as the inaugural chair of the OSU Outdoor School Advisory Committee, providing feedback to the vice provost.

She was a founding board member of the Blue Sky Funders Forum, serving from 2014 to 2023, and chairs the Blue Sky Program Committee. In 2022, Bales joined delegates of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Council for Agricultural Research, Extension and Teaching (CARET). In this capacity, she communicates with members of Oregon’s federal legislative delegation about the impact and importance of Extension’s work across the state and advocates for federal funding.

Areas of Expertise

• Trust-based philanthropy
• Environmental/outdoor education
• Environmental justice
• Youth development
• Advocacy