Our 2025 Impact Report is Here!
Through art, community, and collaboration, Gather:Make:Shelter continues to support people experiencing houselessness and poverty while working toward community-led solutions. This report highlights the stories, milestones, and collective impact that made 2025 so meaningful.
A YEAR OF COLLABORATION
2025 was a year of outstanding achievements and unexpected challenges within our community. People experiencing houselessness faced increasing uncertainty and shrinking support from critical social safety nets. Despite these obstacles, GMS developed new collaborations with SoundsTruck NW and the Oregon Symphony, deepened ongoing partnerships with Mullowney Printing Company, WeShine and LiftUP, focused on Gather:Make:Shelter’s organizational health, and collaborated to bring our participants’ creative voices and artworks to the public.
STEWARDSHIP
Gather:Make:Shelter prioritized financial and organizational health this year by improving our cash flow forecasting and increasing our fundraising efforts to better support our staff and programs for long-term sustainability.
STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS
In the spring and summer of 2025, Gather:Make:Shelter embarked on an exciting milestone: our first-ever strategic planning process. Led by artist and facilitator Anna Daedalus, we invited a wide range of voices—participants, staff, advisors, and community members—to help shape a shared vision for our future.
From these conversations, three primary goals emerged:
Sustain and strengthen our organization so we can thrive for the long term.
Deepen and expand our programs to better serve artists and community members.
Grow community connections and engagement to build lasting support and collaboration.
STRATEGIC PLANNING ROADMAP
Over the next three years, we’ll bring these goals to life through the following initiatives:
Investing in our team with incremental increases in staff hours and pay, health benefits, and opportunities for professional development.
Expanding our volunteer program to better support our work, especially with workshop meals.
Growing contributed revenue through stronger donor and business sponsorship programs and by pursuing national foundation support.
Building earned revenue through contracts and creative cottage industry opportunities.
Strengthening advocacy by building coalitions and networks with individuals, organizations, and government partners.
This plan is not only a roadmap for Gather:Make: Shelter’s next chapter, but also a reflection of the community that helped shape it
