Welcome to your new civic home.
130 years ago 17,000 souls called Portland home. Visionary leaders saw great promise for the region, and preserved land & a lake that now provide fresh water to nearly a million people.
The Bull Run legacy inspires us today, and invites us to look to the future and ask how we’re preparing now for future generations. We established the Bull Run Center to build trust among civic leaders, embolden our shared vision for Portland’s future, and open pathways for aligned action.
The Bull Run Center is a member-led relationship, strategy, and action group.
We built it over three years with leaders like you, for you. We strive to imagine — and embolden — a shared vision for Portland’s brightest future. That future is built on trust, and trust starts with getting to know each other.
We’ve found the sweet spot between the smoky back room and the public square: Enough voices at the table to shatter the echo chamber, but also enough focus and accountability to get things done. It’s a space designed for (and by) civic leaders who serve, convene, or represent a wide range of communities in Portland.
What do we do?
Kitchen Cabinet Sessions: Monthly candid strategy meetings, co-created by civic leaders who work at the forefront of innovation and solutions-finding in Portland. We explore different perspectives, say the hard parts out loud, and inform strategies with the civic leaders most ready to take action. These evening gatherings are casual and spirited.
Table for Six: Citywide small-table meetings to learn about district leadership and place-based visioning for Portland. Linger over lunch to deepen connections with fellow civic leaders at your table.
Skunkworks Projects: Small group projects to deepen understanding of a problem, and lift up solutions. Projects may seek member-wide endorsement.
Your City, Your Choice Survey: Advise on annual, benchmarked public opinion research to hear Portlanders’ views on local government, community and civic life.
Stumptown Stats: Advise and strategize a public-facing civic data dashboard to track Portland’s progress.
I appreciated the candid conversations I had at these events, and the enthusiasm and positivity that came from the interactions. It gave me hope for our community and for our City overall that we will be able to work together making it a better place for everyone.
— Anonymous member feedback, 2025 evaluation
How to Join
Get started in four easy steps:
Pay membership dues.
Look for an email in the next 48 hours that will grant you access to the password protected section of the website, where you’ll find a membership directory and upcoming member events.
Complete a new member survey to nail down your details for the directory and help us understand what you’re already doing to move Portland forward.
Save the dates: Our first meetings of the year are September 11th and 24th.
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Membership Dues
Members’ most impactful investment is the time, focus, and insight that you share freely in our gatherings and work groups. Thank you!
Flexible annual membership dues support the community. Membership includes access to all regular gatherings and engagement in the governance and leadership of the Center. Members may benefit from discounts at partner events and other perks.
Dues will be billed annually. You may choose annual or monthly payments.
Dues above $120 are tax deductible.
Failure to pay dues for four months may result in loss of membership.
Dues may be paid by an employer. This payment does not create an “organizational membership” or grant access to the Center for other employees or representatives of the employer.
Reduced membership rates are available, no questions asked.
Rainfall Membership: $300
Reservoir Membership: $120
We deeply appreciate donations beyond your membership dues.
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Participate in dynamic strategy meetings that are targeted to the specific needs and interests of senior-level civic leaders like you.
Represent the communities you serve or convene to brighten insights and ground-truth solutions as we dig into Portland’s challenges and opportunities.
Access exclusive data, perspectives, and ideas presented or shared in meetings and studies sponsored by the Center.
Grow professionally in a group that includes diverse experiences and perspectives that may require you to stretch or “bridge.”
Find new common ground from which to take aligned action, by exploring new ideas with generative conflict and frank discussion.
Inform, debate, vote, and take action on concrete civic solutions and recommendations.
Contribute to a powerful new vision for Portland’s future.
Co-create an effective new space to serve the City — a legacy to support civic leaders now and into the coming century.
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Engage wholeheartedly in gatherings, partner events, and outings throughout the year. Aim for at least six to maximize your opportunities to meet and work with civic leaders throughout the city.
Vote on recommendations to move Portland forward.
Support the community with annual membership dues.
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We are steadfast about our welcoming culture. We treat each other respectfully. While diversity of thought is essential, divisive rhetoric is not welcome.
We foster a culture of learning. To support this, meetings are confidential and follow Chatham House Rules.
Although topics studied and discussed are political, the forum is not a platform for campaigning. No pitching (or bitching).
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We’re building a space for civic leaders that prioritizes building trust across differences. To support this commitment, we have capped total membership and developed a process that evaluates new members to help balance the makeup of the group by sector, ideology, demographics, and geography.
Who are Our Members?
Bull Run Center is targeted and designed for (and by) senior-level leaders who convene, serve, or represent communities in Portland. Additionally, the member-led Welcome Committee reviews nominations and inquiries to balance the group by sector, demographics, geography, and ideology.
Members opt in to a community that includes diverse opinions and perspectives, where you may need to stretch or “bridge” those differences, and where we explore disagreement openly in order to cultivate new common ground.
As we move from our pilot year, we have a good sense of who is currently engaged — and how we’re growing.
We recruit members from the whole city.
In our pilot year, we focused our meetings on the revitalization of the central city, and attracted members with that focus — a lot of people who live or work in the central city. Now that we’re launching our first “official” program year, we’re actively recruiting members from all of Portland, especially East Portland.
Our members are culturally diverse.
35% people of color
12% LGBTQ+
The group is primarily aged 40’s to early 60’s, with some older and some younger. Since we serve senior-level leaders, the group will tend to be a tad older.
Our membership spans the views of Portland civic leaders.
47% of members say their views mirror those of civic leaders in the region.
37% say their views are more to the left.
16% say their views are more moderate. Members have requested a focus on recruiting people with more moderate perspectives.
It’s a wonky, cross-sector group
Some people wear many hats, so we asked members to identify all their areas of expertise:
Public policy research or advocacy: 44%
Government and public service: 34%
Business and private sector: 32%
Philanthropy and grant making: 23%
Civic sector: 23%
Political strategy and consulting: 22%
Nonprofit - Culturally specific communities: 20%
Nonprofit - Direct Service: 19%
Arts: 18%
Education (any level): 6%
Journalism and media: 3%
Labor, and Faith: 1% each.
Members’ most impactful investment is the time, focus, and insight that you share freely in our gatherings and work groups. Thank you!
Flexible annual membership dues support the community. The Watershed Membership level covers the cost of participation. Discounted Rainfall and Reservoir Memberships are subsidized by North Star Civic Foundation.
Donations in addition to your membership dues are deeply appreciated.