Who We Are

Beyond a general belief in its Mission, supporters and partners value the Oregon Values and Beliefs Center because:

In highly politicized times, a healthy democracy depends on decision-makers and civic institutions having access to opinion research that is truly representative of all Oregonians. Yet, independent and inclusive opinion research is hard to find. Most opinion research on Oregonians serves electoral or advocacy purposes, which means it’s either focused only on likely voters (whiter, older, and wealthier) or the questions are designed for advocacy purposes. The bottom line is that public decision-makers and nonprofit/civic institutions are too often forced to rely on anecdote, guesswork, or skewed polling.

Nobody else is consistently filling this void. While the Pew Center may serve this role nationally, neither Pew nor anyone else regularly provides high-quality, independent, nonpartisan polling of Oregonians.

OVBC’s panel allows it to generate enough responses to have meaningful data broken out geographically and demographically. As such, it can provide particular value to those who serve/represent rural Oregon and Oregonians of color, as well as philanthropic institutions/donors who want to advance the needs of rural Oregon, Oregonians of color, and other subsets of Oregonians who have traditionally been undersampled in statewide polling.

OVBC’s research doesn’t stand alone. Its work fits within a broader constellation of nonprofits and decision-makers. The Center’s work should be understood as a fundamental building block that those other entities/decision-makers can rely upon and without which their efforts will be less successful.