The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust announced today that Steve Moore will retire as chief executive in 2022 after leading the innovative nonprofit foundation for 15 years.
“I’ve been here for nearly 16 years in this role and we’ve been able to accomplish a lot of things with the team that we have here,” Moore said of his decision to retire next year. “As we look out at the next 10 years, I had to ask myself, ‘is it the time to pass the baton to someone who can serve the next set of goals for the next decade?’ The second thing is, I had to look at what’s my highest and best contribution to the mission of the organization. The way I can really contribute is to set the next person up to really succeed, and that may be part of doing some things externally to really help the new person get on their feet internally.”
According to a news release from the Murdock Trust, under Moore’s leadership, the Murdock Trust has invested more than $720 million through more than 4,000 grants to nonprofits, grown the endowment to more than $2 billion, expanded the foundation’s enrichment programs that provide development and educational programs to nonprofit leaders and organizations, served as a catalytic investor in the Vancouver Waterfront renaissance and invested thoughtfully in helping organizations find common ground to solve complex challenges facing the diverse communities of the region.
“There are not appropriate words to describe the impact Steve Moore has had on the Murdock Trust and the contributions he has made to our partners, the organizations we serve and the broader Pacific Northwest community,” said John Castles, trustee, Murdock Trust, in a statement. “He has helped build and strengthen a culture of thoughtful generosity that will ripple positively through our community for many, many years to come. We are eternally grateful for all that he has done to steward Jack Murdock’s legacy and advance our mission. He will always be a part of the work of the Murdock Trust, and we hope to build on the great work that has been done to continue to serve individuals, families, and communities across the Pacific Northwest.”
Upon his retirement next year, Moore said he is probably going to take on a couple of special projects for the Murdock Trust that are emerging. He said he will also continue to do things like help nonprofit foundations and their boards be more effective, along with other things to “help extend the mission of the Trust.”
“Under Steve Moore’s leadership, the Murdock Trust has been a true partner in our work and in the work of so many others throughout Oregon and the broader Pacific Northwest region,” said Steve Bass, president and CEO, OPB, in a statement. “Where some can view the relationship between nonprofit and funder as transactional, Steve, his team and the board of the Murdock Trust have invested in a long-term relationship with us. They take the long view and have sought to find opportunities to help support our work in thoughtful ways that help build and grow our capacity to serve communities across our region. We are so grateful for Steve’s vision and leadership and our team is stronger because of his investment in and commitment to our work.”
Affects of COVID on the Murdock Trust
Just like other organizations around the Pacific Northwest and the country, the Murdock Trust was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020.
“In some ways our move to the new property (on the Vancouver Waterfront) helped us to prepare for that (the pandemic),” Moore said. “We made decisions at that time about having all technology up to date for more remote work situations. So, we were sort of prepared to do that when we had to. We all got really good at the use of (Microsoft) Teams, we got really good at Zoom. We also had to figure out who would be our partners in doing things like online events – all of those things helped inform our work and in some ways expand our work and allow us to include people who may have not been able to travel or participate before.”
Along with all of their standard grant programs, Moore said the Murdock Trust also added in COVID response grants during 2020 and responded with those grants in about seven or eight different sectors, including research and medical supplies, food banks, mental health and others.
According to the Murdock Trust’s Annual Report for 2020, the organization awarded a total of 477 grants totaling $76 million. Broken down, grants went to organizations in arts and culture ($5 million), education ($13.8 million), health ($10.6 million), human services ($38.5 million) and scientific research ($8.1 million).
“We’re continuing to work on that; we’re still feeling the effects of COVID,” he said. “We will continue to do some special initiative work.”
Moore said numerous nonprofit organization’s have needed different kinds of guidance during the COVID pandemic, including how to utilize technology to serve and fulfill their mission and to maintain communication with donors and supporters. Also, how to manage either major projects they were doing or how to pivot in terms of delivery of their activities and their services.
“People were having to figure out how to pivot in the short run, and how this will change us in the long run and how do we need be thinking differently,” Moore said. “One of the biggest mistakes is to say, ‘now we just return to the old things.’ We have to look about how it’s going to look going forward.”
15 years of service, and the search for a new leader
Moore joined the Murdock Trust in 2006 following a distinguished career in academia, including senior leadership roles with Texas Tech University, Baylor University, Seattle Pacific University and Asbury Theological Seminary. During his time at Seattle Pacific, Moore first became acquainted with the Murdock Trust from the grantee perspective. When Neal Thorpe stepped down from his role as the head of the Murdock Trust in 2006, Moore was one of the first candidates considered as his successor.
The Murdock Trust has engaged CarterBaldwin to conduct a national search for a new chief executive. Based in Atlanta, Ga., the firm is recognized by organizations such as Forbes and Hunt Scanlon as one of the top executive search firms in the country with an extensive background in serving local, regional and national nonprofits. CarterBaldwin has begun the process by soliciting feedback from various stakeholders that work with and are also served by the Murdock Trust, including listening sessions and a process to gather feedback digitally.
The search firm has begun listening sessions with a diverse collection of stakeholders that will continue through the month of July. Partners and community members may also share their thoughts by emailing the search team at MurdockCEO@CarterBaldwin.com.
