Every year, Portland Monthly’s Light a Fire awards honor the nonprofits, volunteers, and leaders working to make Portland and Oregon better. And in 2020, this mission is more important than ever. To make sure we don’t miss a single deserving nomination, we’ve extended the deadline to July 31—that means you still have three days to make sure your favorite organization or individual is in the mix.

This year is our 16th year of Light a Fire, and we’re adapting the awards to better fit the extraordinary times. 

Rather than celebrate at our usual gala event, we’re going virtual to keep all our award winners, their communities, and their supporters safe. And we’ve added some new awards in very important categories: a Black Lives Matter award, honoring a nonprofit for its work on racial justice; the COVID-19 Response award, honoring a nonprofit for its response to the global pandemic; and the Marie Equi award, honoring a nonprofit making lives better for the LGBTQIA2S+ community.

Now we need your help to make this the best Light a Fire ceremony ever. We want to hear all about the nonprofits, volunteers, and charitable projects dedicated to improving our communities. You can submit a nomination for anyone you think is deserving—including yourself. The winners will be chosen by an independent panel of experts.  

Follow this link to submit a nomination now! (Deadline for nominations is Friday, July 31).