Friday Noons: Where Does the Money Come From and Where Does It Go? Conversation on Philanthropy in the Rogue Valley with Barry Thalden and Paul Sheldon

Name: Friday Noons: Where Does the Money Come From and Where Does It Go? Conversation on Philanthropy in the Rogue Valley with Barry Thalden and Paul Sheldon
Start: 2026-09-25T19:00:00.000Z
End: 2026-09-25T20:00:00.000Z
Location: White Rabbit Clubhouse

Friday Noons: Where Does the Money Come From and Where Does It Go? Conversation on Philanthropy in the Rogue Valley with Barry Thalden and Paul Sheldon

About

Where Does the Money Come From — and Where Does It Go? A Conversation on Philanthropy in the Rogue Valley with Barry Thalden and Paul Sheldon

Every nonprofit in the Rogue Valley runs on someone's generosity. The hospitals. The Shakespeare Festival. The classrooms, the activists, the people quietly holding the social safety net together. All of it is funded — but by whom, and for how long?

In a philanthropic climate shifting faster than most organizations can track, Barry Thalden and Paul Sheldon pull back the curtain on how money actually moves through our valley: who gives, who asks, who decides, and what happens when the old funding models stop working.

Whether you write the checks, chase the grants, or deliver the services, come for a candid, unscripted conversation about the future of giving here at home.

Barry Thalden is an architect. For 43 years he headed what became a nationally recognized award-winning architectural firm, while his wife Kathryn served as minister of a Unity Church, when they lived in Las Vegas.

In 2012, the Thaldens retired to Ashland. As philanthropists, they have sponsored numerous projects in the Rogue Valley, including the Thalden Pavilion at SOU, initiating Ashland’s flower basket program, and commissioning the murals at the Ashland Food Bank and on Guanajuato Way. They were named “Citizens of the Year” by the Ashland Chamber of Commerce in 2024. Kathryn was Board president of Parker House transitional housing for women and children in Ashland. Barry has served on the Board of Directors of the Rogue Valley Symphony and on the Board of Trustees of SOU.

The Thaldens’ most recent projects are “Playwrights Walk” in Ashland and New Spirit Village, a unique community of homes in Medford for lower-income families.

Paul Sheldon is a local philanthropist, who also serves at part-time Executive Director of The Crest at Willow-Witt Ranch, a children's outdoor nature education program; as Senior Executive Advisor at Golden Rule ReEntry, a trauma-informed organization that helps the formerly incarcerated get reconnected to community; and on the boards of Bellview Grange, Ashland-Sviatohirsk Aid Project, Emerging Futures, Sunfolk Dancers, Planting Justice, and Pollinator Project Rogue Valley. In addition to his personal philanthropy, Paul has helped raise over $250,000,000 for charitable organizations over a 55-year career.