Fundraising Proposal · 2026

Go a little deeperThe Inward Dive Fund

This is our fundraising deck — reimagined as an interactive dive. Move through it by swiping, scrolling sideways, or using the arrow keys; tap anything that looks tappable.

Prefer something traditional? View the condensed deck / download the PDF →

Take one slow breath, then begin

A letter from Henry

Hi, my name is Henry Fields.

Nineteen years ago, fresh out of rehab, I was sleeping on a friend's couch. My friend Sam — a medium who has since passed — told me I was fated to walk the path of a healer, and to work with people who had been incarcerated.

The night I finally quit drinking, an altercation sent me toward a jail in Compton. As a Black man with substance-abuse issues, I lived with a constant fear of how easily I could end up behind bars.

Years later I became a psilocybin facilitator and chose the formerly incarcerated as the community to serve. One referral became many — returned citizens, their families, the attorneys and advocates beside them. What I learned is that anyone who has contact with the justice system is holding trauma and stress.

There are 1.8 million people incarcerated in the United States. That is why the Inward Dive Fund exists.

— Henry Fields, Lead of the Inward Dive Fund

The need

“What I learned is anyone that has contact with the justice system is holding trauma and stress.”

Henry Fields · Lead of the Inward Dive Fund · read his letter

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people are incarcerated in the United States today — and the weight reaches far beyond prison walls.

Who carries it? Tap to see

Tap a group above. The Inward Dive Fund defines “justice-impacted” broadly — because the trauma does, too.

The bigger picture

A crisis built on purpose — and a way out backed by evidence

The people Henry serves didn't reach the justice system by accident. Here's the machine built around them — and the research for a different way.

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Black Americans are imprisoned at five times the rate of white Americans.

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people per 100,000 — the highest incarceration rate of any democracy on earth.

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people are held in U.S. prisons and jails today — a wound that reaches whole families and neighborhoods.

Sources: Prison Policy Initiative, Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie (2025) · The Sentencing Project

“We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or Black… but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.”

John Ehrlichman, Nixon's domestic-policy chief, on the origins of the War on Drugs · Harper's, 2016

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more likely a Black American is arrested for marijuana — despite using it at the same rate as white Americans.

Schedule I

Psilocybin is still federally labeled “no accepted medical use” — even as the FDA calls it a Breakthrough Therapy. The law and the science point in opposite directions.

Sources: Dan Baum, “Legalize It All,” Harper's (2016) · ACLU, A Tale of Two Countries · U.S. FDA

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of people with major depression were in remission after psilocybin-assisted therapy.

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no longer met the criteria for PTSD after MDMA-assisted therapy — vs. 32% on placebo.

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lower odds of breaking the terms of supervision among justice-involved people who'd used a psychedelic.

This is the work Henry does — legally, in Oregon — for the people the drug war hit hardest.

Sources: JAMA Psychiatry (2020) · Nature Medicine, Phase 3 (2021) · Journal of Psychopharmacology, Hendricks et al. (n=25,622)

What the Fund is

Healing for those carrying the weight of the justice system

The Inward Dive Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit project of the Sheri Eckert Foundation. The Fund lowers the financial and logistical barriers between justice-impacted people and legal, supported psilocybin care in Oregon. Flip a card to see how.

A living case study

See exactly what your support makes possible

The Fund is running a group retreat for people who were formerly incarcerated, at no cost to participants. It's the model we want to repeat — and grow. Tap each tile to reveal the details.

Interest form takes about 5 minutes

Apply or share the retreat

Where care happens

Where clients receive legal care

Inward Dive Fund clients are matched with vetted, OHA-licensed psilocybin service centers — from the heart of Portland to the forest beyond it.

Innertrek service center, Portland — Innertrek · in the heart of Portland

Fernlove, near Gaston, Oregon — Fernlove · forest near Gaston, Oregon

Both are licensed under Oregon's Measure 109 framework — one in the city, one deep in the trees.

The experience

Three days, held with care

Preparation, the journey itself, and integration — the parts that make this safe and lasting. Tap a day to descend through it.

Healing you can measure

An observational study, alongside the retreat

Our hypothesis: a group psilocybin experience increases social connection and social perception.

Two IRB-approved, observational protocols, led by Aza Stephen Allsop, MD/PhD with Yale University and the Energia Center for Collective Healing. Voluntary, and never alters the retreat itself.

Design: observational Analysis: ~3–5 months Privacy: anonymized IDs, no PHI published

What we look at

How we measure it · tap an instrument

Validated scales for stress, anxiety, mood, connectedness, and relationship to nature — completed before and after.

What clients say

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Average rating

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Reviews

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Voices here

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Individual experiences, shared with permission. Outcomes vary from person to person — which is exactly why we're building the research above.

Where your gift goes

Four things your support sustains

Tap a slice

4 areas

These are the areas your support sustains — shown as equal slices, not budget proportions. A detailed line-item budget is available to funders on request.

The path ahead

Phase 1 — proof of concept Underway

Founding support let us build the model, the partnerships, and the trust to do this well.

Launched the Fund and opened applications nationwide
Built partnerships with licensed Oregon service centers and Satori Farms PDX, which donates the psilocybin
More than 60 five-star testimonials — a moving narrative of transformation and relief
The July 2026 retreat + research, ready to run

Why now

Oregon's legal framework is young, and access is the bottleneck. The people most likely to benefit — and least able to pay — are the ones we exist to reach. The model works. The next phase is scale.

Phase 2 — what we're raising for The ask

Your gift moves directly into more access, more retreats, and finishing the research.

Fund more group retreat cohorts for justice-impacted participants
Grow no-cost and sliding-scale access across Oregon, Colorado, and the country
Complete and share the social-connection research
Sustain the small team that makes it all run

Who we're inviting

Individual major donors who believe in justice and healing

Family foundations aligned with equitable access

Give at any level — every gift expands access

Our targets: $250K in 2026 — to serve more clients and fund a second research project — and $800K by end of 2026 for the 2027 operating budget. A full budget is shared in conversation. Let's talk →

Who's behind it

A small team, deeply in it

Hover or tap a card to learn more.

Henry Fields

Fund Lead

One of Oregon's first licensed psilocybin facilitators (2023), now licensed in Oregon and Colorado; he founded this work and has guided hundreds through the legal model.

Lorena Dame

Operations & Development · SEF

Director of Operations & Development at the Sheri Eckert Foundation, overseeing the Fund's applications and partners.

Nate Howard

Executive Director · SEF

Executive Director of the Sheri Eckert Foundation, guiding strategy and stewardship across the Fund's work.

Nikia McCoon

Administrative Coordinator

Keeps the Fund's day-to-day coordination running smoothly for applicants and the team.

Alex Canedo

Senior Operations Strategist · Magical Teams

Drives operations strategy for the Fund in partnership with Magical Teams.

Mercedes Ballard

People Operations · Magical Teams

Supports people operations and participant intake in partnership with Magical Teams.

Board of Directors: David Bronner · Tom Eckert · Nate Howard. See the full team on our About page →

Back to the surface

Ready to dive in with us?

Every gift lowers the barrier between a justice-impacted person and real, supported healing.

Support the Fund Apply / share the retreat View condensed deck / download PDF