How Ryan Impacts Kids through PictureThisPDX

Ryan Hoppes (at right) is a Portland-based entrepreneur who loves using his business ventures (including sports photography) to support multiple local non-profits who serve youth and those struggling with homelessness/addition.

He has partnered with Faithful Friends for many years as an event sponsor as well as by creating a unique way for his sports photography clients to choose a non profit who can receive his photography service fee.

Emily Ker interviewed Ryan earlier this year…

What brought you to the Portland area? 

I was born and raised in Clackamas and am a third generation Oregonian.

How did you end up in your career path? 

In high school I pretty much knew I was interested in Engineering and Computer Science. I had a great opportunity to intern at Intel right out of high school and that pretty much cemented my trajectory.

After about 15 years at Intel I had an itch to build something, start a business, be my own boss, build the flexibility I wanted so that I could prioritize my family. I left to help grow my first business which has flourished over the past 14 years. Since then I have started, invested, and grew 13 different businesses across a plethora of business types, some of which are tied to engineering and others that are not. 

Why is mentoring youth so important to you?

I was blessed to be surrounded by people who set expectations and lived their lives in a positive way. Having plenty of examples to use as a blueprint, as well as mentors that would help me navigate and build my own path were extremely important.

Life can be lonely and having people alongside you to lament, celebrate, drive accountability, etc. is just so important. That is why mentoring, in a wide variety of ways, is something that I see as fundamental for everyone, youth included, to help increase the likelihood of success and sometimes more importantly, strength and confidence to get through the difficult times. 

Who were some key mentors in your life?

Early in life I had an amazing third grade teacher whom I kept in close contact with through all of my schooling. She instilled confidence, challenged me outside of my comfort zone, and was always there to celebrate even the small wins. Once my career started I had an early manager who I ended up working for and alongside, several times throughout my career. He was so good at asking obvious, yet difficult questions. He never gave answers, but helped force me to navigate the growth of my career during several key points. This had a ton to do with the drive and growth of my career at Intel over the 15 years I was there and most likely played a large part into giving me the confidence to leave Intel and start my own thing. 

How important is your faith and those values you hold to be successful in life and in the business world?

Faith wasn’t something that was part of my life until the past 15 years or so. However, as it became an important part of my life, it became a verb; not a feeling. Action is something that is second nature to me, and my faith is no different. I am continuously looking for ways to engage and actively live out my faith. These activities happen at work and outside of work and it opens up a lot of questions that people have as to why I do things or invest in things, or spend time on things. This opens up the opportunity to have a conversation of how my faith is the driving factor and I don’t shy away from that conversation once someone asks me why. So not sure of how those values drive success, but those values do drive what I spend time on, what I prioritize, and how I treat others which I know ends up having a direct impact on my life and my business.

You have a unique way of partnering with Faithful Friends through your photography business. What does that sponsorship look like and how did you come up with that idea?

I have always loved taking pictures of my kids at their sporting events and felt as if there was an opportunity to turn a hobby into a mission. In 2019 I started PictureThisPDX where families can “hire” me to take photos of their kids' events and in return they make a donation to one of the different non-profits I help to support. 

I have been supporting Faithful Friends since we started and we have been able to introduce a bunch of folks to the work you all are doing as well as help raise money for your different efforts.

How did you formulate this idea to have your clients choose from a select few vetted non-profits to pay instead of paying you directly?

The idea was pretty simple, so I’m not sure there was much formulation going into it. The nonprofits I selected were ones I had already been working with or served on the board of. There are a lot of nonprofits in the PDX area and not all are doing good work well. They are all trying to do good work, but there are some that do it well and efficiently and I wanted to help highlight those nonprofits. The ones I chose to highlight are all run by amazing people, are executing their mission efficiently and are having a huge impact with the dollars that they have at their disposal. 

How did you first hear about Faithful Friends?

I am friends with Justin Tucker who was the Executive Director of FaithfulFriends when I initially started PictureThisPDX. 

How do you think the corporate world could partner better with non-profits? Do you have examples of non-profits doing this well?

I believe flipping the script is the opportunity. For example, instead of asking businesses to contribute to non-profits so the non-profits can do good work, I believe there is an opportunity for non-profits to bring value to the corporate entities and, as a result, the non-profit gains resources (volunteers & money) to continue their mission.

In today’s workforce and with today’s employees, we want to help drive retention. Businesses need to provide more than just good work and pay to employees. A lot of employees want their vocation to have an impact that is much larger than just the work they do. This is where non-profits have a unique chance to provide businesses the opportunity to be engaged with the non-profit’s work in a way that brings value: employee retention and engagement in a purpose beyond just the work the business is conducting.

At one point my business was engaged with These Numbers Have Faces. Instead of just contributing money to support education for a kid in Rwanda, we brought the student over from Rwanda and provided them an internship. This provided money and work experience to the Rwandan student as well as engagement from my work force with the student where they were able to learn his story, become familiar with the non-profit These Numbers Have Faces, etc. This also gave TNHF the opportunity to have all their local contributors engage with this student which helped make the work they do on the other side of the world more tangible. There were so many unique wins in this partnership that were different from the norm in asking a business to sponsor a table at a fundraising event.

Follow Ryan’s PictureThisPDX on Facebook or Instagram. Learn more about our corporate sponsorship and “hard hat tours” at ffpdx.org/corporate. Two of his most recent business ventures include Novus Labs and Cinder Staffing.