Info Sessions and Q&A
Info sessions
PCL held two virtual pre-application information sessions via Zoom on Sept. 19 and 24. Attending an information session is not mandatory. If you were unable to attend an info session, we highly encourage potential applicants to view a recording of the presentation below for an overview of the application requirements and WebGrants registration process.
The Grant Applications webpage features WebGrants user guides, including a video on how to fill out an application in WebGrants.
Q&A
PCL welcomes all potential applicants to submit questions to info@portlandchildrenslevy.org. PCL will respond individually via email to answer questions within 3 business days.
Submitted questions are also posted anonymously in the Q&A below. PCL staff will post questions verbatim as received via email. If the question itself names the organization or program, PCL staff will not remove that reference before posting the question.
Applicants may submit questions until 5 p.m. on Oct. 28, 2024. Individuals will receive final responses, and PCL will post all final questions and responses below by close of business on Nov. 1, 2024.
- Week of September 10 Q&A
- Week of September 16 Q&A
- Week of September 23 Q&A
- Sept. 19 info session Q&A
- Week of September 30 Q&A
- Sept. 24 info session Q&A
- Week of October 7 Q&A
- Week of October 14 Q&A
- Week of October 21 Q&A
- Week of October 28 Q&A
Click the arrow next to each question to see the full question and/or response.
Week of September 10 Q&A
For all program areas except early childhood, the maximum 3-year grant is $2.5 million. In early childhood, the maximum 3-year grant is $4.5 million. Please review the Funding Requirements section in the program area application for which you intend to apply for other relevant information on grant size and resources available. Program area applications are available in the Grant Applications page on the PCL website.
An agency acting as a fiscal sponsor for a program may apply for PCL funding. The agency acting as a fiscal sponsor must meet the requirements for applicants including, but not limited to, being a 501 (c)(3), local education agency, community college or university with annual revenues of at least $750,000 in their last closed fiscal year. If the application is successful, the fiscal sponsor enters into the grant agreement with PCL and is responsible submitting quarterly invoices and expense reports and all required grant reports. Fiscal sponsors must be willing and able to meet these requirements.
Dougy Center is interested in applying for a grant with the Portland Children’s Levy. We have reviewed the applications for the six program areas and have found that our proposal falls within the funding priorities for two of the six program areas (Foster Care and Child Abuse Prevention & Intervention Program Services).
Specifically:
- Program Services Eligible for PCL Funding – Foster Care (#6, p.4) Provide services that support and improve youth mental health, especially for youth who identify as LGBTQ2SIA+
- Program Services Eligible for PCL Funding – Child Abuse Prevention & Intervention Program Services (#3, p.4) Support parents/caregivers and youth experiencing grief and stress to learn coping skills
Dougy Center’s L.Y.G.H.T. program is an evidence-based peer grief support intervention for youth in foster care that is listed in the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare and is currently delivered to youth in foster care throughout South Carolina. We will be bringing this program to Oregon and are interested in partnering with the Portland Children’s Levy to provide critical grief support to youth in foster care. As the L.Y.G.H.T. program both improves youth mental health and supports youth experiencing grief and stress to learn coping skills, could you provide guidance on which program area we should apply to?
PCL response:
Since the program you describe specifically plans to serve foster youth, PCL recommends that you apply in the foster care program area assuming that the population to be served otherwise meets the definition of the eligible service population in the foster care application excerpted below:
“Proposed programs must directly serve children and youth in foster care or former foster youth, ages birth – 24. Children and youth in foster care are those who are placed, by Oregon Department of Human Services or a Tribal organization, in a relative or non-relative foster home, group home, emergency shelter, residential facility, or pre-adoptive home.
All children and families to be served with PCL funding must live or go to school within City of Portland boundaries. See a map with zip codes and a map with detailed street and school locations for reference.”
I have been reviewing the RFP for this upcoming grant cycle and I am wondering if we apply with a partner organization for a mentoring grant and both organizations combine have an income of $750,000 if that would meet the criteria. We run and after school skate program for youth and we often partner with another organization to do so. We are hoping to use this grant for that, but our organizations do not fit the $750,000 a year budget. However, combine we do. Just curious if we are able to still apply?
PCL response:
No. Groups of organizations can apply together for funding; however, the group would need to choose a lead agency or fiscal agent to be the “applicant.” The lead agency/fiscal agent/applicant needs to independently meet the requirements for an eligible applicant, which include having revenues of $750,000 in the last closed fiscal year. The lead agency/fiscal agent/applicant enters into the grant agreement with the City, and subcontracts with partner agencies. The lead agency/fiscal agent/applicant is responsible for submitting invoices and expense reports, and other grant reports.
PCL’s small grants funding round will open later in 2025 and we encourage your organization to consider applying in that funding round.
Week of September 16 Q&A
Please see responses to Questions 2 and 4 in the Q&A for the week of September 10.
Receiving funding from Preschool for All does not disqualify United Way/ELM from applying for a PCL early childhood grant. PCL is not accepting applications for programs proposing to offer preschool services due to the passage of Preschool for All. United Way would need to meet the requirements for eligible organizations, and whatever program was proposed for funding in the application would need to meet eligibility requirements. Please see PCL’s website for more information on eligibility and requirements for applicant organizations and proposed programs.
Please see responses to Questions 2 and 4 in the Q&A for the week of September 10. Applicant organizations are not required to be located in Portland.
Yes. The map published by the City of Portland and referenced in the application slows that Alder Elementary school is located within City of Portland boundaries. Programs serving children who go to school within City of Portland boundaries are eligible to apply for funding.
The applicant organization must have had at least $750,000 in revenue in its last closed fiscal year at the time you apply for a PCL grant. It’s not clear from your description of the PCEF grant when the organization received or will receive revenue from the grant, or what the organization’s fiscal year is. For example, if your organization’s fiscal year is July 1 through June 30, the organization would need to show revenues of $750,000 from all sources between July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024 to be eligible to apply for a PCL grant in this funding round.
There is no limit on the number of applications that can be submitted. The amount of total funding requested in all applications from a single applicant organization cannot exceed 30% of the applicant organization’s revenues in the last closed fiscal year.
Thanks for your inquiry. There are no exceptions to the annual revenue requirement. PCL suggests you consider applying for funding in the Small Grants round that is planned for late 2025. Another option is to work with a fiscal sponsor that meets the requirements for eligible applicants. The fiscal sponsor must apply for the grant and can subcontract with the sponsored organization to provide the services. Please see responses to Questions 2 and 4 in the Q&A for the week of September 10 for additional information on fiscal sponsors.
Week of September 23 Q&A
Please see responses to questions 2 and 4 in the Week of September 10, and questions 7, 9 and 11 in the Week of September 16 for more information on fiscal sponsors, including requirements for organizations acting as fiscal sponsors. PCL does not recommend fiscal sponsors to potential applicants but encourages applicants to explore the possibility of sponsorship with any partner organizations you have worked with in the past, and/or organizations that are serving a similar population with different services than your organization plans to offer. In addition, the Nonprofit Association of Oregon provides information and resources on fiscal sponsors in their Guide to Fiscal Sponsorships.
To clarify, maximum grant amounts are set for the 3-year grant period, not for an annual period. The maximum grant amount refers to the maximum that can be requested in a single application in a program area. Please see response to question 1 in the Week of September 10 for maximum 3-year funding amounts depending on program area.
The total amount of funding requested in all applications from a single applicant organization cannot exceed 30% of the applicant organization’s revenues in the last closed fiscal year.
There is nothing in the grant requirements that would prohibit requesting a grant to cover only the expenses you outlined in your question, assuming that the grant amount requested meets the minimum grant requirement and doesn’t exceed the maximum grant amount allowed for the program area.
As a grantee, you would be obligated to report data on the program supported with PCL funds. PCL requires program reporting on the number and demographics of children/parents/caregivers served, level of service provided, participation and outcome goals. PCL also requires expense reports with quarterly invoices that provide detail on all expenses included in the invoice.
No. PCL will not require grantees to submit annual audits during the 3-year grant term after the required audit is complete.
Based on the map with street level boundaries referenced in the application materials, this address is outside the boundaries of the City of Portland. If the program serves children with addresses that fall within city boundaries based on the referenced map, you can apply for funding to support services for those children. PCL funding could not support services for program participants who don’t live within city boundaries.
The Grant Budget Guidance on Allowable Costs (included as part of each program area application available on the PCL website)does not prohibit including this cost in your proposed budget. You may include the expenses in your proposed budget and explain why this program activity is part of the program design in your narrative response to application questions.
At minimum, afterschool programs must provide services in the afternoon hours after the school day ends. If the school day ends at noon, then PCL funded programming can begin then. See Part 2. G of the afterschool application posted on the PCL website for additional details.
How do you qualify annual revenue? Can it include released/restricted grants?
We have large multi-year grants released from restriction as income, without those included our revenue isn’t reflective of our size and activities. To be specific:
– Without grants released from restriction our last fiscal year put us at $728k
– With grants released, we are well over $750k
PCL response:
An organization may use total annual unrestricted revenues that include revenues released from donor restrictions in that fiscal year as the organization’s revenue for purposes of determining whether it meets the eligibility requirement of at least $750,000 in revenue for the last closed fiscal year. Organizations may also use their total revenue as the basis for meeting this eligibility requirement.
To illustrate how unrestricted, restricted and released revenues appear on financial statements, please see the example below. In this example, the organization’s unrestricted revenue and its total revenue are above $750,000.
Under Step 2: Program Information, the first two questions are:
1. Is the program you are proposing currently operating or new?
☐ New program ☐ Currently operating program
2. Does this application propose to expand a currently operating program?
☐ YES ☐ NO
If a program we were considering applying for is neither a new program nor an expansion of a current program, would it still qualify? Would it score unfavorably?
PCL response:
Yes, the program would qualify for funding. In the scenario you outlined, you would mark “currently operating program” for question 1, and “no” for question 2. Responses to these questions are not scored. Currently operating programs that are not seeking to expand would not necessarily score more unfavorably than new programs or programs requesting expansion funding. Responses to these questions help staff and reviewers correctly understand the current status of the program requesting funding.
Sept. 19 info session Q&A
PCL funds services for children/youth who live or go to school within City of Portland boundaries. If a school is outside of City boundaries, the youth who attend the school may live within City boundaries. PCL funds can be used to support those youth served in a program or school who live within City boundaries even if the program or school is geographically located outside City boundaries.
$4.5 million is the maximum grant that can be requested in a single 3-year early childhood application.
Yes.
$4.5 million is the maximum 3-year grant for a single early childhood application. The maximum 3-year grant for a single application in all other program areas is $2.5 million. An organization’s total annual PCL grant request(s) cannot exceed 30% of the organization’s revenue in its last closed fiscal year.
Applicants must submit organization budgets for the current and last closed fiscal year. An organization’s (not program) total annual PCL grant request(s) cannot exceed 30% of the organization’s (not program) revenue in its last closed fiscal year.
The limitation referred to applies to the organization acting as the fiscal sponsor. See responses to questions 2, 4, 7, 9, 11 regarding fiscal sponsors for more information.
Yes. You can include contracted services in your PCL grant request and proposed budget.
It’s likely because your name isn’t associated with an organization. Please contact PCL at info@portlandchildrenslevy.org for help solving this problem.
Yes. You can still edit your responses in any of the WebGrants steps after you have marked it complete. Choose the green “edit form” button to continue editing. You do not need to mark the form complete again; it will still show as complete after you edit your response.
Yes, $300,000 for a 3-year grant.
It depends. You may volunteer to review grants in a program area in which the organization you work for will not apply. For example, you may have experience and knowledge about hunger relief programming in the community. The organization you work for does not submit an application in hunger relief, but does submit an application in early childhood. You could review hunger relief applications, but not early childhood applications.
Yes.
To meet eligibility requirements, an organization must have $750,000 in revenue in its last closed fiscal year at the time the application is submitted. In your case, the last closed fiscal year would be the year that ended in December 2023.
PCL funds cannot be used for preschool, and PCL does not fund K-12 instruction provided by local education agencies. PCL can fund after school and mentoring programs that serve children attending kindergarten.
Yes.
PCL cannot fund preschool services. PCL can fund other services provided to children of preschool age so long as the services proposed meet other eligibility requirements.
In the community engagement process, youth voiced a desire for confidential communication with adult service providers. Adult service providers are required to follow ethical and legal rules that may constrain confidentiality in some situations.
The Small Grants funding round will not open until fall of 2025. The only funding round open now, and for which organizations can apply, is the large grant funding round.
PCL has funded mentoring programs since 2003. In this funding cycle, the age range of youth that can be served is expanded to age 24, and different types of mentoring services were prioritized in community engagement.
Yes.
Applications must address at least one funding priority in the program area. This ensures that PCL invests in programs and services that were highly prioritized by participants in the community engagement process.
No. After school programs must provide some programming during the school year, in the hours after the regular school day ends, to be eligible to apply.
Week of September 30 Q&A
Yes. You may include revenues received as a result of acting as a fiscal sponsor for other organizations.
Sept. 24 info session Q&A
Yes. Children and families who live in East Portland are a priority population listed in the 2024-25 funding priorities available on the PCL website.
PCL priority populations are Black, Indigenous, and children and families of color, children with disabilities, youth who identify as LGBTQ2SIA+, immigrant and refugee children and families, families earning low incomes, and children and families who reside in East and North Portland.
Please remember that organizations eligible for PCL grants must be non-profit 501(c)(3), local education agencies, or community colleges. For-profit childcare providers are not eligible for PCL grant funds.
PCL is not accepting applications that offer financial assistance to families for childcare, such as providing childcare scholarships or subsidies. PCL invests $2 million annually in the Community Childcare Initiative to address its funding priority of financial assistance for childcare. The Community Childcare Initiative is administered by Childcare Resource and Referral, and childcare providers (including for-profit childcare providers) may participate in the Community Childcare Initiative to serve eligible families.
Programs offering services that meet early childhood funding priorities and function as free childcare for infants and toddlers, such as center-based Early Head Start, are eligible to apply.
PCL is not accepting applications for programs that provide preschool classroom services or that function as free childcare for children ages 3-5.
The limitation applies to the total amount requested by the organization for 2025-26, the first year of the grant.
The limitation applies to organization, not program revenues.
The limitation applies to the total amount requested by an organization in all applications submitted in this funding round.
Parent education services are included in the funding priorities for early childhood, child abuse prevention and intervention, foster care and hunger relief program areas.
PCL is not accepting applications to provide preschool classroom services or services that function as free childcare for children ages 3 -5 because of the passage of Preschool for All in Multnomah County.
PCL is not currently planning to provide additional live information sessions. You can watch a recording of the info session presentation on our Info Sessions and Q&A webpage for an overview of the application requirements and WebGrants registration process. If you have further questions, please submit them to info@portlandchildrenslevy.org. PCL also recommends reviewing the questions and answers published on that same webpage to see if your question has already been answered.
PCL will respond within 3 business days of receiving the emailed question. Applicants may submit questions until 5 p.m. on Oct. 28, 2024. Individuals will receive final responses, and PCL will post all final questions and responses to our Info Sessions and Q&A webpage by close of business on Nov. 1, 2024.
If you are looking to see if you have an individual record in the WebGrants system, you can try logging in and use the password recovery instructions to see if you do. If the organization is already registered, PCL staff will link individuals to organization records if they are not already linked.
Multiple people can work on the same application, and you can choose any people from your organization to be an “additional contact” on a given application. See page 6 of the WebGrants Application Guide posted on the PCL website.
Yes. Each individual registers in WebGrants and chooses the organization they are affiliated with. See page 6 of the WebGrants Application Guide on the PCL website for instructions on how to choose multiple people from your organization to be “contacts” on a given application.
A list of allowable expenses is included in each application document posted on the PCL website.
Individual services with families such as home visits, parent/child group services, parent group services, parent classes, Early Head Start, early childhood mental health consultation, and any other service that clearly addresses funding priorities.
If you want to include occupancy expenses in the “Other Program Expense” category of your program budget, you should include occupancy costs incurred by the proposed program in the budget narrative.
Yes. Most current PCL grantees are non-profit agencies that offer free services.
PCL looks at the revenues of the applicant organization in its last closed fiscal year to calculate the maximum amount of funding the organization can apply for in 2025-26. The applicant organization does not need to be located within City of Portland boundaries; however, services must be provided to children/youth who live or go to school within City boundaries.
Yes. Applicants may submit written, audio, or video testimony, and testimony will be provided to the Allocation Committee. Instructions for submitting testimony will be provided to applicants in early 2025.
No; PCL does not have capacity to provide feedback on individual applications before they are submitted.
At the June 24, 2024 Allocation Committee meeting, Committee members approved a total $70.45 million to be offered across the Levy’s six program areas in the next round of large grants for the three fiscal years 2026-28. The estimate is based on the most recent City of Portland revenue forecast, and the total could change based on an updated forecast in January 2025.
The 2019 funding application did not award points based on whether an application sought funding for an existing service, an expanded service or a new program. Please see the report on the 2019 funding round results available on PCL’s website for more information. .
Week of October 7 Q&A
PCL is aware that Multnomah County’s RFP for the SUN service system is currently open, with decisions expected in February 2025. We understand that organizations applying in that process will not know the outcome at the time they apply for PCL funds. PCL cannot advise applicants on how much funding to request from PCL; that decision is up to applicants.
A program with $100,000 in annual revenue is not eligible to apply in this large grant funding round. PCL’s small grants funding round will open later in 2025, and we encourage your organization to consider applying in that funding round.
Yes. Youth who attend a school located within City of Portland boundaries may be served in programs funded by PCL.
“Major” refers to the main or primary services that are provided by the program.
Different information is requested in different application questions as follows:
- Step 2: Program Information (Web Grants Online) asks for information about the people served in the program.
- Step 5. Narrative Application: ORGANIZATION asks for demographic information on the organization’s clients, staff and leadership.
Either approach is acceptable, and it is up to the applicant to make the choice.
PCL requests that only the required attachments be submitted. No other attachments will be considered or reviewed.
There is no “budget template” to complete. In Step 4, the WebGrants online form asks you to input the total amounts you plan to budget for personnel, contractors, other program costs, and administrative and will total those figures for the Year 1 request. You then input the total amounts requested for Years 2 and 3 of the grant. You can explain the calculations and how you arrived at the total figures in the Year 1 budget in the narrative budget justification.
In looking at children in foster care within the boundaries of the city, what source of data are you using to define the number of children in care who are eligible to be supported by PCL funding? We work closely with ODHS to obtain recent data, but their official/published data is several years old. Older data is less relevant b/c the number of children in care over the past several years has been changing rapidly. We would love to know whether there is a consistent source that PCL uses as a reference.
PCL response:
PCL does not define a total number of children in foster care who are eligible to be served in PCL-funded foster care programs. Instead, providers work with ODHS to obtain referrals of eligible youth into their programs and/or request that ODHS verify eligibility of youth they are serving. The ODHS referral and eligibility verification forms and instructions are available for your review on the PCL website.
The following zip codes are either fully or partially within City of Portland boundaries:
- 97201 – 97223
- 97225
- 97227
- 97229
- 97230 – 97233
- 97236
- 97239
- 97258
- 97266
PCL is not accepting applications that offer financial assistance to families for childcare, such as providing childcare scholarships or subsidies. PCL invests $2 million annually in the Community Childcare Initiative to address its funding priority of financial assistance for childcare. The Community Childcare Initiative is administered by Childcare Resource and Referral, and childcare providers (including for-profit childcare providers) may participate in the Community Childcare Initiative to serve eligible families.
Programs offering services that meet early childhood funding priorities and function as free childcare for infants and toddlers, such as center-based Early Head Start, are eligible to apply.
PCL is not accepting applications for programs that provide preschool classroom services or that function as free childcare for children ages 3-5.
Please also note that organizations eligible for PCL grants must be non-profit 501(c)(3), local education agencies, or community colleges. For profit childcare providers are not eligible for PCL grant funds.
Yes. If Organization A has agreed to be a subcontractor on an application submitted by Organization B, and Organization A also submits an application for funding, the total funding requested by Organization A in 2025-26 should include the amount of the subcontract and the funds requested in the application by Organization A.
Yes, in-kind donations of instruments may be counted as revenue for purposes of determining eligibility to apply.
Yes. You can include contracted services provided by a partner organization in your PCL grant request and proposed budget.
The fiscal sponsor does not have to provide programmatic services to children and families. The fiscal sponsor enters into the contract with PCL and is responsible for billing and expense reporting, collecting and providing documentation to PCL, and ensuring that subcontractors submit accurate program reports to PCL. Required program reporting includes the number of children/parents/caregivers served, the demographic characteristics of people served, the amount of service provided, participation rates and outcomes of children/parents/caregivers.
If the fiscal sponsor does not submit an audit with the application to PCL, then the fiscal sponsor will be required to obtain an audit by September 30, 2026. The audit requirement does not apply to subcontractors.
East of 82nd Avenue up to the eastern boundary of the City of Portland.
We are trying to find the most reliable number of total children in foster care w/in the PCL boundaries so we can accurately determine service gaps. We have worked with our partners at ODHS to get numbers [of foster children] for calendar year 2023, but they are not finalized numbers. Would you prefer we use these more current but not finalized numbers, or the finalized and quite outdated numbers published in sources like the 2022 Child Welfare Data Book? We’ve considered including both.
PCL response:
Applicants may discuss the need for the proposed services in whatever terms they choose; you can include both and discuss the differences between the data sources in the application as you have outlined in this question.
Oregon law prohibits PCL from supporting educational programming delivered to children as part of their K-12 school-day classes. PCL can support staff time spent providing educational programming outside of the school day (e.g. after school, school breaks and summer).
I am having trouble interpreting the map with zip codes and map with detailed street and school locations referenced in the Grant Application Summary of Funding Opportunity. Can you please clarify whether the following boundaries are included in the Eligible Service Population?
- 97030
- 97233
- 97203
- 97080
PCL response:
Here is the information you requested:
- 97030: not within City of Portland boundaries
- 97233: partially within City of Portland boundaries
- 97203: fully within City of Portland boundaries
97080: not within City of Portland boundaries
Applicant organizations must have at least $750,000 in annual revenue in the last closed fiscal year to be eligible to apply for the Levy’s current large grants. Small grants will open in 2026 for organizations with revenues less than $750,000 in the last closed fiscal year.
A single application must address only one PCL program area and at least one funding priority in that program area. A single application for the program area may address more than one funding priority in that program area. Organizations may submit multiple applications in a single program area, and/or multiple applications in different program areas.
Applicants may not request that a single application be considered for funding in more than one program area even if the program addresses funding priorities in multiple program areas.
If the applicant is not annually audited, successful applicants will be required to obtain an audit by an independent auditor of the organization’s most recent closed fiscal year and submit it to PCL by September 30, 2026, and that audit will be the only one required during the 3-year grant period.
In the mentoring program area, programs may propose group mentoring activities.
Applicants in the mentoring program area must address at least one of the mentoring funding priorities. Applications that also address the program features described in the mentoring program area (shown in the PDF document) may score more highly. Programs that use peer mentorship to address at least one of the mentoring funding priorities are allowable.
Serving families is not a requirement of the mentoring program area.
Typically, the administrative costs in the budget go toward administrative personnel such as the Executive Director. Those costs are not typically budgeted as part of program personnel because Executive Directors do not typically provide direct service to children, youth, and families. If your Executive Director is providing direct service in the program, you may consider budgeting some portion of their FTE and associated costs toward program personnel. Please also refer to the budget guidance on allowable costs on pages 32-37 of the mentoring application.
Rent costs for the program may be included in Other Program Expenses in the grant budget. In the budget justification you must show allocation methods for the portion of rent you want PCL to cover. Rent costs for administration may be part of your administrative expenses. You may budget up to 15% of all direct program costs toward allowable administrative costs. Please refer to the budget guidance on allowable costs.
For your last closed fiscal year, the non-profit financial statements we require are a Statement of Financial Position, and a Statement of Activities.
We have the following four distribution channels that serve families with children for which we’d like to apply for funding:
1) Weekend food delivered to a school community
2) Summer food delivered to multiple schools across Portland Eastside
3) Home delivered food boxes
4) Food Pantry (shopping style) – through which families safety and choice is highly prioritized
100% of the school distribution channels serves families with children, and about 2/3 of the other two channels serve families with children. I understand from the hunger relief guidelines we can apply for all four channels within one application, but would you suggest we do this, or submit separate applications (a single for each program or bundled by type)? We aren’t sure which direction would be most competitive and our priority is ensuring the funding for the weekend school distribution remains intact.
We intend to make each of these distribution channels clear in the narratives, and within the budget, we will only request funding for expenses that directly serve children and their families.
PCL response:
Either approach is acceptable, and it is up to the applicant to make the choice.
PCL grants are on a quarterly reimbursement basis for actual expenses. We do allow grantees to request advance payments up to one-quarter of the annual grant budget.
If your application will request PCL funds to pay for services from that partner/contractor, then budget that amount in the contractor category of the budget justification. The budget justification, part of the narrative portion of the application, asks applicants to show contractor cost as its own category. The budget narrative justification instructs applicants to show the calculations for amounts budgeted. In the contractor category, this includes name of contractors, total costs per contractor, and calculations that result in the amount budgeted per contractor.
If you are not seeking funds from PCL to pay that partner/contractor, then do not show their costs in any budget category. If that partner receives funds from another source to deliver the program with you, then you can briefly describe other funding and its sources as part of your response to item A in the budget justification. Item B in the budget justification is where you explain all costs and amounts you request PCL to fund.
Our multi-age afterschool programming includes monthly stipends to high school youth who are receiving leadership training to be able to help implement programs (train the trainer model). These stipends last during their training months and then we hire them on as seasonal staff afterward for a 2-3 month period to implement summer programs (which we are excluding from this scope). The stipends are monthly at $300-$500 each month for 4-6 months for a sum total of 100+ hours of training each year. I understand allowing this sort of incentive/stipend/assistance in our grant request is on a case by case basis. Is this something we can include, and leave it up to you all to determine during review whether to consider it? Or should we definitely exclude it and seek funding elsewhere for this aspect of the program?
PCL response:
PCL defines “incentives,” “client assistance,” and “stipends” as discrete and different. Please refer to the budget guidance in the application to see PCL’s definitions of each of these potential program costs. “Stipends” over $500 per year, whether for a youth or an adult, are an allowable cost, are considered personnel costs, and should be shown in that category of your budget narrative justification in your application.
We want to submit two applications, but we are having trouble deciding how much we should ask for in each. Options are as follows:
1. Create budgets so that the total for both applications is under the 30% of org revenue mark, on the chance that we could be awarded both;
2. Create budgets so that the total for both applications is over the 30% of org mark, on the chance that we will only be awarded one application;
3. Create budgets so that the total for both applications is over the 30% of org revenue mark, with the plan that if we are awarded both awards, we can cut back the budgets to meet the 30% of org revenue requirement.
Do you have any guidance on whether any of these strategies seem like a bad idea or a better idea based on your knowledge of how the awards will be decided? Would submitting two applications that together are over the 30% revenue amount disqualify us, or will each application be considered separately?
PCL response:
PCL’s eligibility requirements for grant request do not allow for options 2 or 3 in your strategies. The eligibility requirements state that an organization’s total annual PCL request(s) can’t exceed 30% of their organization revenue in the last closed fiscal year. This means, across all applications submitted, an organization can’t request an amount greater than 30% of its revenue in the last closed fiscal year.
Our preschool through 5th grade student population is 78% children of color, with about 50% identifying as Black/African American. Many of our families are low-income. Because of this, our chef (who is a Registered Dietician) works hard to create nutritious meals for the students.
As a charter school, we are not eligible for PPS’s Free Lunch and Breakfast program. We get some funds reimbursed through state and federal programs. But we still operate at a loss for every single lunch and breakfast served. Can we apply for funds through the Hunger Relief application to offset this loss? Or are we not able to because lunch and breakfast take place during school hours?
PCL response:
Applicants for PCL grants must address at least one of the funding priorities for the program area in which they apply. The services you describe are not eligible for PCL funding in Hunger Relief because they do not address at least one of the Hunger Relief funding priorities.
There are no exceptions to the annual revenue requirement. PCL suggests you consider applying for funding in the Small Grants round that is planned for late 2025. Another option is to work with a fiscal sponsor that meets the requirements for eligible applicants. The fiscal sponsor must apply for the grant and can subcontract with the sponsored organization to provide the services. Please see responses to Questions 2 and 4 in the Q&A for the week of September 10 for additional information on fiscal sponsors.
Week of October 14 Q&A
Our Community Outreach Department has a program that mentors parents/caregivers in supporting their children as students, and helps them learn about child behavior and development. Some of those classes take place during school hours. Can PCL early childhood funds be used to expand [a] program if parents/caregivers receive services during school hours?
PCL Response:
Based on the description of the early childhood program, it is eligible for funding because it addresses the funding priority of “helping families (of children aged 0-5) learn about child behavior and development including managing difficult behavior.” Parents and caregivers of children aged 0-5 may be served at any time of day.
We contract with community organizations to teach special Community Action Sessions (CAS) in STEM, Arts & Culture, and Health & Wellness. These weekly, culturally specific classes are led by local artists with the same racial/ethnic makeup as the student body. Their purpose is to build cultural identification and expose students to what is possible for them. The sessions take place at school during school hours but are not educational programming delivered to children as part of their normal school-day classes. Could PCL [mentoring] funds be used to support CAS classes?
PCL Response:
Classes provided to children during the school day are considered “educational programming” and not eligible for PCL mentoring funding. Classes in “STEM, Arts & Culture, and Health & Wellness” would be eligible for afterschool program funding if provided to students outside of the school day.
Our fiscal sponsorship fee is 16.2% of direct costs. This is our fiscal sponsor’s federally-negotiated indirect cost rate. I noticed in the FAQ that fiscal sponsorship fees are allowed, but that administrative costs in excess of 15% of the program budget are not. Can you please advise if a 16.2% fiscal sponsor fee would be considered an unallowable administrative cost?
PCL Response:
1.2% of the fee would not be recoverable from PCL as an administrative expense. If the sponsored organization has other funding sources, it could potentially pay the sponsoring organization the remainder of the fee from non-PCL funds.
We primarily provide training and technical assistance to African American and African childcare providers in Portland, including on social emotional learning, accessibility for neurodivergent children, supporting breastfeeding for infants’ families, and other topics that seem aligned with PCL funding priorities. Can you advise if training and technical assistance for childcare providers is considered allowable in this opportunity?
PCL Response:
The program proposed for PCL funding must directly serve children and/or their parents/caregivers. If the program does not provide services to children and/or their parents/caregivers, then it is not eligible for PCL funding.
I have seen it mentioned several times throughout the PCL materials that “preschool classroom services” are not eligible for funding. Can you please clarify what this means? We are not sure if it’s about the provision of childcare in a preschool classroom vs. provision of services (like training, technical assistance) to childcare providers who serve preschool-age children.
PCL Response:
Please see the response to question 104. Services eligible for funding must be provided to children and/or their parents/caregivers. Services provided to childcare providers are not direct services for children and/or their parents/caregivers. See the response to question 76 for further information.
We do not have annual revenue of $750,000 in the last fiscal year. On the website it says “Groups may also apply as a consortium of organizations through an identified lead agency/fiscal agent.” Can you tell me if this is an agency you identify or one we identify? Could we partner with the International Dyslexia Association for example? Or other smaller tutoring nonprofits like ourselves? Do all of the nonprofits we partner with have to be local?
PCL Response:
Organizations that want to apply for PCL funds but do not have sufficient revenues to meet eligibility requirements need to identify partner organizations or organizations willing to act as a fiscal sponsor that meet PCL eligibility requirements, are willing to apply for the PCL grant, and can sub-contract with the direct service provider. If the application is successful, the fiscal agent enters into the grant agreement with PCL and is responsible for program and expense reporting and billing. Services must be provided to children/families that live or go to school in Portland. The fiscal sponsor does not need to be located in Portland. You could also consider applying in PCL’s Small Grants funding round in 2025.
PCL Response:
PCL does not require that grantees maintain revenues of at least $750,000 annually for each year of the 3-year grant.
Week of October 21 Q&A
PCL Response:
You can put references at the bottom of a page or the end of a narrative section. However, either way, the space they take up is counted toward the page limit for that section of the narrative.
PCL Response
PCL requires two program reports annually (midyear and end of fiscal year). Program reports include narrative responses to questions related to program implementation progress and results, and data that includes the number of people served, the number of service activities provided, participant attendance, participant outcomes and demographics of participants. Afterschool, mentoring and foster care programs have some additional reporting requirements. For an outline of program reporting requirements, please see the instructions for completing program reports on the PCL website. Expense reports are required quarterly along with invoices. For more information on budgeting, invoicing and expense reporting, please see the financial resources for grantees on the PCL website.
PCL Response:
You may use tables and graphics in your narrative response to application questions.
PCL Response:
No; if you are not focusing on a particular population, you do not need to mark all populations that are eligible to receive services. If you are focusing on a population that isn’t included on the list, you can include that population under “other.”
We are wanting to apply for Large grants. It is saying that “applicant organizations must have at least $750,000 in annual revenue in the last closed fiscal year to be eligible to apply. So, will that be 2023-2024 fiscal year?
PCL Response:
Since the organization’s fiscal year is the same as the calendar year, the last closed fiscal year is January-December 2023. You cannot include in-kind volunteer time in revenues per Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). PCL recommends the organization consider applying in the Small Grants round planned for 2025.
I see that the “Grant Budget Guidance on Allowable Costs” lists standard maintenance of program vehicles as an allowable cost under the Transportation category.
PCL Response:
No; PCL does not allow vehicle and charging station purchases to be included in program budgets.
PCL Response:
The rule that prohibits an organization from requesting more than 30% of the total revenue in its last closed fiscal year applies to the funding requested for 2025-26. It does not limit the funding that can be requested in FY 2027 and 2028. Typically, PCL does not award substantially more funding in years 2 and 3 of the grant unless it’s funding program expansion over the grant period. Also, please note that the total amount of funding requested in a single application is limited ($4.5 million in early childhood, $2.5 million on all other program areas).
PCL Response:
You can use either duplicated or unduplicated estimates for the number of children served and explain in the narrative response (section A.5) whether the number is duplicated or unduplicated, and why you chose to use one or the other.
On the hunger relief application, in the WebForms data section, we’re not sure what to do about the section related to E: Classes for Parents/Caregivers. We will offer Family Cooking Workshops. Using PCL definitions, these are more like “Groups” than Classes, but in the Hunger Relief application there’s no separate section requesting data for Groups. For our workshops, there is no curriculum and the workshops do not build on one another. We will offer 8 monthly workshops total during one year, and families may attend as few or as many of those as they choose. Should we answer the data question as best we can as if the separate and distinct workshops are “classes”?
PCL Response:
If the workshops are not a major part of the services you are providing, you don’t need to include the workshops as “classes.” You could mark the family cooking workshops as “other food access” since the families will have access to food in the cooking workshops, and then describe the workshops in response to the brief narrative questions in Step 3 of the WebGrants application. You could also not include the workshops in the responses to Step 3 questions, and describe them in your narrative responses to the program design questions.
PCL Response:
The program features are part of the funding priorities. You can find the mentoring funding priorities and desired program features in the document that lists priorities/features for all program areas.
I don’t understand how to represent our staffing in the PCL budget narrative based on the example provided because our programs shift greatly during summer and our management all work directly with youth, in addition to supervising staff who provide direct services. For example, I have a Program Director who provides direct services to youth and also manages different numbers of staff at different times of year, including some staff who don’t work in this program.
PCL Response:
List the portion of a position’s time that they will work on the program as a portion of FTE. In your example, if the Program Director works full time (2,080 hours p/year), and spends 50% of their time on this program, and you are requesting that PCL cover all of this position’s time spent on this program, list them as .5 FTE (1,040 hours p/year). Do your best with the information you have available to also estimate the portions of the 1,040 hours worked in a year that the position will spend on management and direct service, and include that information in the narrative for the Program Director position. We ask for this information to understand the overall direct service and management staffing for the program.
PCL Response:
Yes; a statement of activities or statement of financial position is adequate to meet this requirement.
In the hunger relief application, it says “Maximum grant allowable is up to $2.5 million per application” (pg 6). In the webgrants portal it says “The minimum total budget request for each grant year is $100,000 and the maximum is $835,000.”
PCL Response:
The instruction limiting annual requests to $835,000 was meant to apply only to Year 1. We’ve changed the language in the WebGrants application. Please note that the PDF versions of the application available on the PCL website have not been corrected.
Week of October 28 Q&A
PCL Response:
The 30% cap is on the 2025-26 request only. It does not apply to Years 2 and 3.
The example in the PCL email shows an org with $3.7M in revenue and refers to the limit on the FY 26 budget. Does that mean that the 30% cap is for the Year 1 (FY26) budget, and NOT the total application budget (if we’re asking for 3 years of funding). We got confused because I also found language in the app instructions linked above that says: “The minimum total budget request for each grant year $100,000 and the maximum is $835,000“. If that’s the case, then the example of an organization asking for $1,110,000 in Year 1 would not work.
PCL Response:
We apologize for the confusion. You are correct that the 30% rule applies to the total first year grant budgets of all grant applications submitted by an organization. It does not apply to the total 3-year grant requests. In addition to this ceiling on the Year 1 grant requests from any single organization, each program area has a limit on the total that can be requested per application. For hunger relief, $2.5 million is the maximum that can be requested per application – so you are correct that you could not request the maximum amount allowed by the 30% rule in that program area if your annual revenues were $3.7 million. In early childhood, the maximum funding request per application is $4.5 million so a first-year budget could total $1,110,000.
Regarding the minimum/maximum annual request per year: please note that we corrected an error on the WebGrants application form to state that the maximum Year 1 funding request is $835,000. That maximum does not apply to Years 2 & 3. For example, an organization with $3.7 million in annual revenues in the last closed fiscal year could submit an application for a hunger relief grant with a Year 1 budget request of $790,000, a Year 2 request of $845,000 and a Year 3 request of $865,000 for a total $2.5 million 3-year grant request.
PCL Response:
PCL doesn’t prohibit serving private school students with PCL funds, however, please note that the focus populations for all PCL grants are: Black, Indigenous, and children and families of color, children with disabilities, youth who identify as LGBTQ2SIA+, immigrant and refugee children and families, families earning low incomes, and children and families who reside in East Portland or North Portland.
We are an alternative education and workforce development program applying for a Mentoring grant and our organization serves young people (up to age 24) who have dropped out of traditional schools or who have already completed their high school education. Nearly all of our services take place during traditional school hours (roughly 8:00a to 3:00p) but for non-traditional students. Part of our Mentoring-related programming is to prepare youth for college or to complete a college degree.
PCL Response:
Programming for youth aged 18-24 who have a high school diploma is eligible for PCL mentoring funding regardless of the time of day the programming is offered. Programming offered during the school day to youth aged 18 or younger who are pursuing a high school diploma (i.e. taking classes for high school credit) is not eligible for PCL funding. Programming offered during the school day to youth aged 16-24 who are pursuing a GED instead of a high school diploma is eligible for PCL funding. You can request funding to cover costs for the portion of youth served who are eligible. The mentoring services proposed must also address at least one of the mentoring funding priorities.
PCL Response:
You can seek funding for current operations and an expansion in the same application. You should answer “yes” to the question that asks if you are seeking to expand a currently operating program.