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Info Sessions and Q&A

Info sessions & virtual question hour

PCL held two virtual pre-application information sessions via Zoom on Oct. 27 and 29, as well as a virtual question hour on Nov. 10. 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. 

The deadline to submit questions has now passed.

Click the arrow next to each question to see the full question and/or response.

Week of October 20 Q&A

You generally cannot include in-kind volunteer time as revenues per Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Certain types of in-kind donations may count under GAAP such as goods or services that you would have otherwise needed to purchase. This website offers more information. PCL cannot advise you on preparing your organization’s financial statements and we expect that you follow GAAP and IRS regulations. 

These grants must be used to 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. Services provided only to staff such childcare providers, teachers, or adult volunteers are not direct services for children and/or their parents/caregivers. If the proposed program will directly serve children and families, you may include costs for staff professional development in your grant budget. 

Please remember that organizations eligible for PCL grants must be non-profit 501(c)(3). 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. 

PCL is not accepting applications for programs that provide preschool classroom services or that function as free childcare for children ages birth- 5. If you’re a preschool provider, you may be eligible for Multnomah County’s Preschool for All. 

Programs offering services that meet PCL’s other early childhood funding priorities are eligible to apply. 

Yes, there’s one on our website. (Link is for a Word document that will trigger a download prompt.) 

Yes. Our website describes all the requirements, including the video submission. We encourage you to read this page carefully, especially the section about video requirements.  

Last year we made just under $80k and this year we have already made around $300k (we are happy to provide financial records of this). We are the only org in Oregon that has focused on postpartum doula care for the last several years while paying doulas a living wage.  We believe postpartum doula care is a large and central piece of the maternal health crisis and can prevent children from entering many things including foster care, homelessness, food insecurity, help prevent relapse in parents struggling with SUD and give children a healthy start in ways no other intervention can.  Please note there are several orgs who provide birth doula care but not postpartum doula care, which are two completely different professions (like the difference between an OB and pediatrician).   

Is there any wiggle room on the last annual income so we can apply since we are so close?  I know a lot of this money will go to orgs who make interventions later in a child’s life and would love to be considered as a preventative measure.   

PCL response:   

To be eligible for a PCL small grant, the organization must have had a minimum of $90,000 in revenue in its last closed fiscal year. PCL is not using an organization’s current fiscal year revenue for that basis. We understand the compelling needs your organization serves. Still, we have firm eligibility for PCL grants.  

Recipients of PCL large grants are not eligible to apply for PCL small grants. One of the purposes of PCL’s small grants fund is to increase access to PCL funds for small organizations that have not had access to PCL funds. Going Home II could apply as a fiscal sponsor for another small organization, but not for Triple Threat Mentoring because that program receives a PCL large grant.   

It sounds like your organization provides services for “students in Washington County.” PCL funds support services for children and families in the city of Portland. You can find more information about eligibility and city boundaries on our website.

As a commitment to fairness and transparency for all applicants, PCL staff do not meet individually with applicants during a funding round. We encourage you to email your questions directly to info@portlandchildrenslevy.org, and we’ll respond. We also encourage you to attend one of the upcoming info sessions next week (10/27 or 10/29). On that same web page, we also publish a weekly digest of the questions we receive from applicants and our responses. 

Week of October 27 Q&A

PCL uses the organization’s revenues from their last closed fiscal year to determine eligibility. If your organization had revenues between $90,000 and $750,000 during your last closed fiscal year, not your current fiscal year, then you are eligible to apply. We ask for this year’s organization budget as part of our due diligence on organizational financial health, but we don’t use this year’s revenue to determine applicant eligibility. Based on what you shared, it sounds like you may be eligible. Please clarify your fiscal years start and end for FY23, FY24, and FY25. That will help us finalize the answer to your question. 

Based on what you shared, your last closed fiscal year of January 1, 2024- December 31, 2024, your organization’s revenue was over $750,000 and is not eligible for a PCL small grant. 

PCL uses the organization’s revenues from their last closed fiscal year to determine eligibility. If your organization had revenues between $90,000 and $750,000 during your last closed fiscal year, not your current fiscal year, then you are eligible to apply. We also ask for current fiscal year’s organization budget as part of our due diligence on organizational financial health, but we don’t use current fiscal year’s revenue to determine applicant eligibility. 

We encourage you to check your organization’s financial statements and revenue for the last closed fiscal year to determine your small grants eligibility. PCL is not offering small grants for organizations with revenues over $750,000 in their last closed fiscal year. 

PCL offers large grants for organizations with revenues of more than $750,000. However, all large grants funds were allocated to 3-year grants in last year’s competitive large grant funding round. Consider joining the PCL mailing list to stay apprised of future funding rounds for large grants. 

You are eligible to apply without current partnerships. Here is some information we’d like to share as you consider whether to apply: This grant round will be highly competitive. We’ve seen many programs struggle to establish partnerships with Portland schools due to limited resources at the building level, including space availability and bandwidth of SUN programs. In our experience, applications have been more successful when they demonstrate successful partnerships at Portland locations and serving children in Portland. Similarly, programs that receive grants for new services have often struggled to get them up and running in the first year and sometimes longer. This results in few children receiving services from that grant, which reflects negatively on the program’s performance with the grant. 

Congratulations on the property donation! You are correct that the donation is considered an asset and counts toward revenue in your last closed fiscal year. Since your organization’s revenues exceed $750,000 in your last closed fiscal year, it is not eligible for PCL small grants. Below we’ve included a list of other local grant opportunities.  

I’m the founder of a new community-based organization launched in 2024 that supports youth through mentoring, tutoring, and enrichment programs. I recently attended part of the Children’s Levy Small Grants Information Session and was very eager to learn more about the process. However, I was disappointed to find that my organization may not qualify for the small grants program due to the annual revenue requirement of $90,000–$750,000. As a new organization, we are still in the early stages of development — currently operating through volunteer support and in-kind donations valued at approximately $1,500 per month. I had hoped this grant might be a first breakthrough to help us establish a more stable foundation and begin building measurable impact in our community. I completely understand the importance of the eligibility criteria, but I wanted to ask if there might be other Children’s Levy opportunities or partner funding sources that support emerging nonprofits like ours. Any guidance or referrals you could provide would mean a great deal as we continue working toward sustainability and growth. 

PCL response:  

We understand the challenges with grant eligibility. We’re doing our best to balance reaching community-based organizations and the capacity organizations need to successful manage a city of Portland grant. PCL does not have any other grant funding opportunities. We offer $500 event sponsorships twice per year.  

Below we’ve included a list of other local grantmaking programs that may have opportunities for your organization. 

Oct. 27 info session Q&A

We encourage you to read the 3 questions for the video component and review the scoring criteria, page 22-23 of the small grants application. The video can be up to 5 minutes long, but not over 5 minutes. We recommend you use that time to answer the 3 questions and try to address the scoring criteria as best you can.  

It’s up to you to decide whether you can include more than one success story in your video and to determine who will speak in the video to answer the questions. The scoring criteria for the videos focus on the quality of answers to the 3 questions. The scoring criteria do not include any points related to who answers the questions or how many people speak in the video. We understand that not all programs could easily or reasonably feature clients, so there is no advantage to including clients or not in your video. 

We want applicants to submit basic videos that answer the 3 questions and address the video scoring criteria (application, pages 22-23). 

The scoring criteria for the video focus on the quality of your answers and not the quality of the video production. The video and written application each have separate scoring criteria and different reviewers. This was done intentionally to try to give applicants different score opportunities on the application. 

PCL staff will read and score the written application, and not the videos. The score on a written application will be the median of staff’s review scores for that application. Scoring criteria for the written application are on pages 18- 21 of the small grant application. PCL’s Community Council members will score the videos, and they are not reading/scoring the application. The score on the video will be the median of all review scores on that video. The application will have a total score that is the sum of the written application score and the video score.  

PCL created the video component to give applicants an alternative way to express themselves since written-only processes can create barriers, too. We also tried to create the written and video questions to work together so that some of what you prepare for the written application could help you answer the video questions, too. The questions are intended to complement each other and give two different sets of reviewers unique perspective on the services you want PCL to fund. 

We encourage you to keep your video simple and to avoid highly-produced videos. We are training reviewers to focus on the quality of answers in the video, and to avoid bias around video production.  

Here are some easy, simple tools that have been suggested to us to share: 

  • Smart phone video apps; Loom; or Zoom all have video options. Loom allows speaker to share screen. Users can download videos from Loom or Zoom, upload them to a video-sharing platform like Vimeo or YouTube. 
  • Applicants can record their video in one take if they prefer, and avoid any need for editing. If you prefer options to edit, Apple or Android offer free apps, including Shotcut which is open-source and reviewed as easy-to-use. Most Apple products come with iMovie for free and PC users may find Clipchamp free included in their Windows apps.
  • Vimeo and YouTube: upload your videos to platforms like these to create a link for your PCL small grant application in WebGrants.  

Yes! You can use Loom or any other platform that works for you. The main thing is that you create a link to your video that you can paste into the application field in WebGrants, and we can click on the link to watch it. You just want to be sure that the link to your video can be easily clicked and viewed by others. 

In the past PCL applicants have had the opportunity to provide written, video, or audio testimony to PCL’s Allocation Committee in support of their application. This is our first time using videos as part of the grant application. 

After school programs that occur at a school, that have relationships with schools or youth, or that occur at a community-based location where youth already engage and spend time tend to have greater chances of successful programming. We’ve seen many organizations struggle to establish new programs, especially after school with competing demands and opportunities for children and youth; with schools having limited resources at the building level including space availability and bandwidth of SUN programs. In our experience, programs that receive grants for new services have often struggled to get them up and running in the first year and sometimes longer. This results in few children receiving services from that grant, which reflects negatively on the program’s performance with the grant.

Yes, for a budget narrative example, see question 4 on our Info Sessions and Q&A webpage.

We have a small grants outreach list that we use to periodically share with small organizations about funding opportunities from grantmakers. We can add folks who are interested to our list (please email info@portlandchildrenslevy.org). In addition, here’s a list of fellow local grantmakers: 

Yes, garden access and education are funding priorities in hunger relief. 

If the program activities occur directly after school, approximately 3pm – 5pm and if the program addresses one of the after school funding priorities, then you can select after school as your program areas. If the program activities occur at different times throughout the week or weekend, and the program addresses one of the mentoring funding priorities, then you can select mentoring as your program area. In addition, mentoring can serve children and youth across the age spectrum from age 5 – 24. Be sure to check the funding priorities for the program areas. 

Examples may include specific activities you’ve done with the population you plan to serve. Examples may help explain your experience working with the population you plan to serve. If you may be working with a new population, you may want to use examples that show transferable skills and experience to serve that new population. It also helps if your examples can show how well the population you serve has engaged and attended the activities you offered. 

During PCL’s first small grants round in 2020, PCL had $1 million to grant over 2.5 years. The total funding requested by applicants was $4 million, resulting in $4 requested for every $1 that PCL had available. This time PCL has $1.5 million to grant over 3 years, and we project making 6-10 grants total depending on the size of the grant. Minimum 3-year grant is $80,000 and maximum 3-year grant is $240,000.  

Oct. 29 info session Q&A

The application form in WebGrants is designed to have you post a link to a video. In your video, you are welcome to use only still photographs and do voiceover to answer the questions. You are not required to show the speaker in the video, and you are not required to have a video that has someone visually on camera speaking. 

Yes, you may use photos with children younger than middle school ages, videos must not include young children as speakers in the video. For any child/youth you want to include in your video, in a still photo or as a speaker, you must have received photo release written permission photo from the child’s parents/guardians. Parents/guardians must have provided photo release to you to include their child in your video. You need consent from adults in your videos as well.

Please send any WebGrants questions to info@portlandchildrenslevy.org and we’ll help you with WebGrants challenges.  

Yes. PCL grants can cover costs for program time spent on data collection, data entry, writing and reading reports. In addition, PCL grants can cover costs related to program’s staff use of databases, internet or other costs associated with program reporting. In addition, PCL grants may include up to 15% for administrative expenses. For a full list of allowable costs, you can go to our website to review our PCL Grant Budget Guidance. 

Budget can include staff costs for recruiting, supporting, and managing volunteers. PCL budgets have 4 main cost categories: personnel for the program services, contracted services used for program services, other program expenses (for example supplies and materials, food for events with youth/families, staff mileage for program activities, etc.) and administrative costs. For a full list of allowable costs, you can go to our website to review our PCL Grant Budget Guidance. 

We’re looking for feedback about whether it’s right time for us to apply or if we should wait until next year. Our organization is a collective of artists focused on arts & culture social emotional wellness. We have worked together before and we’re building our program. Are programs that are developing eligible for these grants? Also, due to the historical displacement of Native/Indigenous people, we have Native/Indigenous artists who don’t live in Portland but who would be coming to Portland, for example from Warm Springs, as part of this program. Is that ok?  

PCL response:  

The organization must be a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt community-based nonprofits and incorporated in Oregon. The artists can reside out of Portland as long as the children, youth, and families to be served reside or attend school in Portland. If the artists are the ones doing the direct service with children/youth or families and they are not employees of the organization, the grant can be used toward their costs as contractors for the program services.  

Overall, we’ve seen many organizations struggle to establish new programs, unless they have established partnerships with youth-serving organizations or ongoing relationships with children, youth, and families. This challenge has been true especially for after school programs. If your organization would be leveraging existing partnerships with schools or community organizations, or has success engaging youth at program sites for other activities, then you can discuss that experience in your application. 

Your program services must fit with one of PCL’s program areas and must address at least one funding priority in the selected program area. You can check our website to see if your program services would fit a program area and one of its funding priorities.

Only direct services for children and families, not for capital campaigns or general operating. 

Your organization is not eligible. The eligibility for PCL small grants is based on the organization’s revenues in its last closed fiscal year, and not on the size of the program in the organization. 

Yes, services may occur outside of the city but the children, youth, and families served must live in or attend school in Portland.  

This first map shows all of the metro region, and you can zoom in to see Portland’s specific boundaries relative to neighboring cities such as Beaverton and Gresham.  

This second map shows zip codes, neighborhoods, and the 4 districts of city council for City of Portland. Also note that school districts entirely in Portland boundaries are Centennial, David Douglas, Parkrose, Portland Public. A small part of Reynolds is also in Portland. 

Yes, but we encourage you to think about the feasibility of your expansion. In our experience, applications have been more successful when they demonstrate successful partnerships at Portland locations and serving children in Portland. Similarly, programs that receive grants for new services have often struggled to get them up and running in the first year and sometimes longer. This results in few children receiving services from that grant, which reflects negatively on the program’s performance with the grant. 

Yes, the funding priorities in hunger relief include food distribution through pantries and delivery. You can see all hunger relief funding priorities on our website.  

PCL grants are reimbursement-based, and grantees submit quarterly invoices for actual and allowable PCL grant expenses. Invoices are due within 30 days of the end of the quarter. After invoices are submitted, it typically takes PCL and the city’s accounting team 3-4 weeks to process and pay an invoice as direct deposit to an organization’s bank account. PCL provides organizations the option to request advance payments each quarter for up to one-quarter of the annual grant budget.  

We understand some programs have seasonal services where expenses are concentrated in some quarters more than others. If your program incurs most of its expenses in a particular quarter, that is allowable.  

PCL is not accepting applications for preschool classroom services due to passage of Preschool for All. PCL’s early childhood funding priorities focus on other early childhood supports across the early childhood age spectrum, especially infants and toddlers. You can find the funding priorities for early childhood on our website. 

PCL also funds the Community Childcare Initiative (CCI), administered by Childcare Resource and Referral. The program helps working families earning low-incomes access childcare, for babies age 6 weeks through youth age 12. Childcare providers (including for-profit childcare providers) may participate in the Community Childcare Initiative to serve eligible families.  

Yes, a video of content covered in the info sessions is available on our Info Sessions and Q&A webpage.  

Week of November 3 Q&A

My organization is a food pantry based in Lake Oswego, and while most of our pantry guests are from LO and the surrounding communities (Tigard, West Linn, Tualatin), we do serve guests from Portland proper, including many from SW and inner PDX. On the eligibility screening the question asks if we serve children in the PDX boundaries and while we do, it’s not the majority of our population served. In light of this, would it be worthwhile for us to apply? My assumption is that there are organizations housed in PDX that serve kids in PDX, and those orgs will likely have a better shot at the grant…so I’m just wondering if it’s worth our (and your guys’) time for to apply? 

PCL response:  

Here are some considerations we can offer as you decide whether to apply:   

PCL requires funds be used to serve Portland residents and that grantees report annually on zip code of residence for children/families served in hunger relief. It sounds like your program mainly serves people who live outside of Portland. It may be challenging for your organization to ensure PCL funds are used only for Portland residents in services that are open to anyone. A possible approach could be to look at the percentage of children and families served that are Portland residents and assume that you could use funds to support a similar percentage of the services. For example, if 10% of the population your program serves are Portland children/families, then could consider requesting funding for 10% of the program costs for the year (assuming that is within PCL’s minimum/maximum small grant limits). 

You are also correct that other small organizations provide hunger relief services to children and families exclusively or mainly in Portland. PCL Small Grants seek to increase access to PCL funds for smaller nonprofits and strengthens their capacity to serve children, youth, and families. We expect that this funding round will be highly competitive with Portland-based small organizations looking to grow and strengthen capacity. 

To be eligible for a PCL small grant, the organization must have had a minimum of $90,000 in revenue in its last closed fiscal year. PCL is not using an organization’s current fiscal year revenue for that basis. For the specific organization you mention, since their organization revenue was less than $90,000 in FY24, they are not eligible for PCL’s small grants. 

Below we’ve included a list of other local grant opportunities: 

To be eligible for a PCL small grant, the organization must have had a minimum of $90,000 in revenue in its last closed fiscal year. PCL is not using an organization’s current fiscal year revenue for that basis. For the specific organization you mention, since their organization revenue was less than $90,000 in FY24, they are not eligible for PCL’s small grants. 

Below we’ve included a list of other local grant opportunities: 

Thanks for letting us know about the video access. We clicked on the link your application, but it did not work. It also did not send us to a log-in page. Because we will share the link with reviewers in December, we want to be sure it’s easy for them to use, too. 

Here’s what we suggest: 

  1. You could consider using YouTube for the video instead, and here are instructions for YouTube video privacy settings. The “unlisted” setting is optimal for your application. It allows only people with the link to see the video.   
  2. If you continue with Vimeo, watch these instructions from Vimeo on how to adjust the privacy settings on your application link. If you have a paid Vimeo account, then you can also use the “unlisted” setting. If you have a free account, the options are limited to “private” (requires password) or “public” which means the video will be listed on your organization’s Vimeo page for anyone to see. 
  3. Once you video is on the platform you want to use, and you have a link for your video, you could also share the link with someone you trust to test out if they can access it. This will help you troubleshoot whether the link will work in your application. 
  4. We will put your application in “correcting” status in WebGrants. This means you will be able to make changes in your application, and you can resubmit it after you make the changes.  
    • In the Step 6 form in WebGrants, you can make sure you have the correct link for your video. See screenshot below.  
    • If you opt to make the video “private” rather than “unlisted”, please use the field in the Step 6 form to give us instructions, including password needed to access the link. The screenshot below shows the field where you can add that information. 

5. Once you’re all set, you can “save form” and then resubmit the application. 

We appreciate you submitting your application early, so we can help you troubleshoot the video questions.  

Week of November 10 Q&A

We are in the process of drafting our application for a Small Grant and have some questions we hope you can answer. Our category is After School, and we are planning on applying for funding for our Summer Camp programs in 2026-2028. We would like to know how complete our program concept should be in the application. For example, we have a solid history of offering successful free summer songwriting/instrument building camps at such North Portland schools as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sitton elementary that have served hundreds of children and are confident we can host summer programming at a Portland school or community center that meets the needs and expectations of many families. 

Due to funding changes over the past few years, we are seeking new sources of financial support as well as new locations for our camps. Currently, we are in discussions with a Title I public school in North Portland as well as the David Douglas School District about possible camps in 2026 but we were wondering if we need specific commitments from one or more sites to qualify for consideration by PCL. We are working on obtaining such commitments but may not receive firm responses until after the application deadline. We should note we are an official Arts Partner with the Portland Public School District and have well established relationships with district and school officials. 

We also have had two successful years of summer music science camps at OMSI and are considering expanding the number of scholarships we offer to children from low-income families. Currently families pay a fee for students who attend, and with the help of OMSI, are able to fund one scholarship for one child per weekly session. We’d like to make it possible for more low-income families to send a child to our PIF-OMSI camp. I have attached an article on our last summer camp at OMSI to give you an idea of the program. 

PCL response: 

  1. For PCL after school funding, the proposed program must offer services to children during the school year after the school day ends. The proposed program may, as part of their after-school model, also offer services during summer and /or other school breaks. Services that only occur during the summer are not eligible for PCL funds in after school. You could consider the mentoring program area for summer-only services. Please keep in mind that proposed services must address at least one funding priority in the program area.  
  2. Applicants are not required to have existing relationships with schools to propose offering programs at school sites, however those with existing partnerships and a track record of working successfully with partner sites are typically more competitive. In our experience, we’ve seen many organizations struggle to establish new after school program at sites due to limited resources at the building level including space availability and bandwidth of SUN programs. In addition, programs that receive grants for new services have often struggled to get them up and running in the first year and sometimes longer. This results in few children receiving services from that grant, which reflects negatively on the program’s performance.  

You only need to discuss one goal, and you can choose the area for improvement: access or engagement or participation. 

We do actually teach up to 50 children after school during the school year right now and some of these kids attend our summer camps, others attend our OMSI camp on scholarship. We do work with SUN at some of our partner schools. So I gather from reading your response that we should primarily focus on our school-year programming, but I wasn’t sure if the number of children we serve would be considered enough students to qualify for possible funding?  

Per this question: “The proposed program may, as part of their after-school model, also offer services during summer and /or other school breaks.” 

When we organize a summer camp, sometimes we host it at a site outside a school where we deliver after-school lessons — must the camp be sited at a school we work at during the school year, or can it also be at a neighboring school or community center? 

PCL response:  

  1. Based on the example you describe, you could request small grants funds in the after school program area to support program activities provided after school and program activities provided during summer. The grant request for after school program area must include after school and can’t be only for summer programming. The small grants application asks for the number of children to be served based on the proposed program model. For example, a program may want PCL to support after school services at 1 school site during the school year and one summer camp site. The number of children to be served at those sites may vary based on the type of programming offered. PCL doesn’t have a specific expectation about how many children are to be served in order for an applicant to be eligible for funding in any particular program area.  
  2. If you decide to pursue funding in the after school program area, then the proposed services (including summer camps) may be offered at a school or at a community-based location. PCL currently funds after school/summer services in both types of locations.

Program staff and instructors, including high school students, may be considered mentors. To be eligible to apply for the mentoring program area, the services must address at least one of the mentoring funding priorities. 

I attending this last Monday, November 10th, info Zoom session on the small grants funding opportunity.   

The info session provided some conflicting information to what I’m seeing on the 25-26 Small-Grants-Application pdf and I’m wondering who I can reach out to for clarification. Specifically- the PCL Program Area: After School description.  

In the info session, the facilitator answered a question regarding summer camp inclusion in the after school program area.  Responding that no, PCL is focusing on programming throughout the school year, specifically.  But in the small grant info pdf, under PCL Program areas / After School  on page 3 it says:   

“Provide safe and constructive programming that supports children’s well-being and school success. Includes after the school day, before school, school break, and summer; for ages 5- 18.–”   I’m wondering who I can connect with for clarification. 

PCL response:  

Thank you for your question and sorry that the response was confusing. The response provided in the session was not intended to contradict the application. The response sought to offer this clarification: 

For PCL after school funding, the proposed program must offer services to children during the school year after the school day ends. In addition, the proposed program may, as part of their after-school model, also offer services during summer and /or other school breaks. Services that only occur during the summer are not eligible for PCL funds in after school. You could consider the mentoring program area for summer-only services. Please keep in mind that proposed services for after school, or for mentoring, must address at least one funding priority in the program area.    

We are interested in applying for a small grant. Our organization is a small nonprofit with annual revenue of just over $150,000. We offer a youth Japanese Taiko drumming program and also provide programming for Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) communities, including inclusive and LGBTQ-affirming activities. Could you please let us know if we are eligible to apply? If so, we would appreciate any advice on areas to focus on in the application. I’m a bit concerned because many of the previously awarded organizations seem much larger, and I wonder if we might be too small to be competitive. 

PCL response: 

Based on the information you provided, your organization may be eligible for PCL’s small grants. Your organization’s revenue must have been between $90,000 and $750,000 in your last closed fiscal year. You shared that your organization revenue was over $150,000 but you did not indicate which time period. If your revenue was less than $90,000 in your last closed fiscal year, even if it’s $150,000 for the current fiscal year, your organization is not eligible.  

Other eligibility criteria to consider are: 

  • Is your organization a 501(c)(3) incorporated in Oregon? OR, do you have a fiscal sponsor organization that is a 501 (c)(3) incorporated in Oregon? 
  • Do the program activities you want PCL to fund serve children/youth who reside or attend school in Portland? 
  • Do the activities you want PCL to fund fit into one of PCL’s 6 program areas, and at least one of the funding priorities for the relevant program area? 

If you meet revenue eligibility, and if you can answer yes to all those questions, then your organization is eligible to apply for a PCL Small Grant. Please also review the whole application available on our website to consider whether you want to apply. Please also review the applicant questions/answers on our website, particularly questions 15-17, 26- 27, and 43 for additional information about the video component of the application. 

PCL has a separate grants process for larger organizations. The PCL Small Grants are for smaller organizations (revenues $90k- $750k) and focus on building their capacity to serve children and families in Portland.

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. 

Determining whether “a person in politics” has a conflict of interest in supporting your application for City funding depends on many factors. PCL recommends you review the section on conflicts of interest for public officials (pages 5-7) in the League of Oregon Cities Oregon Municipal Handbook, Chapter 8: Ethics for guidance. PCL cannot provide legal advice. 

Please keep in mind that the video will be scored for its responses to the 3 video questions, so we encourage you to review the application pages 22- 23 for the video questions and scoring criteria. We also encourage you to look at the questions so far from applicants about the videos and our responses: questions 15 – 17, 26-27, and 43 on our website.  

Nov. 10 virtual question hour Q&A

No, there is no minimum number requirement. The small grants application asks applicants to indicate the number to be served based on the proposed program activities and the requested budget. 

For PCL after school funding, the proposed program must offer services to children during the school year after the school day ends. In addition, the proposed program may, as part of their after-school model, also offer services during summer and /or other school breaks. Services that only occur during the summer are not eligible for PCL funds in after school. You could consider the mentoring program area for summer-only services. Please keep in mind that proposed services for after school, or for mentoring, must address at least one funding priority in the program area. For after school grants, the majority of the programming should occur after school, rather than during summer.  

If you want to offer a program at a SUN school, typically the school will require that you work with the SUN Site Coordinators to offer your services at their school. We’ve seen many organizations struggle to establish new programs, especially with schools having limited resources at the building level including space availability and bandwidth of SUN programs.

Unfortunately, no. Your organization must have at least $90,000 in revenue in the last closed fiscal year to be eligible to apply. 

PCL does not require applicants to serve all family members. Applicants should indicate who they serve in the family based on the proposed program activities. Some programs exclusively serve youth. Some programs in child abuse prevention/intervention or early childhood work with the parents/caregivers and the children.  

There are no scoring criteria that values applicants with partnerships more than applicants without partnerships. If your program activities include partnerships as a necessary part of your program activities serving the primary population, then describing partnerships may give helpful context to reviewers trying to understand your proposed program.    

That is optimal. We recommend that you reference question 43 from the week of Nov. 3. 

You could use YouTube or Vimeo to host your video, and you can set your video to “public,” or you can have it password protected if you prefer. We recommend that you test your video link to make sure that someone outside your organization can click on it and view the video based on its settings.  We only intend to share it with reviewers and our Allocation Committee, so we want to make sure the links work for them to access it.

Applicants may only submit 1 application for funding. See page 3, item A in the application.  

The purpose of PCL’s Small Grants Fund is to strengthen capacity of small non-profit organizations to serve children and families in Portland. Non-profits are the only type of organization eligible to apply for PCL Small Grants. Please see page 4 of the application for specific instructions on eligible applicants. LLCs are not eligible to apply directly or through a fiscal sponsor.  

PCL has not specifically limited the amount of funding a grantee can subcontract to a for-profit organization.  In PCL grants, subcontractors are most commonly other non-profits working in partnership with the applicant, or individuals working as independent contractors providing a specialized service to program participants or grantee staff (e.g. a ceramics teacher, a professional development trainer).   

The applicant organization must primarily operate the proposed program and be responsible for all PCL/city grant requirements including annual grant budget, insurance, financial reporting and invoicing, program progress reporting, and other city contract obligations.  An application that appears to be trying to avoid the rule requiring grants be made to non-profit organizations by passing significant funds through to for-profit organizations may be less competitive than applications focused on developing capacity of the applicant organization to provide services to children and families.  

Please see page 4 of the application for specific instructions on eligible applicants. 

Applicant organizations must be 501(c)(3) organizations incorporated in Oregon. Fiscal sponsors must be 501(c)(3) organizations, and the organizations they are sponsoring must be a nonprofit registered with the state of Oregon and have applied to the IRS for their 501(c)(3) status by October 15, 2025. They may not yet have their 501(c)(3) because the process to get 501(c)(3) designation from the IRS takes time. Our intention is to allow nonprofits that are registered with the State but have not completed the process of getting a 501(c)(3) to be eligible to apply for funding this way. 

Below is screenshot of part of the form in WebGrants you’ll complete to determine your organization’s eligibility for PCL small grants.  

The concerns raised by City Council were specific to the large grants funding round, and some of these concerns – such as access for smaller, less experienced organizations – are addressed by having a Small Grants Fund. PCL has conducted surveys of applicants and of community volunteer reviewers, and has completed individual interviews with our Community Council. We are currently finishing individual interviews with members of PCL’s Allocation Committee. PCL will publish a report on our website by the end of November 2025 summarizing feedback from each of these audiences and the implications for process improvement.  

No, Small Grants Fund recipients are not required to have an independent audit. 

Applications must come from a single organization who will be contractually responsible for the grant if the application is selected for funding. Organizations may design programming in which they partner to deliver the services, and in which one or more organizations are subcontractors to the lead organization. The lead organization will be responsible for all city grant requirements including annual grant budgeting, financial reporting and invoicing, program progress reporting, insurance requirements, and all other city contracting obligations. The lead organization would be responsible for reimbursing the subcontractors for actual expenses based on the approved grant budget. 

This is the first time PCL has included the video component, so there are no previous video submissions available to view. The scoring criteria for the video focus on the quality of your answers and not the quality of the video production. The video and written application each have separate scoring criteria and different reviewers. This was done intentionally to try to give applicants different score opportunities on the application. 

PCL created the video component to give applicants an alternative way to express themselves since written-only processes can create barriers, too. We also tried to create the written and video questions to work together so that some of what you prepare for the written application could help you answer the video questions, too. The questions are intended to complement each other and give two different sets of reviewers unique perspective on the services you want PCL to fund. 

We encourage you to keep your video simple and to avoid highly-produced videos. We are training reviewers to focus on the quality of answers in the video, and to avoid bias around video production. 

Please also review the applicant questions/answers on our website, particularly questions 15-17, 26- 27, and 43 (and 51 and 57 — added later) for additional information about the video component of the application.  

PCL has the following age limits, by PCL program area, for children/youth to serve: 

  • After school:  ages 5 – 18 
  • Child abuse prevention/intervention: birth – age 18 
  • Early childhood: prenatal – age 5  
  • Foster care: birth – age 24 
  • Hunger relief: birth – age 18 
  • Mentoring: ages 5 – 24. 

We request reports from grantees twice per year: a mid-year progress narrative and short data report, and a year-end narrative and annual data report. The narrative reports for mid-year and year-end focus on progress implementing the service activities funded by the grant. The annual data report includes reporting on service activities provided compared to goals of the grant, hours of attendance by participants, participant outcomes, and the demographics of the children/youth served by the grant. Demographic data on participants served are reported by grantees in the aggregate such as race/ethnicity, primary language in the home, age, and zip code/residential area of Portland. We have never collected citizenship information and will not. 

In addition, at the time of the annual report, PCL typically requests school identification numbers for youth participating in after school and mentoring programs and who meet program participation goals. Grantees must obtain a release of information from parents to share individual participant information with PCL. This information is shared with MESD and school districts to report aggregate data on PCL program participants including school attendance, behavior referrals, high school credit attainment and graduation.  PCL does not receive any data from school districts on individual students. 

Yes, the fiscal sponsor can have a budget higher than $750,000, but the minimum and maximum grant for the organization seeking funding are determined by that organization’s revenues in its last closed fiscal year. Please see page 4 of the application for specific instructions.  

PCL requires funds be used to serve Portland residents and that grantees report annually on zip code of residence for children/families served. 

This first map shows all of the metro region, and you can zoom in to see Portland’s specific boundaries relative to neighboring cities such as Beaverton and Gresham.  

This second map shows zip codes, neighborhoods, and the 4 districts of city council for City of Portland. Also note that school districts entirely in Portland boundaries are Centennial, David Douglas, Parkrose, Portland Public. A small part of Reynolds is also in Portland. 

While services may occur outside of Portland boundaries, if your program is located outside of Portland and does not serve many children who live or attend school in Portland, it may be challenging for your organization to ensure PCL funds are used only for Portland residents. A possible approach could be to look at the percentage of children and families served that are Portland residents and assume that you could use funds to support a similar percentage of the services. For example, if 10% of the population your program serves are Portland children/families, then could consider requesting funding for 10% of the program costs for the year (assuming that is within PCL’s minimum/maximum small grant limits). 

Because we often get receive far more in requests than we have funds available, we may grant less than an applicant’s request. When the grant contract is negotiated, the organization may decide not to accept the grant at the smaller amount. Because small grant requests are so much smaller than what PCL offers in its large grants, we intend to minimize the reductions in order to ensure services are viable. 

PCL funds must be used to serve youth who reside or go to school in the city of Portland. For PCL grants in the mentoring or foster care program areas, youth eligibility ends at age 24, so 25-year-olds would not be eligible to be served if they were 25 at the time of program recruitment and enrollment. PCL services in early childhood or in child abuse prevention/intervention that serve children and their parents/caregivers could serve a 25 year-old parent.  

PCL typically requests school identification numbers for youth participating in after school and mentoring programs and who meet program participation goals. Grantees must obtain a release of information from parents to share individual participant information with PCL. This information is shared with MESD and school districts to report aggregate data on PCL program participants including school attendance, behavior referrals, high school credit attainment and graduation. PCL does not receive any data from school districts on individual students.        

If you are selected for a PCL small grant, we’ll work with you to collect that information only for students who are school age and enrolled in school. 

PCL requires that grantees base eligibility on the situation of the youth at the time of enrollment into services. If the child/youth is houseless or attending school within the City of Portland when they seek to enroll in services, then they’re eligible for PCL-funded services. We understand that this population has unique needs that may require them to change service locations or school sites. PCL report forms include the option for grantees to report “homeless” instead of a zip code of residence. 

Youth who go to school in Portland are eligible, and this includes youth who attend PSU.    

Week of November 17 Q&A

PCL is not accepting applications for preschool classroom services due to passage of Preschool for All. PCL’s early childhood funding priorities focus on other early childhood supports across the early childhood age spectrum, especially infants and toddlers. You can find the funding priorities for early childhood on our website.  

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.  

501(c)(3) organizations incorporated in Oregon and offering services that meet PCL’s other early childhood funding priorities are eligible.

We encourage you to review the 3 questions that applicants are asked to answer in the video, and the scoring criteria that reviewers will use to score the videos. You can find those on pages 22- 23 in the application. You’ll have to decide if you want to use one of the videos for your application.  

Please see pages 3 – 5 in the application to understand all of the eligibility requirements. Applicant organizations and any fiscal sponsor must be 501(c)(3) organizations incorporated in and registered with the state of Oregon. If your organization does not currently have 501(c)(3) status or has not applied for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS as of October 15, 2025, then you are not eligible to apply even with a fiscal sponsor.  

The revenue eligibility will be checked two ways. Organizations acting as fiscal sponsors must have at least $90,000 in annual revenue in the last closed fiscal year, and may have revenues over $750,000.  The sponsored organization must have revenues between $90,000 and $750,000 in their last closed fiscal year. The sponsored organization’s revenue in their last closed fiscal year is used to determine the maximum grant request. Current year revenues of both the fiscal sponsor and the sponsored organization are not used to determine eligibility.  

Below we’ve also included a screenshot from WebGrants showing some of the questions that applicants must complete to help determine their eligibility.  

There are two things to consider. The first is “program area of interest.” PCL only funds services for children and families in one of those 6 program areas. You chose the one that fits your program. After you chose a “program area” then you chose the one “funding priority” your services will address in that program area.  

Below are 2 screenshots as examples. The first screenshot shows an example applicant choosing the “hunger relief” program area and it shows the “funding priorities” drop down menu that appears after you selected a program area. The second screenshot shows an example applicant selecting “after school” program area and shows the “funding priorities” drop down menu for that program area. 

We also encourage you to read through the whole application, see page 3 to learn more about the program areas. 

We understand your concerns.  

We cannot extend the due date. We will be working hard to stay on time with all steps in this process so grants can begin July 1. To see overall timeline, check out page 9 in the application. For example, key steps include sufficient time for reviewers to read/score applications, conducting public meetings to consider the applications and decision-making on grants, and fitting into City Council’s schedule for their final approval.  

For what it’s worth, we take other factors, besides the score on an application, into consideration when making funding recommendations to PCL decision-makers. See page 10 of the application for more explanation on funding recommendations and decisions.   

In the WebGrants form for Step 3, we request a 1 paragraph summary of your application.  

The 300 words you’re referring to is for question 3 in the narrative portion of the application, which is different than the paragraph summary.  

Follow this link to our website outlining the application components. Once you’re on that page, you’ll see an outline of the steps in WebGrants plus a link to the 2025-26 small grants narrative template (Word file). Download that file, fill it out, and upload it in Step 5 in WebGrants. We also strongly encourage you to look at our full application so you can see the scoring criteria for the narrative portion, and the questions/scoring criteria for the video portion. 

We encourage you to review the 3 questions that applicants are asked to answer in the video, and the scoring criteria that reviewers will use to score the videos. You can find those on pages 22- 23 in the application. You’ll have to decide if you want to use the video you have already for your application. 

We have a question regarding the budget eligibility requirement. Our previous fiscal year budget was under the $750,000 threshold; however, our current fiscal year budget is above $750,000. We understand that the guidelines request both the current and previous fiscal year budgets, but we are unclear whether eligibility is determined based on the current fiscal year budget or the previous year’s budget. 

Could you please confirm whether we would still qualify to apply given that our current budget exceeds $750,000? We want to ensure clarity before investing time and resources into preparing a proposal that reflects our commitment to the Levy’s goals. 

PCL response: 

PCL uses the organization’s revenues from their last closed fiscal year to determine eligibility. If your organization had revenues between $90,000 and $750,000 during your last closed fiscal year then you are eligible to apply.  

We also ask for current fiscal year’s organization budget as part of our due diligence on organizational financial health, but we don’t use current fiscal year’s revenue to determine applicant eligibility.  

Yes, you’re still eligible to apply. We know that the WebGrants registration process can take time. We set the due date of November 14 to ensure that potential applicants were in the system well in advance of the application due date.

For the application, we advise you to budget that cost to the Contractors category.