The OCF Community Grants cycle is an open, competitive program for nonprofits that serve and support Oregon residents.
Donor Name: Oregon Community Foundation
State: Oregon
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/20/2023
Size of the Grant: $40,000
Grant Duration: 1 year
Details:
Program Goal
To provide equitable access to flexible funding for organizations serving communities’ most pressing needs throughout Oregon.
Guiding Principles
- The Foundation is committed to funding across Oregon with grant dollars reaching rural and urban communities in every region
- The Foundation gives high priority to strengths-based organizations that create positive, substantive change
- The Foundation prioritizes efforts that demonstrate strong community support, solid planning and wise stewardship
- The Foundation believes that creative, impactful, sustainable solutions come from people closest to the issues being addressed and should be implemented by organizations the community trusts
- The Foundation values Oregon diverse regions and populations, and they seek to advance equity, diversity and inclusion through this funding.
Funding Priorities
The Foundation encourages a broad range of nonprofits to submit a letter of inquiry for a Community Grant. They prioritize work that clearly addresses community-identified needs in support of the following disproportionately impacted populations (groups are listed in alphabetical order).
- Black, Indigenous, Latinx and people of color
- Immigrants and/or refugees
- People experiencing disabilities
- People living on low incomes
- People living in under-resourced communities and/or communities lacking critical infrastructure
- People who are homeless/unsheltered
- People who identify as LGBTQIA+
- Survivors of domestic violence and/or child abuse.
Funding Opportunities
- Funding will go to a broad range of organizations to support capacity-building, small capital projects, or new or expanding programs or projects that will deepen, enhance or grow work in their community. Requests to support an ongoing program as-is are not eligible
- Funding will support applications focused on one of the following three grant types:
- New or expanding program or project: Costs associated with developing a new program or service, or with expanding an existing one
- New activities a) did not exist before, and are planned or developed to address a gap or meet a need for the organization or for the community it serves
- Expanding activities build on previous successes to improve or significantly increase impact on more or different people or communities. This can include reaching a new or different population/county/community, or reaching significantly more of the same population within the same community. Requests to support ongoing, incremental growth are not competitive. There is no single definition of what qualifies as significant expansion given the variety of contexts and needs. The Foundation encourage you to include a rationale for why your request is a significant expansion in terms of community needs
- Capacity-building: Costs relating to new or expanded activities that develop the organization. Typical examples include strategic or business planning, board development, volunteer coordination, program planning, and marketing and communications
- Small capital projects: Costs associated with new or expanded building construction, renovation or equipment. Total project costs may not exceed $500,000.
- New or expanding program or project: Costs associated with developing a new program or service, or with expanding an existing one
Funding Information
- The maximum award is $40,000, but the Foundation expects that most awards will range between $5,000 and $30,000
- The grant period is one year; awards will be made in November 2023.
Eligibility Criteria
The following organizations are eligible to apply for the fall 2023 grant cycle:
- 501(c)(3) organizations (excluding private non-operating foundations), Tribal entities and government entities are eligible. Other types of organizations may work with a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor to become eligible; an official agreement outlining the relationship with the fiscal sponsor must be submitted with the LOI
- Organizations that have active grants with other OCF grant programs are eligible.
For more information, visit OCF.
