2024 Community Grants Program FAQs

501(c)(3) organizations, Tribal entities and government entities are eligible to apply in the 2024 Cycle of the Community Grant program. Additionally, organizations may work with a 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor to apply. Applicants must submit formal paperwork confirming the fiscal sponsor relationship with their application.  

Please note: Fiscal sponsorship materials will not be accepted past the application deadline of July 23, 2024.  

Organizations that received a 2024 Spring Community Grant for general operating support or a Fall 2023 award are NOT eligible for a 2024 Fall Cycle Community Grant for capacity building, small capital or new or expanding project funding. To confirm whether you received an award in one of these previous cycles, please review the list published here.

For this cycle: if you are an arts and culture organization, we are asking you to apply to the Arts and Culture Rebuilding Program. 

All eligible organizations based in Oregon or primarily serving Oregon communities may apply for the 2024 Fall Cycle. All proposal activities must occur within Oregon.

Yes, typically applications submitted to this program are reviewed independently from other OCF programs. Other applications or current funding with other OCF grant programs will not impact your eligibility or competitiveness for this program.

There are no reporting requirements for grantees that receive 2024 Fall Community Grants award. However, grantees may receive an open invitation to connect with a regional program officer to share more about the organization’s goals.

If you received a decline letter for your 2024 Spring Cycle Community Grant application, but received a donor advised fund letter, you are eligible to apply for the 2024 Fall Cycle.

Email us at grants@oregoncf.org and we will get back to you as soon as we are able.  

The 2024 Fall Cycle does not have limits on overall budget size for applicants. The only budget size limitation in the 2024 Fall Cycle is the overall size of capital project budgets for applications of that type. For the 2024 Fall Cycle, capital project budgets must be $500,000 or less.

Community Grants typically do not fund:

• Projects in individual schools
• Re-granting programs
• Tuition assistance or scholarships for college, university or other degree bearing courses of study
• Purchases or activities that occur prior to grant decisions
• Deficit funding
• Funding for public entities to replace government dollars
• Lobbying to influence legislation (a specific bill or candidate)
• Scientific research
• Religious activities
• Animal-focused proposals
• Annual fund appeals

Email grants@oregoncf.org and we will get back to you as soon as we are able. 

Your application must be submitted and received by July 23, 2024, at 5 pm Pacific Time. We experience a high volume of submissions close to the deadline and highly recommend you submit your application in advance. If you do not receive an email confirmation of your submission, your application has not been received by OCF. If you have questions about your application submission, please contact grants@oregoncf.org.

Typical ranges are $5,000 - $30,000. We will consider requests up to $40,000, especially for efforts that closely match Community Grants funding priorities and clearly demonstrate the timeliness, feasibility, and impact of an OCF grant of this size. However, the average award size is usually $20,000 and amounts will always be decided in the context of the overall program budget and amount requested. This means it is possible that your request may be partially funded.

No. All awards in the 2024 Fall Cycle will be one year in duration.  

There are many factors that go into the final decisions about which proposals get funded and for several months following a decline decision, you can reach out to a Program Officer for feedback. However, in most cases the reason is some combination of these factors:

1. There is significant need across all regions of the state and while we do our best to prioritize the greatest needs, the amount of dollars requested historically far exceeds the resources available.
2. The applicant or request did not meet the eligibility criteria
3. The application did not adequately demonstrate that the community served was involved in planning or leadership
4. The application lacks detail on impactful service to priority populations
5. The proposal includes activities listed as “what we don’t fund”

Your application must be submitted and received by July 23, 2024, at 5 p.m. Pacific Time. OCF will not accept late submissions.

Approved and declined applicants will be notified by email in mid-November. Funds will be distributed on the same day via check or ACH.

Your most recently completed fiscal year is the one for which you have board approved, final financial statements. If this does not line up neatly with the application deadline, there is narrative space in the application to provide context about your organization’s accounting practices.

All proposal activities must occur within the grant period of November 2024 through November 2025. Activities that take place outside of the grant period are ineligible for funding.

We recommend you structure your application as if the reader is learning about your organization for the first time. While an OCF program officer is likely to be the first reader of your application, it may also be read by volunteers, OCF donors or other funders, all of whom bring different levels of lived experience and community knowledge to their reading.

Questions are listed in the Program Guidelines on page 7.

Review criteria are listed in the Program Guidelines on page 10.

For the purposes of this application, a small capital project has a total cost of $500,000 or less, can be completed within funding period and stands alone, i.e., is not a “phase” of a larger-budget project. Project costs are associated with new or expanded building construction, renovation or equipment. Eligible examples include new freezers for a food distribution center, an ADA bathroom remodel or the acquisition of a new vehicle for outreach to isolated communities. A smaller “phase” of a larger-budget capital project is not eligible.

Capacity building is costs relating to new or expanded activities that develop the organization. It’s work that increases the applicant’s internal ability to more effectively accomplish their community-focused mission. Project costs relate to new or expanded activities that develop the organization Examples include communications improvement projects such as increasing website accessibility, increase of FTE (through new positions or by increasing existing positions from part time to full time) or staff professional development.

Program Officers are usually available to provide feedback on applications from the most recent completed application cycle, both those that were declined and those that were funded. Program Officers cannot review applications drafts before submission.

The Nonprofit Association of Oregon has many references, as does the People’s Nonprofit Accelerator. Community libraries may have listings for grant writers or community college resources.

Information about eligible applications will be accessible to OCF donors and may be presented to peer funders interested in supporting your work. We encourage you to share additional information with donors by filling out the Organizational Profile Form on our website. The 0rganizational profile is not a grant application but does allow you to share your organization's current needs with donors. Your profile can be updated any time during the year.

OCF welcomes your written stories, videos and photos so we can share them with prospective donors and the public. Real stories from nonprofits help us secure more gifts, and that benefits the entire nonprofit community. Email them to communications@oregoncf.org.

Do you have blanket photo and video releases for everyone pictured? If not, please make sure they each complete an OCF Photo Release Form.

No. The only attachments we are accepting are project budgets (required) and/or fiscal sponsorship agreements (only required for organizations working with a fiscal sponsor).