2026 Fall Community Grants Program FAQs

501(c)(3) organizations, Tribal entities and government entities are eligible to apply in the 2026 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 June 23, 2026.  

In order to maintain funding opportunities for a broad array of organizations, the Community Grants Program requires a two cycle sit-out period. Organizations that received a Community Grant in 2026 Spring or 2025 Fall are not eligible for a 2026 Fall Cycle Community Grant. To confirm whether you received an award in one of these previous cycles, please review the list published on our website here.

Yes – nonprofits seeking funds in Oregon are required to register with the Oregon Department of Justice. This applies to both in-state and out-of-state organizations. For fiscally-sponsored organizations, this requirement applies to your fiscal sponsor, regardless of whether the sponsor is in-state or out-of-state. 

Processing time with the Oregon Department of Justice can take around 4-6 weeks. As all eligibility requirements should be met at the time a Community Grant application is submitted, we recommend submitting registration as soon as possible. 

Certain organizations, such as houses of worship, government entities, and tribal entities are exempt from this requirement. In certain cases, OCF staff may request confirmation of your organization’s exemption from the Oregon Department of Justice. 

For more information, see this link: https://www.doj.state.or.us/charitable-activities/starting-or-closing-a-charity/registering-a-new-charity/

All eligible organizations based in Oregon or primarily serving Oregon communities may apply for the 2026 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 a 2026 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.

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).

Yes – if you met the eligibility criteria and applied for either the 2026 Spring or 2025 Fall Cycle but did not receive funding through Community Grants, you are eligible to apply again this cycle. 

This includes if you were sent a decline letter for your Community Grants application but still received funding via a Donor Advised Fund. Please review your response letter(s) or contact us at grants@oregoncf.org for assistance.

Yes, you are eligible to apply for the 2026 Fall Cycle if your Community Grant application was declined and you received support from a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF) instead. To confirm whether you received a Community Grant award in a previous cycle, please review the list published on our website here.

The 2026 Fall Cycle does not have limits on overall budget size for applicants. The only budget size limitation in the 2026 Fall Cycle is the overall size of capital project budgets for applications of that type. For the 2026 Fall Cycle, capital project budgets must be $500,000 or less.

Community Grants typically do not fund:

• Animal-focused proposals (except those with direct impact for community members)
• Annual fund appeals
• Deficit funding
• Funding for public entities to replace government dollars
• Lobbying activities
• Projects in individual public schools
• Purchase or activities outside the grant period of October 2026–October 2027
• Regranting programs
• Religious activities
• Scientific research
• Tuition aid or scholarships for university, college, or other degree-bearing courses of study

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 expanding 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 capital project is not eligible if the total cost of the full project exceeds $500,000. 

Capacity building refers to costs relating to new or expanding activities that develop the organization’s internal ability to more effectively accomplish their community-focused mission.  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.

Yes, choose the one grant request type for your application that is most closely aligned. Applicants will not be penalized for selecting the “incorrect” type; your initial choice will help us better understand your request.

Under-resourced communities have high proportions of low- to moderate-income residents and generally receive below-average services and financial resources from government sources. Many, but not all, comprise an above-average number of people of color, immigrants, and/or geographically-isolated individuals. People earn lower incomes due to many factors, but they often have been negatively impacted by social and economic marginalization. Some communities have been intentionally disenfranchised by decades of redlining and/or economic disinvestment that limits access to resources and services, devalues physical assets, and weakens community anchor institutions. Others may experience geographic isolation that results in limited investment in critical infrastructure such as medical facilities, internet connectivity and transportation. Combined, these conditions create what we refer to as under-resourced communities.

Questions are included in the Program Guidelines on page 8.

Review criteria are included in the Program Guidelines on page 13.

Example answers are included in the Program Guidelines on page 9.

Your last 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.

For example, if your fiscal year starts August 1, you should use the operating expenses from your financial statements for the fiscal year ending July 31, 2025 in your 2026 Fall Community Grants application.

No. Fiscally-sponsored organizations should create and use their own organization record in the OCF database. This not only allows us to maintain more accurate records, but also ensures that your application does not impact the eligibility of your sponsor organization. Fiscally-sponsored organizations will be asked to submit documentation of their agreement for review. This documentation should be signed by both parties and dated within the past year.

Contact information for regional Program Officers can be found here.

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.

Typical ranges are $15,000 - $20,000. 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. This means it is possible that your request may be partially funded.

No. All awards in the 2026 Fall Cycle will be one year in duration. 

Funding decisions are based on several factors, including alignment with program goals, strength and clarity of the proposal, and the number of applications received compared to available funds. If you'd like feedback specific to your application, we encourage you to contact a Program Officer.

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.

Your application must be submitted and received by June 23, 2026, at 5 p.m. Pacific Time. OCF will not accept late submissions

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

Yes. OCF staff will review your status and eventually give you full admin access to your organization’s records. But, in the meantime, you are able to begin and submit an application.

Your application must be submitted and received by June 23, 2026, at 5 p.m. Pacific Time. We experience a high volume of submissions close to the deadline and highly recommend you submit your application in advance. 

After you hit submit, you can confirm the status of your application by navigating to your organization’s page, clicking “More Details” and scroll down to see your application. Your application status will read “In Process" and have a “Continue Application” button if you have not yet submitted. Once submitted it will have a status of “Received” and you can only “View Application.” A video tutorial demonstrating this process is available here on our website. 

If you have questions about your application submission, please contact grants@oregoncf.org.

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

If your organization is not pursuing work that is competitive in this cycle, the 2027 funding priorities will be announced by early 2027. 

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