PCL Small Grants Updates and Recommendations April 24, 2020
PCL Small Grants Why Small Grants? • Increase equity in our grantmaking through reaching small organizations and underserved communities. • Small organizations are defined as nonprofits or fiscally sponsored organizations with annual budgets of $1 million or less.
Small Grants Fund Participatory Process Design Team: Purpose: Support the design of the grantmaking process, application criteria, and ensure equity and access at every step. Experience: Design Team members have both public and private grantmaking experience and come from multiple cultural communities. January-April : 4 meetings (1 in-person, 4 virtual) • Planned agenda for the community conversations • Crafted process recommendations for Small Grants Fund.
Community Conversations February 24 th -March 27 th . • 1 was in-person • 7 were virtual via Zoom Representatives from 31 small organizations attended • Communities and Populations: African, Arabic-speaking, Zomi, Pacific Islanders, Black, Native American, multicultural children and youth, disability groups • Topic-focused groups: youth-led organizations, teen parents, sports organizations
Community Conversations Topics discussed at the Community Conversations: • Types of technical assistance small organizations need • Equity-based ways of facilitating the two-step process • Additional feedback on the construction of a Strength-Based Grantmaking Process for small organizations
Community Conversations: Findings • Gratitude: Excitement about the community-engaged planning process • Process Right-Sizing: Application process needs to right- sized to size of organization and grants • 2-step process: Support for 2- step but didn’t want high opportunity cost, especially during Step 1. • Step-2 interactive component: Evaluation criteria needs to be fair, but flexible to the needs of different cultural groups and abilities.
Community Conversations: Findings • Impact of COVID-19 crisis: Organizations need a shorter process to get funds to underserved communities quickly. • Technical Assistance Needs: • Culturally-centered means of support for children/youth with disabilities • Ongoing TA and support for strengths-based grantmaking relationship that allows for continuous quality improvement. • Organizations have a variety of needs for TA. Staff will make resource lists available for TA.
Small Grants Process Recommendations • Step 1 Application: Short written application with 5 essay questions • Narrow Applicant Pool: Design Team and Reviewers narrow down applicant pool from Step 1 to Step 2 • Step 2 Application: Longer application, full budget detail and interview. • Step 2 Scoring: Step 2 Applications scored by Design Team and Reviewers. Group creates funding recommendations to Allocation Committee.
Tentative Funding Timeline May June July Aug/Sept October Nov 20- Jan 21 May 4 th AC Reviewer Step 1 Step 2 AC meeting City Council approval of Training Due Materials to to decide meeting to process Date Allocation which approve July 8 th design Committee applications Allocation to fund Committee May 13 th Step Interviews decisions 1 Application Conducted Materials Contracts published Step 2 to Applications nonprofits May 20 th & Due & 27 th Scored Informational Sessions
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