General
Does the County have a target number of grant proposals they would like to award through this grant program?
The County does not have a number of anticipated grant awards. As a point of comparison, the FY25 grant cycle had 22 awards, and the FY26 grant cycle had 23 awards. We are relying on the applicant organizations to identify the biggest community needs to show how the limited grant funding can have the most effective community impact rather than having the County pre-determine a specific number of grant awards.
If there is no cap on award requests, is there anything that would be considered too high?
There is no advertised cap on requests. FY25 requests ranged from roughly $15,000 to $500,000, with over two thirds being below $150,000; awards were up to $225,000. FY26 awards ranged from $26,000 to the cap of $150,000. Given the limited total funding available of $1.25 million, the County encourages applicants to limit individual request to no more than $50,000. The County does not anticipate awarding many requests above $50,000.
How did the County determine that only four (4) larger requests would be awarded? Will they represent different identified need categories (economic security, education quality & access, health care quality & access, safety, and social connection & community)?
The County anticipates awarding a maximum of four (4) larger requests given the reduced amount of total funding available compared to prior grant cycles. The County anticipates that awarding four (4) larger requests would amount to approximately one half of the available total funding, leaving the remaining funding to be spread amongst smaller requests to support multiple areas of need. The County is not requiring that the four larger requests represent different identified need categories, although it is expected that the different categories will be represented across all awards.
Application Package
Are different questions/sections weighted differently?
Each question is worth 5 points. There is no weighting.
What needs to be included in the budget narrative?
The budget narrative only needs to describe the budget being requested from the Opportunities Grant. There is no word limit on this question.
In the sample grant agreement, there is a discrepancy in the amount of the award that needs to be spent by the end of the second quarter. Which is correct?
Similar to the FY26 process, applicants will be expected to have spent 50% of the funding they'd received in the first two quarters in order to receive upfront quarterly tranches after the second quarter.
Review
Who will be the staff reviewers, and how will it be determined who reads which application?
Staff reviewers will be recruited from a variety of County departments. There will be some targeted recruitment of staff with expertise in human services, community development, and grants management. Assignments of applications to staff reviewers are randomly, although conflicts of interest will be avoided. All staff reviewers will be trained on objective scoring and using the rubric. All staff reviewers will participate in group discussions on the proposals, scoring, and funding recommendations.
How will the Community Focus Groups be recruited?
The County continues to refine the recruitment plan. Participants will likely be recruited from community members who have served as grant reviewers in other County grant programs and those who have served in other County focus groups. Additionally, recruitment efforts will take place in public spaces (libraries, community rec centers, etc.) through fliers, e-boards, etc.
Will the applicants get reviewer feedback?
Yes, applicants will receive their scores and narrative feedback from County staff review/discussion and focus group comments. This feedback will be given after awards have been approved.