The Building Community portfolio, along with two other Meyer portfolios, recently announced funding opportunities to help Oregon’s communities increase their collective capacity to improve conditions for communities of color, Oregonians living on low incomes and other historically marginalized populations.
Now fully staffed, the Building Community team has been traveling around the state to explain the portfolio’s goals and help answer questions from prospective grantees and community members at dozens of funding information sessions. As Portfolio Director, I have appreciated learning firsthand about the challenges and successes of people and organizations working in the field around Oregon. And we’ve been impressed by the creativity and resilience we’ve seen from Astoria to Eugene, and from Bend to Burns.
At many of the info sessions and during follow-up calls and emails, we have responded to a number of questions, including:
1 ) How many proposals can my organization submit under the 2016 Funding Opportunities?
An organization may submit only one proposal for itself. However, if an organization is submitting a proposal on behalf of a collaborative, it may submit one proposal for its own organization and one on behalf of the collaborative.
2) Will Meyer review all proposals submitted by inquiry application deadlines, or will reach a certain capacity earlier and stop accepting them?
There’s no limit to the number of applications that can be submitted before the inquiry application deadlines. We will review all timely applications.
3) My organization does not have an explicit equity mission. Will we still be eligible to apply?
Across all of our funding priorities, our grantmaking is framed by our commitment to dismantling barriers to equity and improving community conditions so that all Oregonians can reach their full potential. We believe that the work of many organizations contribute to increasing equity and building inclusive communities. Our goal is to support organizations and collaboratives to build their strength in this area regardless of their starting point or stage of development in this area. All proposals should demonstrate a commitment to equity that is closely tied to overarching goals. Please review our Equity Statement for more information on our approach to equity.
We have tried to address these questions and many more on our growing FAQ page.
As you think about the funding opportunities in the Building Community portfolio and whether or not they are a good match with your strategic goals, we encourage you to begin by reading through what we fund.
When we consider requests for support, we’ll be looking for good alignment with our goals, strategies and desired outcomes. Think about how the work you propose connects with one of these goals and how it might bring about one or more of the desired outcomes.
Our portfolio team can also respond to your questions about the Building Community portfolio and our funding opportunities. In addition to myself, the team includes:
erin [at] mmt.org (Erin Dysart), Program Associate
nancy [at] mmt.org (Nancy Ramirez Arriaga), Program Officer
Yana Velasquez, Administrative Assistant
sally [at] mmt.org (Sally Yee), Program Officer
Please let us know if we can answer your questions [at] mmt.org (questions) and join us for one of our upcoming in-person information sessions, or the Building Community specific virtual information sessions.
Thanks for your interest in the Building Community funding opportunity and we look forward to connecting with you soon!