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2025 Grant Cycle (January 1 – December 31, 2025)
Community Cultural Participation Grant Requirements
For nonprofit organizations
Cultural Coalition of Washington County Mission Statement:
The Cultural Coalition of Washington County (CCWC) is the re-granting board of the Oregon Cultural Trust in Washington County. The CCWC also promotes the cultural identity, quality of life and economic vitality of Washington County and its arts, heritage, and humanities organizations.
Application period opens September 18, 2024 and closes at 11:59 PM PT on October 21, 2024.
Award Notifications will be provided by mid-January 2025.
Funds will be issued early February 2025. Note: Organizations with January 2025 projects may need to be prepared to cover costs until grant funds are distributed.
If you received a CCWC grant in 2024, please submit your final report through your organization’s account in our grant portal. Final reports for 2024 grants may be submitted anytime but will be due no later than January 15, 2025. This is a hard deadline. Failure to submit a final report by the deadline will make your organization ineligible for a 2025 grant and may make you ineligible to apply again in future cycles.
Grant Requirements:
The Community Cultural Participation (CCP) Grant Program provides financial support for Washington County nonprofit arts, heritage, and humanities organizations and activities.
Applicants can apply for activities or opportunities that address one or more of these five goals:
- Public Awareness and Participation- Build community through communication, audience development, and engagement.
- Support Cultural Organizations- Increase capacity, encourage professional development, and support adaptability.
- Increase Public Art and Performance Opportunities- Foster more impactful art, events, and cultural connections with increased accessibility for all.
- Support Diverse Cultural and Heritage Activities- Include cultural learning and cultural equity at the heart of our creative community.
- Increasing Access to Arts Education- Serve school-based arts and cultural opportunities and build arts awareness for youth, while encouraging life-long learning.
A strong grant application will explain how the grant addresses priorities of:
- promoting cultural diversity
- developing community and/or cross-cultural partnerships
- providing matching-fund or cost-sharing opportunities
- promoting cultural tourism
- presenting events that are open to the public
Please visit the CCWC website for more information about the Washington County Cultural Plan. Proposals in the CCP Grant Program should be geared toward a specific event, activity, or communication of the organization.
Examples of successful CCP Grant Proposals include:
- Expenses for events and activities accessible to the public: festivals, performances, workshops, lectures, conferences, exhibits, open studio tours and other activities which will clearly help enrich cultural participation within the county.
- General promotional material that focuses on one or more of the previously mentioned five priorities.
- Applicants must demonstrate a clear distribution and/or marketing plan in proposals for promotional materials. (Promotional materials include the development of websites.)
- Create and implement a cultural learning program.
- Performances, demonstrations, or exhibitions in schools.
- Cross-cultural partnerships and collaborations, including work with the Washington County Visitors Association, or support for cultural tourism events or activities.
Funding for CCP grants comes from the Oregon Cultural Trust (OCT): the number of CCP grants awarded will depend on the funds available in the CCP Grant budget for that year.
To find out more about the Oregon Cultural Trust, go to: www.culturaltrust.org.
Cultural Coalition of Washington County Cultural Plan: To access a copy of the current Washington County Cultural Plan or to find out more about the Cultural Coalition of Washington County, go to: www.ccwashco.org/about.
CCWC Statement of Non-Discrimination:
The CCWC is committed to providing services and making our resources available to every member of Washington County without regard to race, color, creed, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, military status, marital status, political opinion, national origin, familial status, mental and physical disability, gender identity, and source of income or disability status.
Grant Assistance:
For questions about the grant requirements, organization or grant eligibility, and/or technical assistance with the grant application process, software issues, and status of grant fund distribution please contact: info@ccwashco.org.
Visit these websites for tips on submitting a well-written grant (more grant resources are listed at the end of this document):
How to Write a Winning Grant for Your Nonprofit
How to Write a Successful Humanities Grant
Budget tips: revenue and expenses must balance. Be as detailed as possible, especially with revenue projections (be specific about sources of income). Incomplete or incorrectly completed budgets are the main reason grant proposals are rejected. Visit our website for an example of a well-written budget.
Requirements for 2025 Grant Applications
Please note: CCWC’s grant requirements have been revised since 2024. Read the following to be sure your project fits with the new requirements.
2024 Approved Grant Waiver Applicants:
- Applicants are advised to make their 2025 project different from the funded 2024 project.
- Applicants with approved 2024 Cultural Coalition grant amendment waivers are eligible to apply for the 2025 grant cycle.
2025 Translation of Guidelines and Application Form:
- The Cultural Coalition offers the Grant Guidelines and Application in English and Spanish.
- The Board is accepting feedback on additional language translation needs for the 2025 grant cycle, please email requests to info@ccwashco.org.
Ideas and Resources for 2025 Grant Applicants
- Community needs – design your project with community needs in mind.
- Engage your board and community in planning/projects – consider applications to fund strategic planning or community engagement that might help build capacity. Here are some possibilities:
- Develop a new strategic plan for your organization
- Work with community focus groups and surveys
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion work for your organization – apply DEI lens to structure/operations
- How to grow your organization – organization building, marketing plan, audience cultivation, or staff/volunteer development/training
- Become established as a 501(c)(3) organization
- Employ arts and culture as a problem solving tool – to address specific challenges facing your community (see Arts Consultant George Thorn’s article with many useful ideas).
How to apply for a Community Cultural Participation (CCP) Grant:
Timelines:
- Grant applications open September 18, 2024.
- The deadline to submit an application is 11:59 PM PT on October 21, 2024.
- Applications must be completed and electronically submitted on-line to CCWC’s application portal. Late or paper applications will not be accepted. Please do not wait until the last minute to submit your grant applications.
- To access the CCP on-line application and guidelines go to www.ccwashco.org/grant-program/
Grant Cycle:
All funded activities must take place between January 1 – December 31, 2025.
Eligibility:
New this year: two levels of Community Cultural Participation grants are available.
- Level 1: up to $1,000
- Level 2: up to $3,000
Please submit your grant request amount based on your actual need. This will enable the CCWC to fund more organizations across the county. The CCWC reserves the right to award partial funding to applicants in order to fund all grants the review panel deems worthy.
An organization may apply for and receive only one CCP grant per year. Priority will be given to new projects that reach a diverse and wide audience.
Ineligible Expenditures/Applicants:
- Grants will not be awarded to an individual or a private business.
- Fiscal Sponsorship organizations and/or efforts are not eligible to apply for their sponsored organizations.
- Grants will not be awarded to support a capital campaign or campaign expense.
- Grants will not be awarded to support an endowment.
- Grants will not fund events that take place outside of Washington County. Organizations must be as specific as possible at the time of their application about the locations of their projects. Funds may be withheld until the location of the project is known.
- Organizations outside Washington County may apply only if their events will take place in Washington County.
- Priority will be given to organizations headquartered in Washington County.
- Grants will not be awarded for the purchase of food or refreshments.
Level 1 Eligibility Criteria: Up to $1,000 CCP Grant
- Be a not-for-profit arts, humanities or heritage organization or be an educational institution or government agency with an arts, heritage or humanities mission. IRS 501(c)(3) status is not required. Applications from individuals or private businesses will not be accepted.
- Applications from social service agencies or religious organizations will be accepted only if application is made in partnership with a nonprofit cultural organization for a joint project. Applicants must attach a letter from the partnering organization confirming their support for the project and outlining their role in the partnership.
- Apply for an opportunity that specifically enhances Public Awareness and Participation, supports Existing Cultural Organizations, Increases Public Art Opportunities, supports Cultural and Heritage Learning, or increases Youth Access to the Arts (as described above).
- Provide CCWC with an Employer Identification Number (EIN). You can receive an EIN within minutes online at www.irs.gov.
Be headquartered within Washington County and serve Washington County residents or apply for a grant to support your event located in Washington County.
- Grants to organizations located in Washington County, such as schools, which take students to events located in another county, such as the opera, will be eligible for funding, provided there is no other alternative available in Washington County.
- New this year: The CCWC will no longer offer higher funding for school districts and public school foundations. Priority will be given to applications submitted by or on behalf of individual teachers. Applications do not have to be submitted by the district, but please be aware that only an EIN number may be used only once per grant cycle. Therefore, multiple applications may not be submitted by schools using the same EIN.
- Applications will be accepted that support capital expenditures such as the acquisition of public art, museum exhibits or equipment, but CCP grants may not be used for capital campaigns.
- Grants will not fund purchases of equipment or clothing not critical to the organization’s mission or the project/event.
- If an organization received a Community Cultural Participation Grant in 2024, a final report for that grant must have been submitted on time prior to applying for a 2025 grant. If the activity has not yet been completed, please explain in the application.
- Applicants must provide an itemized budget showing revenue and expenditures for the proposed activity or event in the application. Revenue and expenses must balance. Be as detailed as possible, especially with revenue projections (be specific about granting organizations and sources of income). If your organization presents projects in multiple counties, please include only budget information pertinent to your activities in Washington County.
Level 2 Eligibility Criteria: Up to $3,000 CCP Grant
- Must meet the Level 1 criteria above.
- An organization must have IRS 501(c)(3) status or be a governmental agency or a public school. (Upon request, a letter verifying status must be submitted).
Review and Notification Process:
- A panel of CCWC board members review proposals according to established eligibility criteria.
- Awards will be based on CCWC review panel recommendations.
- Grant applicants can anticipate notification of grant award status by December 9, 2024. If you have not received official notification by January 20, 2025, contact CCWC at grants@ccwashco.org.
2025 CCP Grant Compliance:
- Use of Funds Deadline – Applicants awarded a CCP grant must complete the grant between January 1 and December 31, 2025. Note: Organizations with January 2025 projects may need to cover costs until grant funds are distributed in early February.
- Grant communication will be conducted electronically using the Main and Alternate email addresses submitted with the application. Please use names and email addresses of the people who will have primary responsibility for the grant. If this responsibility changes during the year, notify CCWC and update your account in our grant portal.
- Award notification emails will be emailed via the online grant portal to organizations in December, 2024. Please read and share the information with all people involved in your grant project.
- If you receive a 2025 grant, a Grant Contract must be completed and returned by December 20, 2024. Please be sure your decision makers are aware of this deadline and there is no delay in returning this form. Failure to return this form by the deadline could result in your grant being rescinded.
- Acknowledgment (Credit to CCWC & OCT) – Recipients of CCP grant support must acknowledge the Cultural Coalition of Washington County and the Oregon Cultural Trust in all publicity related to the CCP grant. An electronic version of the logos can be found on each website or can be requested from grants@ccwashco.org. Recipients are requested to email and/or mail copies of printed materials, press releases/coverage related to the project or activity to CCWC for its files.
Please mail copies of materials to:
Cultural Coalition of Washington County
2850 SW Cedar Hills Blvd #2127
Beaverton, OR 97005
Email digital copies to:
- Required Notification/Approval for Changes – It is the responsibility of the grant applicant to notify CCWC in advance in writing of any changes in the grant status or use of funds. Grant recipients must receive permission from CCWC prior to making major changes in use of grant funds.
- CCWC Grant “Buddy” – A Grant Buddy will be assigned to the grant awardees as a liaison to enhance communication. Please respond in a timely way to emails from your grant buddy.
Final Report – 2025 awardees must submit a Final Report of completed activities by January 15, 2026. New this year: The final report must contain photos of your project and photos or PDFs of your program information showing the location of your event and your acknowledgement of CCWC and the Oregon Cultural Trust. The final report form can be accessed by going to your organization’s account in our grant portal. Final reports can be completed at any point during the year, but must be received by January 15, 2026. This is a hard deadline. We strongly encourage organizations to submit their final reports as soon as their project is completed. Compliance with the final reporting requirements in previous grant cycles will be considered when the applicant’s future grant applications are in review. Please do not expect CCWC to remind you to submit your final report.
More resources on funding for nonprofits:
The Grantsmanship Center – this website has webinars and trainings as well as a Program Planning & Proposal Writing Guide
Nonprofit Association of Oregon
Tualatin Valley Creates – presents workshops and networking events in Washington County
The Oregon Cultural Trust – offers several grant programs annually