Funding Opportunity for Community-Based Organizations

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA), Public Health Division, recognizes the essential role of community-based organizations (CBOs) in community-led, culturally, and linguistically responsive public health service. This Request for Grant Applications (RFGA) offers several funding choices in one application that reflects coordination among several OHA programs. 

This grant seeks to make it easier to apply for and receive funding from OHA. OHA has approximately $31,060,000 available across all categories described below, under this grant opportunity and may award additional funds if they become available or may not award all the funds depending on applications received.

OHA seeks to center community strengths, wisdom and priorities for health, and to support the work of CBOs to advance health equity in communities of color, Tribal communities, disability communities, immigrant and refugee communities, undocumented communities, migrant and seasonal farmworkers, LGBTQIA2S+ communities, faith communities, older adults, houseless communities and others.

OHA will fund work on specific public health issues (for example, HIV, climate change, overdose, commercial tobacco prevention), and provide opportunities for flexible funding for specific community health needs related to equity and the social determinants of health (for example, racism, colonialism, ableism, heterosexism, sexism). This RFGA also makes the applying organization eligible to apply for funding to support new public health priorities as needed. For example, this could include working with the community during outbreak response or another public health emergency.

Important Dates

Opportunity posted:

Dec. 3, 2021

Virtual information sessions:

Dec. 8–Jan. 24, 2022

Application due:

Jan. 31, 2022

Grant period:

(Estimated) March 1 through June 30, 2023

Who can apply?​

We welcome applications from organizations of all sizes and perspectives, especially those that are new and those that have not received funding from OHA before. 

To apply and to be eligible for award of a Grant Agreement, an Applicant must meet the following requirements:

  1. Any 501(c)(3) organization registered with the Oregon Secretary of State and located in Oregon that provides culturally responsive services to communities in Oregon that are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.  Individuals and organizations with 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsors are eligible to apply. Organizations must hold commercial general liability insurance covering bodily injury and property damage of not less than $1,000,000 per occurrence and annual aggregate limit not less than $2,000,000 at the time of Grant award, if awarded. This should not be a barrier to applying. The cost of insurance may be added to the proposed budget and purchased with grant funds after being awarded.
  2. Any partnership or coalition of organizations working together, where the fiscal agent is a 501(c)(3) organization.
  3. All grantees must abide by OHA’s nondiscrimination policy, and state and federal civil rights laws, unless otherwise exempted by federal or state law. Specifically, people participating in OHA-sponsored activities or programs may not be treated unfairly because of age, color, disability, gender identity, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation.

Health systems and for-profit organizations are not eligible. Health systems are defined as organizations that include at least one hospital and at least one group of physicians that provides comprehensive care (including primary and specialty care) who are connected with each other and with the hospital through common ownership or joint management.

Some program areas may have additional eligibility requirements.

Program Areas for Funding

Activities with known funding are described below and may have criteria for eligibility or stated funding preferences. Unless otherwise specified, there are no restrictions on proposing to work within a county versus a region of the state. Please propose activities that meet the needs of your organization’s structure and/or service area.

Your project must fit into one or more program areas (blue column) and include activities in one or more categories of work (orange column). You may be eligible for funding across multiple program areas. You can apply for multiple different projects, in different program areas, through this one application.

Categories of work

Your project must fit into one or more of these categories of work.

OHA is intentionally not defining specific activities in each category. We encourage communities to say what is needed.

  1. Provide health education and communication to community members. 
  2. Identify and assess community priorities. 
  3. Support prevention activities. 
  4. Develop and advocate for policy priorities.
Local Public Health Authority (LPHA) Contacts for Community-Based Organizations

Many county health departments in Oregon are funded to work on these same program areas. If you want to know who in your local health department works on these program areas, click here.

Free help to apply

Everyone has a right to know about and use OHA programs and services. OHA provides free help. Some examples of the free help OHA can provide are:
  • Sign language and spoken language interpreters to help with completion of the application (from your preferred language to English)
  • This Request for Grant Application in other languages
  • Braille
  • Large print
  • Audio, written and other formats

To request translation or translation related assistance, please contact us at Community.PublicHealth@dhsoha.state.or.us.

Need to reference this information offline? To download a PDF of all content on this website, please click here.

What you can expect when you apply:

  • Reviewers may reach out to ask clarifying questions about your proposal. This may include a collaborative discussion and shared agreement on activities and budget. 
  • OHA will provide direct feedback to you if your proposal is not funded.
  • Refer to full RFGA document for additional submission
    details, click here.

In addition to the grant funding, awarded grantees will receive technical assistance.

Community-based organizations may want to build their staff capacity for certain skills or content area expertise, as well as organizational capacity to expand reach in community and improve competitiveness for funding opportunities. Organizations who are awarded funding in one or more categories below are eligible to receive capacity building, training, and technical assistance, including, but not limited to: fiscal, human resources, equity, policy leadership and advocacy capacities and subject matter areas like tobacco prevention and cessation, environmental and climate justice, and HIV prevention and care services.

Reporting

Every grantee will be asked to submit the following:

  • Financial reports due quarterly
  • Progress reports due quarterly