Portland Children’s Levy panel outlines funding recommendations after 21% revenue drop; council to vote next week

Portland City Council on Tuesday held a work session to hear the Portland Children’s Levy’s (PCL) large‑grant process and the Allocation Committee’s funding recommendations, which staff said total about $65 million over three years and would fund 94 applications. Council members and levy staff repeatedly emphasized that the work session was for questions only; the council will vote on the Allocation Committee package at a forthcoming council meeting.

The discussion matters because the voter‑approved levy provides locally raised property‑tax funding for programs serving children and youth across six program areas. Levy staff said the program supports 85 current grants, funds approximately $23 million a year, and serves children from birth through age 24. Lisa Pellegrino, director of the Portland Children’s Levy, told councilors the funding round “has been a two‑year process” involving community engagement, a new community council and 91 community volunteers who read applications anonymously.

Levy staff and grant managers described the review and recommendation process in detail. Staff said they collected community input through surveys, interviews and focus groups in more than 25 languages, formed a 13‑member Community Council to set funding priorities, trained 96 reviewers and ultimately used the median of four volunteer review scores as the application score. Staff then combined application scores with the community council’s priorities and published funding criteria to craft two portfolio options; the Allocation Committee reviewed those portfolios, heard applicant testimony submitted in March, and approved the final slate.

Presenters said the financial context greatly tightened this year’s decisions. “The big factor impacting this year’s awards is really, catch this, [a] 21% drop in revenue,” Councilor Ryan told colleagues while introducing the briefing. Levy staff explained the decline reflects lower property‑tax revenue and that the levy also spent down an accumulated fund balance from pandemic‑era underspending. At the same time staff said applications outpaced available funds by more than three to one and that applications from organizations without prior PCL funding roughly tripled since 2019. Staff reported a 45% increase in the number of applications received compared with the last round.

Key figures and allocations provided by staff: - PCL currently funds 85 programs (77 large grants, 7 small grants, 1 cross‑cutting special initiative). - The levy generates approximately $23,000,000 annually. - Estimated resources for the current funding period were cited at roughly $71,000,000 over three years; the Allocation Committee reserved $6,000,000 over three years for the Community Childcare Initiative (CCI) and set approximately $64,700,000 for the large grants round. The Allocation Committee’s final funding decisions were described as totaling about $65,000,000 after accounting for an unspent balance from a former grant. - 168 applications were submitted to the large grants round; the Allocation Committee approved funding for 94 applications. - Review process: 91 volunteers completed reviews; each application was read by four volunteers and the median score was used.

Staff also summarized who applications would serve and how awards were balanced. Joel Broussard, grant manager for child abuse prevention and foster care portfolios, said that in fiscal 2023–24 the levy’s relationship‑based programs served more than 9,500 children; 77% of those children were identified as Black, Indigenous, or people of color and 90% were from families at or below 185% of the federal poverty level. Levy staff reported that hunger‑relief programs served more than 12,000 children and families in the same period.

Allocation Committee and staff criteria: the memo and presenters said staff combined application score, community council priorities and other published criteria to form recommendations. Those criteria included: program alignment with funding priorities, priority populations (for example Black, Indigenous and children and families of color; immigrant and refugee families; children with disabilities; LGBTQIA2S+ youth; and families in East and North Portland), organizational capacity, program feasibility and past performance for current grantees. Staff also said they limited administrative overhead to a maximum of 15% of a grant award.

Councilors pressed staff on several recurring themes: the weight given to equity versus program effectiveness; the decision to prioritize smaller organizations and organizations without current PCL funding; continuity for culturally specific programs; and geographic reach/transportation. Councilor Novick and others questioned the degree to which equity and inclusion factors were built into scoring; staff answered that equity was infused across organization‑capacity and program‑effectiveness questions rather than treated as a separate, standalone category. Councilor Smith asked how the process balanced continuity for historically funded, culturally specific providers with new grantees; staff said current grantees with sustained performance were generally recommended to continue, and that funding reductions reflect constrained resources rather than a policy to remove culturally specific programs.

Several councilors asked about small‑organization funding and oversight. Staff and grant managers said “small” in the large grants pool was defined as organizations with annual revenues of $6,000,000 or less (the small grants fund uses a lower threshold). The community‑facing small grants program, launched in 2020, was described as a capacity‑building pathway: several small‑grants recipients later applied in the large grants round and were recommended for funding. Staff said the levy caps administrative costs at 15% to limit overhead growth across many smaller awards.

Councilors also discussed programmatic priorities that emerged from community engagement. Katrina Peterson, PCL engagement coordinator, described funding priorities that the community council and Allocation Committee used in each program area (examples: after‑school enrichment activities; school‑ and community‑based food pantries; supports for older foster youth; social‑connection activities in mentoring). Presenters also noted specific recommended awards intended to reach priority geographies and populations — for example mobile hunger‑relief services targeted to West‑Side ZIP codes and mentoring grants addressing houseless LGBTQ youth.

Next steps and constraints: presenters reminded councilors that PCL’s authorizing materials require City Council to approve or remand Allocation Committee funding decisions by program area; council may not substitute its own allocation. Levy staff warned that remanding decisions would delay grant starts that are scheduled to begin July 1, 2025, and noted that all current levy grants expire June 30, 2025. Councilors were told the Allocation Committee package will return for a council vote in a regularly scheduled meeting in late May.

Councilor Ryan closed by thanking levy staff and volunteers for the process and noted the pressure of reduced revenue and increased demand: “This isn’t fun. This is kind of a reality check of what a lot of us are experiencing who are providing government services and support for children and families at this time,” he said.

The work session did not include a council vote. Councilors may either approve the Allocation Committee’s funding recommendations or remand one or more program areas back to the committee for reconsideration when the item returns to council.