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Deschutes County staff and commissioners divide $12,000 in discretionary VLF grants among 40 applicants
Summary
The board reviewed 40 eligible discretionary grant applications requesting $110,561; commissioners allocated the available $12,000 from video-lottery funds across multiple community organizations, discussed routing arts and culture requests to the Deschutes Cultural Coalition, and noted carryover and returned funds.
Deschutes County considered its annual discretionary grant round funded by video-lottery funds (VLF) and allocated available FY26 funds to local nonprofit applicants.
Strategic initiatives manager Jen Patterson told the board that 43 applications were received and 40 were eligible, requesting a combined $110,561; the FY26 discretionary pool contains $12,000, or $4,000 in allocations per commissioner. Patterson said the application round closed Oct. 15 and that prior-year program structure changes reduced the overall available pool.
Commissioners reviewed the applications aloud and individually assigned amounts from their per-commissioner allocation. Commissioners discussed two recurring administrative items: returned funding that could be reallocated (a small returned amount of $250 was discussed) and whether arts-and-culture requests should instead be referred to the Deschutes Cultural Coalition, which received $15,000 for FY26 to distribute arts funding.
Board members agreed to direct staff to update the grants webpage and to notify applicants about alternative referral channels where appropriate. Patterson will follow up on vendor and prior-award records for a few organizations that listed prior awards in their applications to confirm historical funding.
No formal roll-call vote was required for the allocations because commissioners individually designated their discretionary allotments during the meeting; staff will record the finalized allocations in the grants system and disburse funds through established county procedures.
