OFCY staff say 333 grant proposals request about $62 million while ~ $20 million is available

At its April 15 meeting, the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth’s Planning & Oversight Committee heard that 333 proposals were submitted in response to the latest RFP and that applicants requested roughly $62,000,000 while OFCY anticipates about $20,000,000 to allocate.

Robin Levinson, program planner with the Children and Youth Services Division, told the committee: "So we received 333" proposals and that "the amount asked by the community... was around 62,000,000," while "as you all know, we have about 20,000,000 to allocate out." She said the number of submissions represents roughly a 45% increase over the previous competitive cycle.

Why it matters: the gap between asks and available funding means the committee must prioritize across strategies and set a waitlist. Staff described the evaluation process, criteria and next steps the POC will use to determine which proposals receive awards and which will be placed on a ranked waitlist.

Staff walked the panel through the outreach and timeline for the RFP: the process launched Oct. 24, included a pre‑proposal conference attended by more than 300 people, and closed Dec. 12. CitySpan, the web platform used for submissions and review, supported multilingual notices and QR‑code outreach. To ensure fairness, all readers were required to sign confidentiality and impartiality attestations and pass a short test before accessing proposals.

Levinson and staff said the evaluation design required each proposal to be read by three different readers; roughly 253 people signed up to be readers and about 175 completed the required reading and training. Readers were paid a stipend of $25 per proposal. Staff described conflict safeguards that block access to reviews when a reader discloses a relationship with an applicant.

On scoring: staff reported 108 proposals averaged scores of 90 or above; an additional 78 averaged between 85 and 89. Staff emphasized that those averages reflect applicants’ asks and not final award recommendations. To move from scores to awards, staff said they will layer additional criteria — including geographic distribution, number of proposals submitted by an agency, total funding requested across an agency’s submissions, and alignment with the strategic investment plan — before forming recommendations.

Procedural and contractual steps: staff said all recommended awards must be routed through the Department of Workforce and Employment Standards (DWES) for vetting before any contract is issued. For summer awards staff expect a Life Enrichment Committee hearing on April 21; if approved there, staff aim to place items on a city council consent calendar the following week and begin contracting. Year‑round award recommendations are expected to return to the POC for review at the committee’s next meeting, with final council approvals to follow.

Staff cautioned about scale: using the current asks as a baseline, they estimated that many high‑scoring proposals will not be funded immediately and that the POC will likely produce a prioritized waitlist and phased award plan. The staff presentation included projections of roughly 22,600 youth served if a broad set of proposals were funded, and demographic and geographic analyses showing concentrations in several Oakland zip codes.

What’s next: staff will provide the POC with a summary table that identifies proposals, the populations served, and agency counts; they will return with recommended allocations and the POC is expected to take action on year‑round awards at the next meeting. Staff noted carry‑forward funds and fiscal scenarios will be included in future briefings.

Provenance: Staff presentation and scoring summary (topic introduced at SEG 276; discussion continued through SEG 1225).