The Children's Investment Fund is committed to maintaining a public process. The Request for Investment (RFI) process for Children's Investment Fund grants includes significant public input. Community gatherings launched the work on each round of funding, allowing Children's Investment Fund staff and the Allocation Committee to receive input from various stakeholder groups about the community's investment priorities and the best approach for developing the RFI. Throughout the drafting of the RFI's, the Allocation Committee incorporated public input, and all published RFI's are a reflection of comprehensive community involvement and feedback.

Upon public distribution of the RFI in each funding round, the provider community had a designated amount of time to complete the application process and submit proposals. Proposals were disseminated to teams of community and academic reviewers who scored them against pre-determined criteria, which were shaped largely through public input. In addition to reviewer scores, staff also provided information for the Allocation Committee about other pertinent application details, including populations served, geographic area(s) served, percent of organization's overall budget represented by the proposal, etc. The reviewer scores, along with the additional application information, helped the Allocation Committee make the final decisions about which programs to recommend for investments and in what amounts. Those recommendations were approved by both the Multnomah County Commissioners and the Portland City Council.


Policies and Procedures for Program Investments

The RFI typically includes five basic sections that applicants must respond to in requesting investments:

1. Program Description: asks applicants to describe the proposed program including the number of children to be served, the services provided, the number of hours of service per child per month, the cost per child, the target population and the geographic service area.

2. Program Effectiveness and Evaluation: asks applicants to select a group of outcomes planned for tracking by selecting from a list of common outcomes identified by the Children's Investment Fund, then seeks a description of data collection and evaluation methods including how the program will track participation and referrals. It also asks that applicants provide evidence of the program's effectiveness.

3. Program Budget and Budget Narrative: asks applicants to provide a program budget and a narrative justifying it; budget information requested includes a list of all staff paid in full or in part by Children's Investment Fund funds, all contracted services, program materials and supplies and all administrative expenses funded by the Children's Investment Fund. All administrative expenses must be listed by line item. Applicants must also provide a budget and budget narrative for all program years for which funding is requested.

4. Organizational Capacity: asks applicants to describe the organization's track record in providing the type of service or actual service it proposes to provide to the population it proposes to serve.

5. Cultural Competency: asks applicants to describe the cultural competency of their organizations, and includes a demographic breakdown of the population(s) served, the staff and the board of the organization. It seeks discussion of the applicant's cultural competency with staff training, program materials and resources that accommodate population(s) served as well as how the organization tracks the participation of different populations served and how it reaches different cultural communities.

Investment Amounts

 Children's Investment Fund funding for an annual period must not exceed 30 percent of the grantee's annual organizational revenues for that period. This includes funding from all Children's Investment Fund grants, present and proposed. The RFI requires that applicants submit evidence of organizational revenues from its last closed fiscal year and its current fiscal year.