2026 Community Education Contracts

Identifying focus populations helps City Elections and its stakeholders ensure equitable, data-driven voter education services. The City's work with focus populations will be in addition to a broad-based voter education campaign that includes mass advertising and citywide partnerships to reach all eligible Portland voters.

City Elections selected focus populations for 2026 using recent local and national voter participation data and studies, as well as additional criteria that identify areas where focused education could provide maximum impact.

Proposers need not specialize in any specific focus population to apply, but awardees will be expected to be inclusive of one or more of these populations when delivering voter education under their contract award.  Therefore, proposals should explain how their organization will reach at least one of the 2026 focus populations.

• Eligible voters who identify as Black, Indigenous, or another community of color and who live in precincts with historically below average voter turnout over the last 10 years. 
• Eligible voters living with disabilities that impact voting and/or their ability to engage with voter education material. 
• Eligible voters living in households that speak languages other than English at home. 
• Eligible voters who currently reside in detention facilities. 
• Eligible voters without a stable place of residence. 
• Eligible voters aged 18-24 and 16-and 17-year-olds who are expected to be eligible when they turn 18. 

All organizations that meet the following criteria are encouraged to apply, regardless of current or previous experience in voter education services.

To be eligible, proposers must:

1. Be located or regularly conduct work in the City of Portland.
2. Not appear on the Oregon Department of Justice's Disqualified Charities List. 
3. Commit to non-partisan education activities and (if applicable) maintain clear separation of activities and funds if an organization has both a 501c(3) and 501c(4) component.
4. Be available to participate in monthly cohort meetings and periodic check-ins with City Elections between June and December 2026.
5. Additional requirements to register as a vendor with the City of Portland. Review the Intermediate Request for Proposals (RFP) for these requirements (This document will be added to this website prior to February 23 when proposals may be submitted).

• Each contract may be up to $45,000.
• Ten Phase One proposals will be selected to move to Phase Two of the selection process.  Each will receive a sponsorship of up to $1,500, regardless of whether they receive a contract award.
• Up to five organizations will ultimately receive a contract award. 

• Direct voter contact (phone banking, text banking, or canvassing)
• Community education events
• Social media campaigns
• Mock ranked choice voting activities
• Train-the-trainer sessions for internal staff and community members
• Other creative in person or digital voter education activities

Proposers should thoroughly review and understand how contract funds can be used before applying. Additional details are available in the Intermediate Request for Proposals (RFP) (this document will be added to this website prior to February 23 when proposals may be submitted). City Elections encourages creative thinking when designing projects that support voter outreach and ranked choice voting education.

Funds are to be used solely for non-partisan voter education on City of Portland's election method or administrative costs necessary to conduct non-partisan voter education. 

Strictly prohibited activities include:

• Contract funds cannot be used for political campaigning.
• Project activities cannot be used for or combined with any activities in support of or opposition to any candidate(s) for public office.

If an organization has both a 501c(3) and 501c(4), it must perform all work under this contract through the 501c(3) and maintain a clear separation of funds and activities between the 501c(3) and 501c(4).

City Elections will use a two-phase process to award Community Education Contracts.

Phase One is an open call for submission of short proposals. Proposals should be submitted through the link below and provide the name(s) and title(s) of the points of contact. Points of contact must be available between March and June 2026.  Proposals will include three sections, as follows: 

• Section A should describe the work the proposer typically performs (for example, civic events, community education, health, housing or other direct services, social media campaigns, youth programming, etc.).
• Section B should describe the proposer's interest in voter education and the types of voter education activities they would be interested in proposing under the contract.
• Section C should explain how the proposer will reach one or more of the focus populations that City Elections has identified for 2026.

• 2/23/2026: One-month application window goes live requiring submission of a short proposal through the link below.
• 3/5/2026: Virtual information session.
• 3/23/2026: Phase One closes. Up to ten proposals will be selected to move to Phase Two. 
• 3/27/2026: Phase Two proposers notified.

City Elections will select up to ten proposals to move to Phase Two.  The selected proposers will each receive a $1,500 sponsorship to support proposal development during Phase Two.

During Phase Two, City Elections will review Phase One proposals and exchange information and ideas to help refine the proposals.  Final proposals will be submitted prior to the deadline, and City Elections will select up to five contract awardees.

• 3/30/2026: Proposal development begins for selectees
• 4/27/2026: Proposal deadline
• 5/6/2026: City Elections selects winning proposals
• Early May to early June: City Elections negotiates and finalizes a contract with each awardee
• Early June to July: Onboarding and training begins for awardee cohort

1. Eligibility screening: City Elections will review each proposal to ensure the organization and project is eligible for funding, using the eligibility criteria above (see "Who May Apply"). 
2. Scoring: A panel of at least three people, including City Elections staff and community representatives, will review and score the eligible proposals.  First, panelists will receive uniform scoring criteria from City Elections (see "Scoring Criteria," below).  Then, each panelist will independently score each proposal.  Finally, City Elections will compile all panelists' scores for each proposal and generate an average proposal score.
3. Phase One Selection: The proposals with the top ten average scores will move into Phase Two.

1. Phase Two: Proposers will discuss their proposals with City Elections, refine their proposals, and submit final proposals.
2. Scoring: A stakeholder panel, consisting of at least three representatives from City Elections, Multnomah County Elections, and the community will review and score the final proposals. First, panelists will receive uniform scoring criteria from City Elections (see "Scoring Criteria," below).  Then, each panelist will independently score each proposal.  Finally, City Elections will compile all panelists' scores for each proposal and generate an average proposal score.
3. Final Selection: The scoring panel recommend a final portfolio of recommended contract awards to City Elections based on the top five average scores.

The focus populations are a factor for selecting Community Education Contract awardees so proposals should consider this list in their scope of work. City Elections encourages creativity and flexibility in outreach to focus populations.

Below are sample questions the panelists may consider for reference. City Elections will develop and publish the full criteria on the City Elections website by March 4^th.

In Phase One, panelists will evaluate and score each section of the proposal.  Each section will be weighted equally and given a 1-10 score.

• Section A:  The Proposer and their typical work
  • Is there a clear description of the proposer's mission, longevity, and areas of work?
  • Does the proposal demonstrate the ability to conduct voter education programming?
  • How well does the proposal fit into the ecosystem of voter education?
  • Does the information provided in this section help demonstrate the organizations capacity to perform the work described in Section B?
• Section B: Proposed voter education activities
  • Are the activities described clearly?
  • Are the activities aligned with standardized approaches or best practices for voter engagement?
  • Do the activities employ innovative approaches using new technology or creative fields?
• Section C:  How the proposer will reach focus populations
  • Does the proposal demonstrate a connection to the focus population(s) or the ability to connect with them?
  • Does the proposal already directly serve a population on the list? If not, do they have a viable plan for connecting with that population in their outreach and education work?
  • Does the proposal show a clear willingness to be inclusive of the 2026 focus populations?

Scoring criteria in Phase Two are grouped in three categories:

• Organization and project team
  • Does the organization have the staff capacity needed to conduct this contract?
• Project goals, description and benefits
  • Does the proposal include achievable goals within the 2026 election cycle?
  • Are the voter education activities planned thoughtfully?
• Budget
  • Did the proposal provide a full and realistic project budget?

Details on the full process for Phase Two proposals will be provided prior to March 30^th. Complete scoring details for Phase Two will be provided before proposal work begins on March 30^th.