Congratulations to our 2025 Grantees!
We would like to thank the Grant Review Committee for their many hours of careful consideration and thoughtful discussion. Together they evaluated and provided feedback available to more than 20 applications!
Scroll to view the Community Small Grants Recipients.
2025 Community Small Grants Recipients:
SE Uplift Neighborhood Coalition Awards $43,085 in Community Small Grants to 13 Community Projects for 2025!
Community Small Grants program offers the opportunity to engage community members across the city. By offering seed-money, training, and technical support, the program enables people and organizations to identify community needs, develop collaborative projects, and see ideas through to completion. The Community Small Grants program builds the skills and capacity of project leaders to shape the place where they live. Increased capacity creates confidence and from confidence grows ongoing engagement of new community leaders.
| Organization | Description |
| 82 Roses Community Enrichment Coalition | The 19th Annual “Roses in the Heart of Portland” Parade in April showcases several hundred diverse community members who plan to march, play music, and entertain. This project will design and distribute over 4,000 postcards to residents who live on either side of 82nd Avenue. |
| Hope and Bread Mission | Hope and Bread Mission is a “street church” that meets weekly at Montavilla Park. Descended from the work of the now-defunct Saints Peter & Paul Episcopal Church, the arts and creativity are an important part of what Hope and Bread has to offer the people they serve. This project will allow them to secure and expand the unhoused community’s engagement with creativity while helping their members to connect with the wider community. |
| Lavender League | The Lavender League provides a safe, inclusive soccer league for LGBTQ+ adults in Portland. This project aims to expand access to community-driven sports by offering three seasonal leagues, off-field events, and wellness initiatives that foster connection, resilience, and joy. With 700 active participants, an online following of 1,700+,, and growing interest, the Lavender League will focus on sustainable growth and safety enhancements, promoting community cohesion and wellness among underrepresented groups in Portland’s LGBTQ+ community. |
| Portland Area Theatre Alliance | Portland Area Theatre Alliance commits to providing affordable performance space and staffing to independent artists producing work in the 2025 Fertile Ground Festival of New Works. They partnered with two non-profit theaters in SE to utilize their performance venues to reduce barriers to producing, strengthen creative support networks, potentially connecting itinerant artists to an artistic home, and critically, bringing new, diverse audiences into some of the most essential small performance venues in southeast Portland. |
| Portland Indigenous Marketplace | Portland Indigenous Marketplace seeks to create a welcoming campaign to alert the Central Eastside and beyond that PIM’s headquarters is now located in the Central Eastside. PIM hopes that this campaign will broaden and improve the visibility and communications between PIM and the Central Eastside neighborhood. The services that PIM offers are beneficial to Central Eastside that are Indigenous and non-Indigenous. Events and programming are open to all ages and abilities. PIM plans to directly mail residents and local organizations and businesses in SE Portland. |
| Roseway Neighborhood Association | The Roseway Neighborhood Association (RNA) is working with PBOT to establish a car-free street plaza at NE Mason and 72nd Ave as a component of the Mason-Skidmore Greenway project. The plaza will be a gathering place for the community and greenway users, fostering connection between our diverse neighbors and furthering the use of the Roseway Parkway green space. The grant would fund a grand opening celebration to raise awareness and celebrate this new community asset. |
| Sunnyside Environmental School PTSA | Sunnyside Environmental School is applying for funding to financially compensate a diverse group of local authors to come to their school, present theirs books, and speak about authorship to their students during Read-A-Thon assemblies. The Author Visits for the SES Read-a-thon has two goals: Bring a diverse groups of local authors to Sunnyside Environmental School to read to and interact with the students there, and to encourage those students to read during the program period. |
| Brentwood-Darlington Neighborhood Outreach | Brentwood-Darlington Neighborhood Association (BDNA) seeks to expand household reach within their neighborhood to build community connection, give residents a voice regarding neighborhood issues, inform neighbors about BDNA events and resources, and build and diversify the BDNA board. |
| Montavilla Neighborhood Association | The Montavilla Neighborhood Association (MNA) hopes to foster a broader and more diverse representation for neighbors in their members by increasing awareness in areas and communities that may not know about their work. To meet that goal, they will implement a recently completed brand refresh on all their promotional channels and send direct mail to targeted addresses in the Montavilla Neighborhood, specifically those outside the Montavilla core most likely to be underrepresented in current membership. |
| Rose City Park Neighborhood Association | Rose City Park neighborhood Association (RCPNA) wants to print three RCPNA newsletters and the Rose City Park Review (RCPR) during the 2025 calendar year. RCPNA’s printed newsletter reaches their 4,000 households. Providing funding will allow them to continue to effectively disseminate information concerning community projects, help foster civic engagement and increase RCPNA’s voice in a way that no other form of communication does. |
| Mt Tabor Middle School PTA | The PTA aims to create a Japanese Zen Meditation Garden at Mt. Tabor Middle School (MTMS), a Japanese dual-language immersion school. MTMS serves grades 6-8, with a prominent BIPOC population. The courtyard is used by students and teachers, after-school clubs, summer camps, and visiting exchange schools from Japan. Their aim is to make the space more functional, enjoyable, and culturally meaningful for all who visit, increasing appreciation for other cultures in our midst. |
| The Shadow Project | In 2024-25, the Shadow Project will deiver their Goal Setting program to 13 District 3 elementary and middle schools, reaching at least 445 students, mostly in Special Education. Goal Setting uses a disabilities-specific social-emotional curriculum to help students face challenges with a “What is strong?” approach instead of “What is wrong?” Goal Setting helps students with disabilities develop a sense of community and build the skills that make engagement possible: perseverance, self-motivation, self-advocacy, and more. |
| We Belong PDX | We Belong PDX will open a new year-round, out-of-school program, serving 24-30 children ages 5-14. They are partnerd with Rose City Nazarene for the space on 80th and Everett and will prioritize recommendations from Vestal administration for youth serviced. Their initiative is rooted in four fundamental pillars: trusted relationships, nutrition, adventure, and screen-free creativity. They will serve majority BIPOC families and families facing economic, housing, or food insecurity will be prioritized. Through engaging and holistic programming, these children will be given the tools to enhance wellbeing. This grant will fund food and supplies for the children. |