RACE to Rebuilding Trust and Community

Can awardees from the first round of the grant apply again?
Yes.

Can organizations located outside of Arlington County apply?
If an organization serves Arlington County residents, it may apply. Funding requests should reflect or relate to the number/percentage of clients served who are Arlington County residents.

Are these multi-year awards? I thought last years' awards were multi-year.
The RACE to Rebuilding Trust and Community Grant is a one-year award. While the County looked into ways to offer multi-year awards, and multi-year proposals were accepted last year, the County Board could only make one-year awards in FY 2025, and the County is only accepting one-year proposals for FY 2026.

Can organizations submit multiple proposals?
An organization may submit more than one proposal. However, the total amount awarded to any one organization may be no more than the award cap based on the organization's size ($150,000 for organizations with current organizational budgets over $250,000, and $75,000 for organizations with budgets at or under $250,000).

Can the Staff Team provide an examples of prior application responses that scored maximum points for given questions?
The Staff Team will consider whether there are any relevant examples to share as a point of comparison, but such examples may be limited given that the questions have been revised and updated since last year. The Staff Team will review this in future cycles.

Are the questions for the FY26 grant round different than last year's questions?
Yes. While some questions and general themes repeat, the FY26 questions have been reduced in quantity (from 22 to 13) and have been streamlined considerably in an effort to be simpler and clearer.

May applicants create their own version of the templates for the Logic Model and Budget?
No, all applicants should use the templates provided in the grant portal. If applicants need assistance, please contact the County staff grant administrators at EquityGrant@arlingtonva.us.

In the budget proposals, may applicants present multi-year budgets?
No, only single-year budgets may be proposed in the grant application.

Will the fields in the application portal contain character limits for responses?
Response fields within the application portal will contain word limits. The word limits are clearly indicated by the response box in the Submittable portal. Most questions will have enough space for a response that is several paragraphs in length and will allow for rich text editing (allowing bullets and some formatting). Because applications will be submitted through the online portal, they will not be submitted in a page-limited format.

Will the unscored, introductory content apply to any word county or page limitations?
No, the unscored content will not apply to any word count.

What information should be placed in the "What would you like to name this proposal?" field in the application on the grant portal?
This should be a title for your proposal. It will primarily be used by reviewers during the review phase to quickly identify proposals within the Submittable system.

Will attachments count towards the word limits?
No, attachments are separate and will not count towards the word limits.

In the Evaluation section - is the program objective an overarching goal of the whole program or project?
Yes, and the program goals are breakouts, falling under the larger program objective goal.

What type of demographic data should applicants provide?
Applicants should determine what type of data is most relevant to their proposal, i.e., specific data about the population that their organizations serve, general demographic data, or a combination of these. Applicants are encouraged to use data that directly connects the proposed work/project with the community needs that will be served. Wherever possible, applicants are encouraged to use local data to support the potential impacts of their proposals.

May applicants repeat their use of anecdotal stories throughout their applications?
Yes, anecdotal evidence may be repeated in applications. Applicants are reminded to directly tie such evidence to the needs of the community being served and the proposed work/project. Applicants are urged to tailor their written responses to the maximum point columns in the scoring rubric to maximize their scoring potential.

The Logic Model Template shown on p. 14 of the grant guidelines does not include the final column that is shown on the template file, which is "Impacts/Goals." The information for this column feels repetitive, so what should we do?
This information is redundant, and applicants may repeat their SMART goal. The template will be updated in future cycles.

Are PowerPoint slides required for the oral presentation?
Slides are optional and not required for the oral presentations. Applicants may decide how best to represent their proposals, with or without visual elements.

Will the community reviewers be prompted to ask questions of applicants during the oral presentations?
Community members will be encouraged in their training to ask questions of applicants during oral presentations. However, community reviewers will not be prompted to ask specific questions.

What will the community reviewers know about the applicants during the oral presentations?
The community reviewers will only be given the names of the organization and the brief description of the proposal provided by the applicant in the written application question, "Describe your proposal in one or two sentences." Community reviewers will not be reviewing or scoring the written application.

When will time slots for the oral presentations be shared with applicants?
Once the Staff Team determines the total number of complete applications by December 20, applicants will receive a notification to sign up for the oral presentations. Slots will be filled on a first come, first served basis.

What are the distinctions between the score of 1 and the score of 2 in Question #5 of the oral presentation rubric?
To earn 1 point, applicants must explain how their organizations involve EITHER other partner organizations OR individual community members. To earn the maximum of 2 points, applicants must explain how their organizations involve BOTH other partner organizations AND individual community members.

Which reviewers will evaluate which proposals?
A committee of five (5) staff reviewers will evaluate all written applications. A committee of up to twenty (20) community reviewers will evaluate all oral presentations.

How will staff and community reviewers score the proposals?
All staff reviewers will first score the written applications individually using the rubric found in the appendices of the Grant Guidelines. Staff reviewers will then discuss the scores as a group to agree on final consensus scores for the written applications. Similarly, the community member reviewers will score the oral presentations individually using the rubric found in the appendices of the Grant Guidelines. They will then discuss the scores as a group to agree on final consensus scores for the oral presentations.

What metrics will be used to evaluate the proposals?
All proposals will be evaluated according to the scoring rubrics provided in the Grant Guidelines.

Will the staff an community member reviewers make specific funding recommendations to the County Board?
Funding recommendations are made with consideration to the final scores of each proposal. Final scores are an average of staff and community reviewers' consensus scores, where the written application and oral presentation are each weighted 50% of the final score. Decisions on whether to fund grant applications in whole or in part will be at the sole discretion of the County Board.

What training do staff and community reviewers receive?
Staff and community reviewers are trained on objective scoring and using the rubric. Additionally, all reviewers will be trained on racial equity using Modules 3, 4, and 6 of the Leading with RACE Learning Modules. County staff are trained on all of the modules.

Where can we find the Leading with RACE learning modules?
The training videos used in the technical assistance session on racial equity can be found here. Modules 3, 4, and 6 were addressed in the training, but all may be accessed as resources when developing your proposal.

What resources are available for data?
The Race and Ethnicity Dashboard provides race-related data specific to Arlington County and its neighborhoods. Arlington County offers other demographic dashboards that may be of benefit in supporting your proposal.

Should applicants use only the County's Race & Ethnicity Dashboard as the main source to gather demographic data?
The County's Race & Ethnicity Dashboard may be used as a source of demographic data, but it is not a required source. Applicants may use any relevant data that supports the proposed work/project with the community needs that will be served. Other relevant sources of data may be referenced and used to support applications.

Where can we get relevant health data?
Health data included in the Race and Ethnicity Dashboard is limited to disability status. The data used to populate the Dashboard is from the Census Bureau, which does not have data on health conditions. For more information on health data, the CDC offers the PLACES: Census Tract Data.