Portland Clean Energy Fund Facilitation

Portland, OR | 2019 & 2022

Cascadia Partners led the engagement and facilitation strategy for the Portland Clean Energy Fund’s (PCEF) first kick-off of the program with hundreds of community organizations and partners. PCEF was a landmark ballot measure passed in 2018 that would help create living wage jobs, sustainable agriculture, green infrastructure, and residential and commercial renewable and efficiency projects with a specific focus on benefitting low income people and people of color.

The event was not only a networking opportunity for organizations, but an opportunity to share ideas and best practices for implementing the PCEF program in an equitable and sustainable way. Working closely with City of Portland staff and PCEF’s Steering Committee members, Cascadia Partners developed and organized engagement strategies, discussion topics and questions to gather constructive feedback from over 250 community-based organizations. The team led staff trainings and facilitated dozens of small breakout sessions for the all-day event. Cascadia Partners also developed detailed meeting plans, logistics planning, and communications materials.

In 2022, PCEF brought back Cascadia Partners to facilitate scoring panels for a grant award process under four categories: clean energy, workforce and contractor development, regenerative agriculture/green infrastructure, and innovation/other. Cascadia Partners supported PCEF staff, committee members, and subject matter experts in discussing their scores, agreements and disagreements, and collected feedback on improvements that can be made to scoring criterias in the future.

The PCEF Committee recommended a portfolio that consisted of 66 grants totaling $110,695,441 in funding. There is robust representation of culturally specific groups among grantees that provide a multitude of benefits to all of PCEF’s priority populations.