The 2025 Internship Grant Application Process is Now Closed

Applicants will be notified by May 1st

Essential and critical to Oregon’s communities, special districts deliver much needed services while also supporting their local workforce. In addition, many districts offer summer internships to college-level students in their area who are seeking to learn more about local government careers. SDAO recognizes and supports these efforts by providing matching grants through the SDAO Internship Grant Program.

The SDAO Internship Grant Program is available to SDAO members to assist in meeting or improving loss control and best practices, ultimately benefiting both the district and the intern. This grant is not intended to fund routine maintenance needs or normal staffing requirements, but to help with project needs.

Interns must be hired by the district as temporary employees to be in compliance with wage and hour laws relative to compensating student interns. A freshman through junior college-level student will need to be hired to qualify for funding of this grant.

The maximum grant per district is $3,000; the funding must be matched by the district by 50%. For example, you may be eligible to receive up to $3,000 on your request for a project that will cost your district $6,000 or more. Another example would be if your project is $4,200, then you may be eligible to receive up to a maximum of $2,100. SDAO may not fund all grant requests.

Grants are scored by our Awards Committee on the following criteria. The top scoring grant applications will receive funding.

• Haven't Received Grant in Last 5 Years (5 Points)
• Is this a Project and Not Regular Maintenance or Normal Staffing Requirements? (10 Points=Yes, 0 Points=No)
• Project’s Benefit to District (10 Points)
• Project's Sustainability (15 Points)
• Project's Contribution to Safety Program and/or Best Practices (15 Points)
• Project's Urgency/Need (10 Points)
• Project's Benefit to Intern (5 Points)
• Project's Benefit to Other Districts (5 Points)