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Cleveland Foundation says $2M distributed from Neighborhood Safety Fund; council presses for accountability, sustainability
Summary
The Cleveland Foundation reported $2 million distributed in two rounds from the Neighborhood Safety Fund created with a $10 million City Council contribution; council members and grantees discussed impact, geographic gaps and requested financial projections and performance reporting.
The Cleveland Foundation told the City Council Safety Committee it has distributed $2,000,000 from the Neighborhood Safety Fund — $1,000,000 in December 2023 and $1,000,000 in June 2024 — to community organizations working in violence prevention, youth mentoring, reentry and related services, and presented early impact stories from grantees. The foundation reported a fund balance of $8,631,000 as of Feb. 28, 2025 and described ongoing committee work to prioritize diversion and violence interruption in a third funding round.
Why it matters: the fund was seeded with a $10,000,000 contribution from Cleveland City Council to the Cleveland Foundation and is intended as a sustained resource for community-led violence reduction and youth services. Committee members pressed foundation staff for clearer accountability metrics, geographic balance across Cleveland neighborhoods and a plan to sustain and grow the fund with private-sector contributions.
What the committee heard: Jason Weiner, philanthropic advisor for the Cleveland Foundation, summarized advisory-committee activity and grant rounds. The foundation said it had received 50 applicant proposals in the first round, funding 29 organizations in December 2023 (requests totaling roughly $13 million) and received 71 applicants in round two requesting roughly $6.5 million; the foundation distributed $1 million both rounds. Grantees’ awards were unrestricted operating grants to help small organizations scale services, recruit staff, purchase vehicles and provide stipends.
Grantee examples and impact statements heard in committee: - Nerve DJ Institute (John O. Horton Jr., “DJ Johnny O”) said funding will support 15 students in a five-week program that teaches DJing, podcasting, music production and radio broadcasting and pay for meals and transportation. - ICONS (Hank/Glenn Davis) said funds converted longtime volunteer roles to paid staff and enabled in-school mentoring teams across five elementary/k–8 schools and senior-center outreach. - New Sardis and Spread the Love Foundation presented programming that hired young people for community cleanup, paid stipends to participants and delivered a music-production curriculum inside the juvenile-detention center. - Beat the Streets Cleveland described free wrestling-anchored youth-development programs and college-exposure trips supported by the fund. - Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance (via a partner) said a hospital-responder role at MetroHealth was funded to provide immediate outreach to shooting victims and connect them to services.
Monitoring and accountability: the Cleveland Foundation and the Neighborhood Safety Fund advisory committee said grantees submit end-of-grant reports and participate in professional-development cohorts and site visits. Foundation staff said reports from the first round (2023 grantees) are available to advisory members; second-round (2024) reports are due after the grant year completes. Foundation staff described a professional-development engagement (coaching and cohort work) intended to build grantees’ capacity to measure and present impact.
Council concerns and next steps: council members pressed the foundation on three recurring items: 1) geographic equity (several members said West Side neighborhoods were underrepresented among grantees), 2) sustainability (how the $10 million will be invested and how the foundation will attract private co-investors), and 3) transparent performance metrics (“report cards”) to inform future grant rounds. Foundation staff said the fund is currently invested in the foundation’s money-market pool and the advisory committee is discussing lowering the annual distribution rate (the committee is considering reducing annual payouts to about $500,000 to preserve principal); staff committed to present projections and alternate investment scenarios to the committee at a future meeting.
The foundation reported a net ending balance of $8,631,000 as of Feb. 28, 2025 and said the advisory committee has met monthly since September 2023. Committee members asked the foundation to arrange introductions to grantees for council members, to supply the round-one grantee reports and to deliver a clear five-year projection showing spending scenarios and investment returns. The foundation agreed to return with projections and additional reporting at the advisory committee’s next scheduled meeting.
