Slingshot proposes grantmaking overhaul for Milton community grants; Shelby County subcommittee forwards recommendations to full board

Slingshot Memphis proposed a two-part plan to tighten oversight of Shelby County's Reginald Milton Community Enhancement Grant Program and to produce annual impact reporting, and the subcommittee voted to forward a package of recommendations to the full Board of Commissioners.

At a subcommittee meeting, Jared Barnett, president and CEO of Slingshot Memphis, told commissioners Slingshot is “a poverty-fighting expert. It's what we do every day,” and outlined work streams to (1) redesign grantmaking infrastructure — application, compliance and implementation — and (2) produce annual impact measurement and reporting tied to measurable grant objectives.

The proposal described a set of practical deliverables, including a refined grant application that builds in ethical guidelines and data collection, report templates for recipients to document outputs and outcomes, a documented operating manual so procedures persist across staff turnover, and an annual impact report summarizing fiscal-year allocations and outputs. Slingshot proposed the grantmaking infrastructure work could take about six months, with ongoing impact measurement taking roughly three months at the close of each fiscal year; some implementation steps were described as dependent on each other and on decisions about…