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Klamath County grants office reports three-year activity; staff emphasize community benefits beyond strict ROI
Summary
County grants staff presented a three-year overview showing hundreds of thousands in wages charged to grants, nearly $250,000 recovered in indirect cost reimbursements, and managed community assets they value at roughly $15 million; staff said grants bring community benefits not fully captured by traditional ROI metrics.
Klamath County grants staff presented a three-year lookback on April 1 and told commissioners that the program produces community benefits beyond a simple return-on-investment calculation.
Don (grants staff) and other staff said the grants program helps manage more than $15 million in financial assets and community benefits, supports tourism and other local initiatives, and has applications in process with roughly $1 million pending decisions that may not be known until September. Don said government operations often cannot be measured like a business and that benefit-audit views are a better fit than pure ROI calculations.
Finance staff provided a summary of grant-related payroll and reimbursements: about $469,000 in wages had been spent since the program began, with $249,933 reimbursed from grant indirect costs. Staff said the grant project coordinator position is largely reimbursable via indirect costs while the grant manager position is less likely to be fully reimbursable because it involves application activity.
Staff also reported the tourism grants pool recently received more than $400,000 in requests and that the department is collecting customer satisfaction survey responses that staff hope to use to publicize positive impacts. Commissioners discussed whether surveys should be a required element of grant closeout paperwork for larger awards.
Ending
Staff will continue administering grant applications and report back as major pending awards are confirmed; commissioners and staff discussed options to increase visibility for positive grant outcomes.
