Committee on Contributions bars unsolicited application attachments, sets review schedule

The Committee on Contributions voted to reject unsolicited documents submitted outside the grant portal and confirmed a schedule for reviewing 2025 applications.

Speaker 7, a committee member, told colleagues the portal closed with 51 applicants and that Angela and Speaker 7 will complete an eligibility review before forwarding eligible applications to committee reviewers. “We got 51 applicants,” Speaker 7 said.

During a presentation of the online review portal, Speaker 7 walked members through how applications appear as pending, how reviewers can save drafts and return to scoring, and how attachments can be viewed alongside scoring fields. The committee added a new conflict-of-interest prompt in the portal so reviewers can self-identify and skip reviewing applications where they have a conflict.

Speaker 6 reported on the trust fund’s status: “the trust balance was at 66,000,600 and change. So, almost $67,000,000,” and estimated net disbursements of about $500,000 for the year after expenses, while noting results were preliminary and market-driven.

A procedural issue arose when Speaker 1 reported that Interfaith Dental had emailed a county budget breakdown outside the portal. Committee members debated fairness and manageability: Speaker 8 said accepting outside materials could be handled either by ignoring such attachments or by changing the portal to accept them; Speaker 8 argued, “If it comes outside of the portal process, we’re not gonna consider it.” Other members urged consistency so applicants are judged on the same materials.

Speaker 8 moved that the committee not consider unsolicited attachments submitted outside the portal; Speaker 2 seconded the motion. The committee conducted a roll-call vote; the motion carried with Aye votes recorded for Mr. Hayes, Dr. Hinkle, Ms. Lynn, Mr. Martin, Ms. Smith and Chair Montgomery. After the vote, Speaker 7 said the board had ruled that attachments submitted outside of the grant application would not be accepted going forward.

The committee also discussed a prospective change to next year’s application to add a specific field for county-level budget breakdowns (for example, Rutherford County) so reviewers can see how requested funds relate to an applicant’s local budget. Speaker 7 said adding such a field to the application would be straightforward.

Speaker 7 outlined the schedule for the 2025 review cycle: eligibility reviews by roughly Nov. 15, reviewer scoring available from Nov. 15 through Dec. 31, midyear reports for first-year grantees due Nov. 30, and compilation of scores and funding decisions in January. The committee agreed to meet at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 21, 2025, to assemble results and move funding forward.

The meeting opened with approval of Aug. 13 minutes and a brief grant-grantee update noting last year’s grantees had completed their funded work. With no further business, the chair adjourned the meeting.