Wilmington staff proposes multiyear grants, citizen review for nonprofit funding
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Summary
City staff recommended rebundling nonprofit outside-agency funding into a single community-investment line in the manager's budget, shifting awards to an RFP after budget adoption, adding Community Relations Advisory Committee (CRAC) review, and moving toward multiyear service agreements to give nonprofits stability.
Rachel Schuler, the city’s housing and neighborhood services director, told the council the human services grant program (also called outside-agency or nonprofit funding) has long been funded from general fund dollars with a set-aside of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) public service funds. “The awards for each program has ranged from about 12 to $45,000 with most averaging around 20,000,” Schuler said, summarizing recent grant history.
Schuler described staff’s recommended changes to create a “community investment” line in the manager’s recommended budget and to run targeted RFPs after the budget is adopted. Under the proposed model, the city would use the RFP process to define service requirements, align awards with the newly adopted strategic plan and greater downtown plan, and seek measurable outcomes. Schuler also proposed asking the restarted Community Relations Advisory Committee (CRAC) to do front-line vetting of applications so resident volunteers would make recommendations through staff to council.
Staff said such a change could delay actual award notices until the fall but would allow longer, multi-year service agreements—potentially up to five years—so nonprofits would have more predictable revenue and the city could better measure program impact. Schuler acknowledged concerns about timing and said staff had not yet completed outreach to recurring awardees about the calendar change; she said some award receipts are small enough that the timing shift should be manageable while longer-term agreements would provide stability.
Council members asked clarifying questions about funding sources and percentages. Staff said most local grant awards have been general-fund supported and that the CDBG public-services set-aside is roughly 10% of the city’s entitlement—about $130,000—historically focused on homeless services; typical CDBG awards have been about $15,000 per agency.
Staff asked for council direction to include the community investment amount in the manager’s recommended budget and to develop the RFPs and performance metrics. Schuler said detailed proposals would be brought back in November following budget adoption.
