Funding challenges worrying nonprofits
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By Tory Brecht | Saturday, February 09, 2008 |
For more than 20 years, the United Neighbors Inc. summer program has kept elementary and junior high central-city kids off the streets and out of trouble when they’re out of school.
The eight-week recreational and cultural program, held at parks across Davenport, enrolls nearly 400 students each summer.
But funding challenges — including a significant decrease in its share of the federal Community Development Block Grant money the city has to spend — worry the program’s organizers.
“If we do not get enough money for the summer program, we may have to cut back or even eliminate it,” said Ida Johnson, director of United Neighbors. “There’s more demand and more need now than there ever was. You hope every year that the need will go down, but with people losing their homes and all that, there’s more need than ever.”
A similar refrain can be heard from nonprofit public service groups across the city.
In the past five years, the amount of block grant money shared among Davenport nonprofits has declined from $525,300 in 2004 to $340,000 this year out of the city’s total share of $2.4 million in block grant funds.
Rita Pribyl, a program manager with the city’s community and economic development department, said communities across the country are dealing with declines in block grant funds. While the bulk of the money goes to urban housing programs — and are awarded based on population, poverty levels and age of housing stock — an additional 15 percent can be spent by each city on public services.
In Davenport, deciding which agencies get what funding is largely determined by volunteers on the Citizens Advisory Committee.
The job gets harder each year, said the group’s chairman, Nathan Sondgeroth.
“Every one that comes forward is a worthy project,” he said. “It’s a somewhat undesirable job to winnow through those applications because funding dollars continue to go down.”
The committee — made up of 10 appointees from aldermen and five from the mayor — take the job seriously. They meet monthly throughout the year and then hold a public hearing where applicants make their pitch.
“The process is designed to be as fair as possible,” Sondgeroth said.
Still, not everyone walks away happy.
Four of the 20 programs up for funding received no dollars. Virtually all saw significant cuts.
Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Quad-Cities asked for $40,000 to pay for rapidly growing programs. It was awarded $28,500.
“It’s not enough, but we’re also, as an organization, extremely appreciative that the City of Davenport even has a public services allocation process,” Big Brothers/Big Sisters CEO Jay Justin said.
Justin said the number of Davenport students being served by the group — which pairs adult volunteers with children mainly from single or no-parent households — continues to rise.
“Four years ago, we were impacting maybe 80 kids in Davenport,” he said. “Now, we’re pushing over 200.”
Demand is so great, Big Brothers/Big Sisters has a list of 100 unmatched kids, waiting for “bigs.”
“That is due to a combination of the funding shortages and a need for more volunteers,” he said.
As block grants and other public funding dry up, the organization has begun holding more fundraisers such as a recent golf tournament and getting more creative in grant writing, Justin said.
Newer programs also can be at a disadvantage when applying. Kit Miller, shelter manager for Churches United’s homeless women’s shelter Winnie’s Place, said it’s hard to compete against established nonprofits.
“We don’t have the historical support base that a lot of agencies do,” she said, noting that Winnie’s Place received zero dollars this year, which was their first request for block grant funds.
The money was going to be spent for on-site case management and counseling.
“Shelters in the area are just bombarded the majority of the time,” she said. “We’re trying to fill a gap in services and trying to provide quality services on a shoestring budget. We’re just going to have to reach out to the community in a variety of ways to bring funds in and continue our work.”
Tory Brecht can be contacted at (563) 383-2329 or tbrecht@qctimes.com.
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