After being presented with recommendations for the city’s annual Strategic Partnerships for Community Services Grant Award for local nonprofits during its August 28 workshop, Georgetown City Council agreed the program should be reevaluated to make sure it is its most effective in providing money to nonprofits that need it.
The city received 27 applications totaling $978,000 in requests for funds from a variety of nonprofits throughout the city. However, the budget for the grant funding is only $400,049 meaning most nonprofits would not get as much as requested and others received no funding at all. No official actions were taken, and grants were not rewarded at the meeting.
“Our board selects nonprofits that qualify based on their alignment with council priorities,” said Jessica Clarke, assistant to the city manager.
These priorities are listed as: public safety, housing, veteran services, transportation, parks and recreation, and social safety net.
The discussion to re-evaluate the program and how funds are allocated was started by council Member Kevin Pitts, who said he’s been a proponent of limiting the program.
“I think we should make some changes to the program,” he said. “If it were up to me I would say we need to not award any of the grants at this time. Let’s review this program during the strategic planning that we have annually [in December] to figure out where our gaps are, what the goals are of council, what our direction is.”
Mr. Pitts added the council should look for gaps in the services the city either can’t provide, does not provide but may like to, and to look at certain nonprofits that have a partnership with city services.
“There’s many great organizations on this list, many of them are offering and providing great services that are very needed in the community, but are something that the government should and typically does provide,” he said. “I hate to see less funding for them, however, if it’s not really in the role of the government, not really in line with what our services are, I don’t know how we can justify giving them the money.”
Council Member Ben Stewart also voiced concern that the number of applicants for the program will continue to grow.
“In years where we’ve got financial constraints, I don’t want [nonprofits] to depend on the funds that we provide here,” he said. “For me, it’s really being able to see the tie in to how it’s offsetting services that [the city] provides already as opposed to providing grant money.”
Council Member Amanda Parr said although she likes the program and the way it helps the community, she understands the will of council and sees the concern about how taxpayer funding is being utilized. However, she did say if changes were made to the program, the city should give time to nonprofits to adjust to the changes.
Council Member Jake French said for some larger nonprofits, the money the city awards them could be a “tiny drop in the bucket” compared to the money given to smaller nonprofits.
“That’s not knocking them and that’s not saying they don’t do good work, but when I think of strategic and making an impact to an organization $10,000 or $15,000 may go a long way for a smaller nonprofit than one of our larger participants,” he said. “I think we need to think about what strategic means also and how do we want to go about that.”
If the council wants to reevaluate the program at the December strategic planning meeting, Ms. Clarke said the grant funds would not be awarded to nonprofits. She said the city would communicate that everything was on hold.
If the program did gain different priorities, money could be awarded to nonprofits before the start of the 2026 fiscal year.