BACKGROUND
For the FY2020-21 Citizens Benefit Fund (CBF) and Roseville Employees Annual Charitable Hearts (REACH) funding cycle there is $388,400 available for distribution from the following funds:
- $386,000 from the CBF; and
- $2,400 from the REACH Fund
Non-profit 501(c)(3) or (c)(4) organizations and private schools were eligible to apply, with the limit of one non-profit organization per school. Each organization was limited to one application, but the City Council removed a maximum funding limit three years ago, in an effort to generate the greatest benefit through more targeted funding. The goal of this policy shift was so that these local community funds could have a greater impact through fewer large awards. The Grants Advisory Commission (GAC) continues to implement this direction from the City Council and this year has recommended funding for 21 grant recipients.
The FY2020-21 funding cycle opened in ZoomGrants on December 9, 2019. The GAC conducted a televised applicant workshop on January 14, 2020 and applications were due by February 10, 2020.
Forty-one applications were submitted requesting grant funds. Staff reviewed each application for eligibility and completeness and, of the 41 requests, staff disqualified one application due to their failure to submit a final year-end report for the 2018-19 funding cycle. The total funding requested for the FY2020-21 is $699,000.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Governor’s shelter-in-place orders, the GAC met for a public meeting via teleconference on May 12, 2020. The Funding Workshop was held by the GAC to make funding recommendations based on the combined average scores given to each application during their review process. The majority of the available funds are through the CBF and must be used by organizations for programs and services benefitting Roseville residents. Funds from REACH may be used for programs and services benefitting both Roseville and Placer County residents.
The top nine grant applications (those that scored above 85%) were recommended for full funding at 100% of their request for a total of $176,500. The remaining $211,900 of available funds was recommended for funding on the next twelve applications using the GAC “average” funding scores that were recommended when the Commissioners reviewed the applications in ZoomGrants.
A motion to approve the final recommendations was made by the GAC and a separate motion was required for four applications where Commissioners had abstained due to conflicts of interest.
The final recommendations are included as Attachment 1.
Per City Council direction, the transition to funding fewer grants with greater awards has resulted in continued concerns from grant applicants not recommended for funding or not recommended for full funding as requested. Staff has worked to provide information on application overall scoring and areas within the unfunded applications' scoring criteria that ranked lower, including any anonymous application-specific comments from Commissioners. In order to further align with City Council direction, the GAC continued to refine its scoring tool this year, which looks at a range of priorities for funding, including: demonstrated need, clearly defined outcomes, ability to achieve an impact on the identified need, community engagement, collaboration, budget stability, and other funding being leveraged.
This year, staff used the ZoomGrants methodology for scoring which is the "trimmed average of scores".
At the May 6, 2020 City Council meeting, the Council approved the Kone’ Consulting Community Needs Assessment (CNA) recommendations for purposes of guiding the use of the CBF and REACH. The CNA was designed to provide a relevant guide for the GAC recommendations and the City Council funding decisions for years to come. The recommendations were designed to be flexible and adaptable to our community needs, including the present COVID-19 community impact/need. The GAC has developed two subcommittees to evaluate and recommend implementation strategies for the Kone' Consulting recommendations to the City Council. It is anticipated that these implementation strategies will be brought to City Council for review and consideration in fall 2020.
To date, the CBF and REACH have together awarded $16,556,907 to support non-profits within our community. Should the City Council approve the funding recommendations, the grant awards will be distributed to the grantees at the July 14, 2020 GAC meeting.