The October 9 Public Hearing on the OLO Report on Montgomery County Council Community Grants was well attended. Representatives of 25 nonprofits signed up to provide testimony on the report.  A special thanks to Nonprofit Montgomery members who provided testimony:

Abe Schuchman, Housing Unlimited
Cynthia Rubenstein, Passion for Learning
Shane Rock, Interfaith Works
Heather Bruskin, Montgomery County Food Council
Hillery Tsumba, Primary Care Coalition
Sara Hourwitz, NAMI Montgomery County
Debbie Ezrin, MCCH
Tho Tran, Vietnamese American Services
Nancy Leopold, CollegeTracks
Nancy Sushinsky, Rainbow Place Shelter

The hearing was followed by joint Health and Human Services Committee and Government Operations & Fiscal Policy Committee on October 11 (Committee agenda/staff reports). Councilmembers Leventhal, Navarro, Rice, Katz, and Reimer engaged in a thoughtful discussion about ways to streamline the Community Grants process and to improve the accountability, transparency, and fairness and accessibility.

Councilmembers reviewed staff recommendations for the FY20 Community Grants Process (which can be found here). While noting that major changes to the process would require more time, the Council focused on changes that could streamline the process for FY20. Councilmembers directed staff to prepare a resolution with the following recommendations from the committees:

Affirm that the Council is particularly interested in “proposals for safety-net programs and services that assist disadvantaged County residents.”

  1. Require that each program submit one application for review by both the County Executive and County Council. This does not preclude the County Executive from having a separate review process.
  2. Streamline the online application by decreasing the number of attachments and documentation required for submission.
  3. Give Council staff flexibility on how to group applications for review.
  4. Allow for flexibility on the time for interviews with organizations that submit multiple applications.
  5. Eliminate the mid-year outcome report to reduce work for nonprofits and Council and Executive staff. Grantees will submit an end-of-year report in September reporting on the grant outcomes.

A final joint worksession will be held on Thursday, October 25 at 2:00pm. Councilmembers will consider additional staff recommendations for the FY20 process, including additional coordination between Executive and Council grant and calling for the County Executive to include an appropriation for Community Grants in his/her Recommended Budget.

Additional staff recommendations for FY21 will be discussed. The Councilmembers also expressed an interest in discussing the procurement issues mentioned by many nonprofits in their testimony.

If you have any questions or would like to join our advocacy efforts, please contact Lesley MacDonald at lesley@nonprofitmoco.org.

Please consider attending the Thursday, October 25, 2pm worksession. The presence of many nonprofits shows that Community Grants are important, and that nonprofits care deeply about the outcomes of this process.