As York County prepares for another budget season, five citizens are busy determining how $30,000 from the current budget will be allocated to nonprofits.
The Board of Supervisors decided in May to revamp the way money is distributed to nonprofit and community organizations after Supervisor Walt Zaremba called a $520 proposed contribution to the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program an “embarrassment.”
“Giving them this level of money is a slap in the face,” he said in a May work session, referring to the fact that comparatively, James City County gives CASA $17,000 and Williamsburg gives around $6,000. CASA provides trained volunteers to advocate for children in the court system.
A five-member volunteer committee was created in October to review outside agency submissions for funding, according to Community Services Director Laurie Coleman.
Nonprofit organizations are invited to submit applications for funding to the county each year, given they provide a description of the services they offer and information on sources of financial support.
The Civil and Cultural Grants Advisory Committee is now in charge of reviewing those applications and recommending how the Board of Supervisors allocates $30,000 to those who applied.
Coleman said she received seven or eight applications for the committee after the announcement was made to the public in August, and members were appointed during a meeting in October.
Before the creation of the committee, the Board of Supervisors was gradually cutting contributions to outside agencies, Supervisor Tom Shepperd explained.
“The Board decided over a three-year period to cut that money basically to zero,” he said, citing the recession, sequestration and state funding cuts as the reason for the dwindling contributions.
In 2010, the board gave a total of $119,130 to nonprofits. In 2011, the amount was cut nearly in half to $56,836, then in half again for 2012 to $23,495.
Shepperd said the board decided in the third year of cuts that certain organizations “could provide to constituents better than the bureaucracy” and that it was not worth cutting all the funds if some funding could become the government’s responsibility.
Fourteen organizations submitted requests for funding last year, according to Coleman. She hopes the committee will be able to present its recommendations during one of the two Board of Supervisors meetings in December.
The city of Williamsburg and James City County also have volunteer committees that look specifically at nonprofit funding requests and recommend allocations to City Council and the Board of Supervisors.
The committees in the three localities base their recommendations for allocating funding on several factors, including:
- How the government will benefit from the service the organization provides to citizens
- If the organization shows strong management and fiscal accountability
- If the service provided would be the government’s responsibility if the organization was not able to provide that service
- If the organization receives any additional outside funding
- If the service is timely, accessible, affordable and of high priority to the county or city
Williamsburg’s human services advisory board has been recommending nonprofit funding to City Council for at least 20 years, according to Human Services Director Peter Walentisch.
“It’s worked very well every year, because it gives the City Council an analysis, a scientific approach as to what the funding should be,” he said.
He and Barbara Watson, James City County’s assistant community services director, agree the committees’ recommendations are usually supported by the government officials.
Last year, Williamsburg allocated around $74,000 to outside agencies, while James City County allocated about $254,000, according to their respective budgets.
“Each locality looks at the giving in a different way,” said Watson.
She explained many of the same organizations apply for funding each year. “Usually, in our communication to the organization, we’ll tell them up front whether or not additional funds would be available,” she said.
Avalon, CASA, the Peninsula Agency on Aging and the Historic Triangle Senior Center are just a few of the organizations who applied for and received funding from all three localities in the past.
York County is currently accepting funding request applications from nonprofits for its Fiscal Year 2016 budget, which begins July 1, 2015.
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