Andrew Thompson, CGFO
Chief Financial Officer

Financial Services

Issue Statement: The City of Oakland Park budgeted $80,000 in FY 2022 to award to not-for-profit agencies as part of the City’s Aid to Non-Profits Program.  The City has received applications from non-profits requesting funding assistance through this program.

Recommended Action: The City Commission review the grant materials and rankings, deliberate, and award funding as deemed appropriate.

Background: On an annual basis, the City of Oakland Park has two primary programs for providing grant funding to non-profits serving the community

• City Program: The first is the City's Aid to Non-Profits Program.  This program is funded and operated directly by the City using General Fund revenues and the total budget for the program is determined as part of the annual budget process.  No State or Federal funds are involved in this program and the City controls all parameters of the program.  The application period typically begins in October and selection of non-profits by the Commission has usually been in December.  Funding awarded through this program is provided shortly after award of grant funding.

• Community Development Block Grant (CDBG): The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program is the second program.  The CDBG is a separate program that uses Federal funds that are administered by Broward County.  Under the CDBG program, interested non-profits must complete and submit a County application that conforms with Federal requirements.  The City Commission selects two non-profits to receive funding, which is set at $15,000 per organization (per County guidelines). The timeline for this program is determined by the County.  The award of funding typically occurs in February or March, but the actual disbursement of grant funding by the County does not occur until the subsequent fiscal year (a grant awarded in March would not be funded until October of the same calendar year).  For example, in March 2021, Light of the World and Areawide Council on Aging were awarded $15,000 each in CDBG funding by the Commission.  This funding was not available from the County until October 2021.  The County has not yet released the guidelines and schedule for the upcoming CDBG cycle.  Once these are available, the City will begin the process to solicit applications for the CDBG and they will be brought to the Commission for consideration.

A list of grant funding provided by both the City's Aid to Non-Profits Program and the CDBG program in recent years is attached for reference.

This agenda item only considers the City's Aid to Non-Profits Program. 

On September 22, 2021, the City Commission adopted the proposed budget for the 2022 Fiscal Year. The adopted budget included $80,000 in funding for the City's Aid to Non-profits Program.

The application for the program was released on October 11, 2021, with notice provided on the City's website and community e-mails; in addition, staff contacted previous applicants from both the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and City's Aid to Non-Profits programs to advise them of the grant funding opportunity.   

The application was slightly revised last year to reflect Commission direction that grant awards be limited to a flat $10,000 per applicant.

To be eligible for consideration, organizations were required to submit the following with their applications:

• Most recent Form 990 Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax

• Most recent Organization Budget

• Most recent audited Financial Statement

• 501(c)(3) Determination Letter

• Current Board of Directors list

• List of grants awarded by other agencies, including dollar value, for the past two years 

The deadline for submission was November 1, 2021.  The City received 21 completed applications for FY 2022.   Last year, the City received 15 applications. 

Applications were received from the following organizations:

The total amount of the grant requests is $210,000.

The completed grant applications are attached for reference. Please note that the additional documents requested as part of the application are not included in the exhibit given size limitations. These documents are available upon request from the Financial Services Department.

The eligible applications submitted to the City were forwarded for review and ranking to Complex Systems Innovations, a consultancy that provides evaluation, applied research, program development, and other related services. The lead on the evaluation was the firm’s principal, Gary Walby, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., M.S.

The rankings were performed in accordance with the quality of proposal methodology, which is attached.  Complex Systems has performed these evaluations for the past four funding cycles and has also provided evaluation services relative to the CDBG program.  The scoring criteria for this cycle was updated to provide additional points based on the impact the City funding would have on the applicant's ability to leverage additional matching fund dollars for services.

The scoring and ranking of the different organizations is attached as Exhibit A and Exhibit B provides a description of the methodology used by the evaluation team.

A list of grant funding provided in recent years is attached for reference.