For the past decade, since the recession began in 2008, state funding that community nonprofits rely on to provide services to half a million people each year has been cut in every budget cycle, all while demand for their services has gone up and operational costs have risen.
One bright spot has been the Nonprofit Grant Program. Established in 2012, the program allows the state to bond up to $25 million each year to provide grants to selected nonprofits to pay for programs to lower administrative costs, increase efficiency and maintain high quality services.
There is an overwhelming need for this capital funding. Just one previous round of applications brought in 553 project applications from 285 nonprofit organizations, totaling $101 million in requests for only $20 million in available funds.
Health and human service nonprofit organizations that provide services on behalf of the state can apply for and receive this grant-in-aid for capital and infrastructure projects such as renovating existing facilities, upgrading information technology systems, enhancing ADA compliance, improving energy systems and purchasing vehicles.
One community organization launched a mobile food truck program to prepare and deliver fresh food to seniors, families and people with disabilities. Another program used funding to replace leaking roofs with solar panels, which will also reduce energy consumption. Other nonprofits purchased updated information technology systems to help people they serve to learn basic computer skills, and for their employees, for example, to use the latest electronic health record technology.
But this year, as the governor and legislators negotiate a bond package to be considered in the upcoming special legislative session, they are considering not funding the grant program this year. Ironically, the discussion comes as the state’s finances have improved, putting as much as $2.65 billion in the state’s so-called rainy day fund.
Given the influx of revenue in the state’s coffers, the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance appealed to the governor and lawmakers for a 5 percent increase to contracts and grants during budget negotiations in May. That modest increase, the Alliance argued, would begin to help nonprofits recover some of the funding they have lost over the past decade.
That reasonable request for funding — when the funding is readily available — was rejected, which would make a failure to fund the Nonprofit Grant Program particularly painful.
Not funding the grant program would mean that while the state is generating a massive surplus for this fiscal year, as much as $1.6 billion, we would still cut assistance to community nonprofits that provide substance abuse and mental health services, house the homeless, provide residential and day programs for people with developmental disabilities, help people re-enter the community from prison, and promote arts and cultural programs that keep our communities vibrant, to name just a few of the vital programs nonprofits provide.
The message to nonprofits would be: We cut your funding in difficult times, and we also cut your funding when times are good.
Of course, the state needs to be judicious in spending and borrowing. But the Nonprofit Grant Program is what government is meant to do — invest in programs that help children, families, senior and people with complex needs, often the most vulnerable in our communities.
While funding the Nonprofit Grant Program does not restore funds or make up ground from recent state budget cuts experienced by many community nonprofits, it is a vital revenue source in an era of scarce resources.
On behalf of the nonprofits and the people they serve, we ask the governor and General Assembly to protect the Nonprofit Grant Program by providing $25 million for the program in each year of the biennium.
Jeff Shaw is the senior director of public policy and advocacy with the CT Community Nonprofit Alliance.