The Board of Commissioners approved community funding grants to four applicants, providing a total of $37,000 of its $75,000 funding pool to local nonprofits.
KIDS Place, REACH of Macon County and the Macon Medical Assistance Program each received $10,000 while an additional $7,000 was awarded to Read2Me.
The county received an additional application from the Highlands Hurricanes Swim Team, which was was denied, according to Commissioner Barry Breeden, who was appointed to review Community Funding Pool applications alongside Commissioner Danny Antoine. Breeden said he did not want to set a precedent for funding local sports teams through the county.
The funding pool has $38,000 remaining. County Manager Warren Cabe said, “You can certainly leave that money there; you may have some more stuff pop up during the year, you can certainly appropriate more tonight. That money doesn’t go away, obviously, so that money will still be there.”
“It’s hard to appropriate money when there’s no applicants for it,” Commissioner John Shearl said.
Jennifer Turner-Lynn, assistant director for REACH, said “I know there’s been a lot of discussion about funding nonprofits. I would encourage folks to think about how the money that you are contributing … actually saves the county in the long term. When you’re looking at nonprofits like KIDS Place, like REACH of Macon County, if our services ceased to exist tomorrow, the amount of county dollars that you [would] pour in through county employees, county time is far greater than the amount of money that you are allocating.”
“The example would be if our shelter did not exist,” she continued, “the amount of time that law enforcement alone would have to spend when working with individuals in domestic violence, assault or trafficking situations to identify appropriate housing would be extensive, whereas right now they’re able to pick up a phone and say, ‘Hey, we have a victim, how can we work together to get them to safe housing?’”
Shearl, who has previously advocated for closing the funding pool entirely and encouraging nonprofits to instead organize their own fundraising operations, said, “It is not the role of the government to tax its citizens to choose who they give their money to.”
Shearl pointed out two new events this year that have raised $100,000 and $30,000 for two local organizations.
“We have a lot of people coming in and talking about we need to keep funding,” he said. “Well, let’s take all these people that come in and … let’s create a committee and figure out how to do fundraisers like this one individual has done.”
“Unfortunately, nonprofits, and I’m not saying all nonprofits, have forgotten how to ask for that money,” he continued. “It’s easier to come to the government and say, ‘Give me the $75,000 for these five or whatever’ than it is to create a committee to do fundraisers, and then you create a community that’s involved in exactly what your organization does.”
Turner-Lynn said she disagreed and suggested going over how REACH of Macon County raises money and builds its budget.
“The percentage of funding that we receive from the funding pool is nowhere near what our annual budget is,” Turner-Lynn said. “I guess we view in some ways, a collaborative … we are providing a service that is something our community needs to have. It is a vital, life-saving service.”