City of Alexandria, Virginia
________________
MEMORANDUM
DATE: SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
THROUGH: JAMES F. PARAJON, CITY MANAGER /s/
FROM: KATE GARVEY, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AND
HUMAN SERVICES
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Review of the Alexandria Fund for Human Services FY 2024 to FY 2026 Grantmaking Process and Recommendations for Improvements.
BODY
_________________________________________________________________
ISSUE: Provide City Council with an accounting of the FY 2024 to FY 2026 Alexandria Fund for Human Services (AFHS) grantmaking process.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council:
(1) Accept the review of the AFHS FY 2024 to FY 2026 grant making process; and
(2) Accept staff review and recommendations for improvements for ensuing grant cycle.
BACKGROUND: For the past fifteen years, the Department of Community and Human Services (DCHS) has coordinated and managed AFHS’s competitive grants process and oversight of the grants awarded to non-profit and community agencies. The fund is intended to address critical needs and the key priorities approved by Council.
Prior to the launch of the AFHS FY 2024 to FY 2026 grantmaking process, and at City Council’s request, DCHS staff convened a Reform Committee in the fall of 2022. The committee comprised of members of human service-related Boards and Commissions and community stakeholders was asked to:
1. Review funding areas and priorities to determine if the AFHS competitive process is the appropriate vehicle for funding these areas and the related fiscal impact.
2. Review relevant data to determine critical outcomes/impact areas and structure for future grant cycles.
3. Explore mechanisms that will allow collaboration among and between community-based organizations that provide services to City residents.
4. Develop a better understanding of racial and ethnic communities most impacted using prior AFHS data.
5. Seek to explore ways to encourage innovation and racial equity focus.
City Council approved the Committee’s reform recommendations at its January 24, 2023, Legislative Meeting (Attachment 1). Following the approval of the recommendations, DCHS staff carried out the following steps associated with the FY 2024 to FY 2026 grantmaking process:
• January-March 2023- DCHS staff completed and implemented the new web-based grant making portal.
• March 17, 2023- DCHS issued the Request for Grant Proposals (RFGP) which incorporated feedback from the Reform Committee and a community listening session.
• March 27, 2023- with support from the Office of Performance Analytics, hosted the FY 2024 to FY 2026 Pre-proposal session and Logic Model Training session.
• April 17, 2023- closed the RFGP submission period.
• April 18-21, 2023-staff conducted a preliminary review of the grant proposals and, fifty-seven (57) of the sixty-five (65) submissions were certified as complete and eligible for the external review and evaluation process.
• April 24, 2023- convened an external Review Committee comprised of a cross section of members from City human service-related Boards and Commissions and hosted the orientation and training session for grant proposal review, scoring and rating via the new web-based tool. The committee considered each grant proposal using the nine (9) evaluation and scoring criteria resulting from the fall 2022 Reform Committee’s work.
• April 24-May 29, 2023- managed and monitored the external Review Committee’s work.
• June 1, 2023- convened the Review Committee’s initial Consensus Scoring/Review meeting.
• June 5, 2023 - convened the Review Committee’s second Consensus Scoring and Funding Recommendations meeting.
• June 27, 2023- presented the Review Committee’s funding recommendations for City Council. A total of 53 grant proposals were recommended for funding: 37 existing AFHS funded programs, and 28 programs new to AFHS.
The AFHS appropriation has been level funded at $1.9 million for the past eight (8) years. The grant requests for FY 2024 presented an unprecedented challenge for the Review Committee and staff, as the requests totaled over $5.4 million. The chart below details AFHS appropriations and total funding requests for funding since the establishment of the fund in 2007.
DISCUSSION: Shortly after the FY 2024 to FY 2026 Funding Recommendations Docket Memorandum for City Council’s June 27, 2023, Legislative Meeting was published, and a few days prior to the meeting, members of City Council and staff were contacted with concerns and questions regarding the funding recommendations and the rationale for reductions being recommended for programs with longstanding AFHS funding.
In response to these concerns, staff recommended as an alternative strategy, using unspent dollars from DCHS’ American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) projects (with the highest proportion coming from the Early Childhood projects) to fund three (3) core early childhood services that have historically received significant Children’s Fund and AFHS grant awards. The freeing up of these grant dollars made it possible to redistribute the funds to ensure current grantees would receive level funding rather than a reduction. During the June 27, 2023, City Council Legislative Meeting, staff received approval for the alternative funding strategy recommendation for the three (3) early childhood programs, and the FY 2024 to FY 2026 grant awards for the remaining fifty (50) programs (Attachment 2) as follows:
1. Funding at the FY 2023 level for the 37 existing AFHS supported programs; and
2. Funding for the 28 new programs:
a. requests under $100K receive 60% of the requested amount.
b. requests over $100K receive 50% of the requested amount.
c. requests over $200K receive 25% of the requested amount.
d. requests falling between $10K to $15K would receive no reduction.
The following charts depict the grant awards requests and grant awards by the City Council FY 2024 to FY 2026 by grant priorities.
|
AFHS FY 2024 to FY 2026 |
|
Priority Areas |
Grant Requests by Priority |
Grant Awards by Priority |
|
All children and youth are school ready (ages 0-5). |
$802,278.00 |
$143,980.00* |
|
All Alexandrians are socially connected, emotionally secure and culturally competent. |
$1,028,326.00 |
$238,207.00 |
|
All Alexandrians are economically secure and career ready. |
$2,338,540.00 |
$932,282.00 |
|
All Alexandrians have access to physical, dental, mental health and vision resources and services. |
$370,891.00 |
$241,481.00 |
|
All Alexandrians are assisted in and empowered to prevent and remedy crises (this includes food security, evictions, and financial crises). |
$896,414.00 |
$440,480.00 |
|
Total |
$5,436,449 |
$1,996,430.00 |
*Reflects removal of three early childhood programs
During the June 27th meeting the City Council also instructed staff to return in September 2023, to provide a detailed briefing on the FY 2024 to FY 2026 grantmaking process and offer recommendations for process improvements as appropriate. The following are the strengths and challenges that were identified through the staff review.
The strengths of the process, particularly in relation to the implementation of the Reform Committee recommendations included:
• The Request for Grant Proposals aligned with the funding goals and focus populations emerging from the Reform Committee’s Community Listening session.
• The applicant pool included new and diverse applicants and twenty-eight (28) of the fifty (50) grant recipients are new to AFHS, and they proposed to support a cross-section of City residents and households especially in zip codes evidencing the greatest human service need.
• The pre-proposal session offered training to support the new AFHS data collection and development of the Logic Model requirements; and
• The newly launched on-line grant making tool facilitated the efficient submission of grant proposals, and review process.
The critical process challenges included:
• Members of the Review Committee were assigned all of the grant proposals for review and scoring. Thus, requiring an extension of the review period.
• The significant gap in funding relative to the amount of the requests made it extremely difficult to adequately disburse the available funds.
• This funding gap and the desire to fund the largest number of projects initially resulted in across-the-board reductions. However, the employment of an alternative funding strategy for three projects facilitated level funding for existing AFHS grantees.
• The convening of the Reform Committee necessitated the compression of the grants process timeline as referenced above. This created a dynamic where decisions about the grants were made very close to the end of the fiscal year, thus causing great difficulty for organizations that expected continued funding.
• Funding notifications to applicants cannot happen until after City Council’s acceptance of the recommendations which does not occur until the adoption of the fiscal year budget.
The following recommendations for improvements reflect the staff assessment as well as the feedback provided by members of the Alexandria Council of Human Service Organization’s (ACHSO) Education and Advocacy Committee to City Council on August 31, 2023:
• Establish an ongoing team/panel of external reviewers and internal staff consultants to assure adequate support and continuity in the review process.
• Adhere to a grants process timeline that ensures 45-day advanced notice of grant availability and a minimum of 30 days’ notice of award announcements.
• Continue to offer technical assistance for use of the grants management tool and the Logic Model, and conduct post award feedback for applicants as requested.
• Explore the use of a funding formula based on grant proposal scores in rank order.
• Explore a two-tiered grant proposal process, with funding caps and mini grants for small scale projects and focus on innovation.
• Work with the City’s non-profit partners and key stakeholders to develop a periodic needs assessment process (including the use of relevant strategic plans) to drive funding and budgetary priorities.
• Research and pursue alternative funding sources and other methods to increase available funding for the AFHS.
• Implement a process to determine if there are additional “Core Services” that should be part of City Departmental budgets through contractual services and not funded through AFHS competitive grants process.
• Consult with neighboring jurisdictions with similar funding processes for non-profits.
• Review the key purposes of the Fund and determine if it should: provide seed funding vs. full funding, innovation vs. ongoing services; time limited commitments vs. continuous funding.
The framework, guidance and implementation of the above recommendations will require dedicated staff resources and continued strong collaboration with our non-profit and community-based partners. A timeline for implementation will be developed following the acceptance of the proposed recommendations. Our shared vision and focus on ensuring the wellbeing, safety, self-sufficiency, and resilience of Alexandria residents will make it possible to create the strongest approaches going forward.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Alexandria Fund for Human Services Grant 2022 Reform Committee Recommendations
2. FY 2024 to FY 2026 Alexandria Fund for Human Services Grant Recipients
STAFF:
Kendel Taylor, Interim Deputy City Manager
Morgan Routt, Director, Office of Management and Budget
Federico Gutierrez, Deputy Director, DCHS