Some area nonprofits might see their funding decreased or eliminated altogether in a few months when the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta changes the way it makes grants.
Others might see an increase.
The United Way is restructuring its processes for making grants to partner organizations through the Community Impact Fund, which is the pool volunteers control to invest in agencies.
The new model, says United Way President Milton J. Little Jr., will emphasize performance and outcomes in the five focus areas of education, income, health, basic needs and homelessness.
It also will make it more competitive for nonprofits in those areas to get grants. Those doing well will have the opportunity to receive multiyear funding, according to the United Way, which recently raised $80.2 million in its annual drive. Most of that goes to community programs, including the fund.
In the past, grants, ranging from a few thousand dollars to roughly $2 million, were based on performance and past grant amounts.
Little said nonprofits -- including giants such as the American Cancer Society -- are basically being asked to document that they are actually making a measurable communitywide difference, beyond just an individual or family level. He said the changes are needed because of demands from donors who want "to see more bang for the buck."
Also, more donors are designating to which agency or area they want to give, which could be in town or out of state. Doing so cuts down on unrestricted funds in the Community Impact Fund, he said.
Little also said the agency will look at grants from an issues-related area and not geography.
That change might be good news for some agencies.
Meg Rogers, executive director of the Cherokee County Family Violence Center, thinks the new approach makes sense.
Previously, she said, her agency was only eligible to apply for funding that came to Cherokee "not matter how many individuals we absorbed," she said. Because they serve people from throughout the metro area, she hopes the nonprofit's grant will increase.
Applications, from existing partners only, are being submitted with grant awards scheduled to be announced in July.
The changes worry some nonprofits.
"We're trying to make sure we can illustrate how we meet the critical need in the parameters that United Way is demanding," said Steven Gottlieb, executive director of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, which received $232,686 for the current fiscal year. "They don't understand that you sometimes need a lawyer to prevent homelessness and to keep people in housing."
He worries that clients like Ruby Smith will be left out in the cold.
Smith, 62, and her 82-year-old aunt were nearly evicted from their subsidized two-bedroom Atlanta apartment in a move she said was in retaliation for going public about a bedbug problem in the complex.
Smith turned to Atlanta Legal Aid. "We would have been homeless," said Smith, a retired assembly line worker for a meat packing company. "We would have probably had to go sleep under the bridge."
The reality, though, is that it may be hard for some organizations to gauge what the impact will be until they know how their funding has been affected.
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