Idea #23 -- Increase Revenues from Grants

Idea #23 – Increase Revenues from Grants

Report Status: Fully Reviewed

Researched by: Vicki Amalfitano

Original Idea as Submitted

Pursue State, Federal and other Grants. Determine whether additional support is needed to increase grant funds. The town has just scratched the surface in potential additional energy savings. If the town committed $10K towards a grant writer's fee in 2021, she would bring in $250K in grants covering her full $20K fee for 2021. Each subsequent year she would do the same as she has done in 6 other nearby towns for many years. As a consultant, she doesn't add to the town employee head count. See attached for details.

Other ideas included in this report

#90 – Pursue private and corporate grant funding for public education; Make list of previous grants easily accessible and centralized

Idea intent

Increase new revenue from grants through adding grant writing resources.

Weighted Final Score: 63 (Financial Impact: 4, Operational Impact: 4, Time Scale: 3, Ease of Implementation: 4)

Background Information

Belmont has multiple sources of grant funds from state and federal government entities and other sources for all Town and School programs. Individual departments and offices currently are responsible for sourcing and applying for grants in their specific areas, and the Town Administrator’s Office has also brought in grant funding from a variety of sources. Revenues from government and other grants are listed in the Town budget, though it is not easy to locate this information given the breadth of this document.

In discussing developing grant funding with Belmont’s Town Administrator and Arlington’s Town Manager, they shared the following perspective: department heads routinely are communicated with by outside entities about grant availability and, as subject matter experts and leaders, are best able to write grant proposals for their functional areas; it generally is ill-advised in town government to submit grant proposals that include time-limited staff as there is no assurance that these FTE’s can be sustained after funding has ceased; and, neither Town has felt that a grant writer was an urgent need. Both Belmont and Arlington have used consultants for very specific technical needs. Broader use of consultants may be advisable in some cases.

An issue raised by both the Belmont TA and Arlington TM was being careful not to bring in grants where the town does not have the staff to run the grant. Based on these conversations, grant funding will not address the structural deficit, as these are not permanent funding streams. Rather, then can offset some operational needs, such as a recent grant to fund body cameras for Belmont police. Also, there is no accurate way to forecast new revenues from grants.

Recommendations

Belmont should continue to aggressively pursue available, feasible grant funding, which has been growing for several years. It seems the public may not be aware of these successes, and improved communications are called for. An even part-time grant-writer to assist with this work is competing with many other staffing needs at this time. Use of employed and consultant grant writers by towns similar to Belmont should be evaluated, in light of total grant revenues by town and cost-benefit of these resources.

Next Steps

The Select Board should request that the Town Administrator’s Office oversee and work with the Schools and Library on the collection of the past 5 years of grants received, to provide an accessible report to Belmont residents on the sources, types and amounts of grants.
New grants should be announced on the various website and social media platforms.
In addition, the Town should reach out to additional municipalities like Belmont about best practices in staffing and grants acquisition. Examining these in light of comparative revenues from grants and cost-benefit of added resources is a good next step.