Charlottesville City Council reviews process for funding nonprofit agencies

One of the main topics of coverage for Town Crier Productions is the budget process for local governments. Different communities have different political cultures when it comes to taxation and how to spend money to run administrative operations to support the public sector.

One of the first steps in the preparation of Charlottesville’s budget for Fiscal Year 2028 will be an invitation for non-profit organizations to apply for support through the Vibrant Community Fund.

“For FY27, the Vibrant Community Fund (VCF) was funded with $2.3 million to provide direct assistance to non-governmental organizations focused on Education and Youth, Public Health and Safety, Economic Impact and Jobs, and Arts and Culture,” reads the adopted budget.

An overview of funding opportunities

On June 1, staff asked the City Council if there were any changes they might like to make to that process as well as other funding mechanisms for affordable housing. There are eight pools in all according to Taylor Harvey-Ryan, the city’s grant program manager.

“So we have Intergovernmental Contractual, Fundamental Organizations, Vibrant Communities Funds, Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund (CAHF), Housing Operations Program Support (HOPS), Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Home Investment Partnerships, and Small Business Energy Efficiency Incentive Grant Program,” Harvey-Ryan said.

The latter is operated by the Office of Sustainability and wasn’t really part of the June 1 conversation.

There are 22 agencies with whom the city has an Intergovernmental ranging from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail to the Virginia Cooperative Extension. Then there are nine “fundamental” agencies, a status now in its second year.

“They are any entity designated by the City which provides a unique unduplicated service to the residents of the City of Charlottesville,” Harvey-Ryan said. “The service provided must be in alignment with the priorities of the City as indicated in the Strategic Plan framework as well as be a service that if not provided, the City would either need to take on itself or fund another service provider to provide.”

Being “fundamental” also means funding is guaranteed each year without an application.

The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority is in this category and will receive $300,000 in FY27. That is a separate government entity.

The Blue Ridge Coalition for the Homeless is a nonprofit entity that will receive $250,000 in FY27. The Public Housing Association of Residents is also a nonprofit that will receive $125,000. There’s also Offender Air and Restoration (OAR) which will receive $733,808 in FY27.

“OAR is a non-profit organization that offers an Adult Drug Court, Criminal Justice Planner, Local Probation, Pretrial Services Reentry Services, Therapeutic Docket programs,” reads a self-description provided by the agency for the budget.

The Charlottesville Affordable Housing Fund was established by Council in 2007 and a committee sorts through applications submitted by nonprofit organizations. Between 2010 and 2022, the city spent $46.7 million according to an audit requested by Sanders.

“The goals of that program are to increase the affordable housing stock, preserve existing affordable housing, support long term affordability, stabilize neighborhoods and prevent displacement, and also promote inclusive growth and housing equity,” Harvey-Ryan said. “HOPS or our Housing Operations Program Support, provides funding to support the operational needs of nonprofit organizations that provide essential housing related services.”

The federal government provides funding for the CDBG and HOME programs and a second committee reviews those applications. Harvey-Ryan said this pool pays for projects that benefit people in low-income communities.

“The eligible activities under CDBG are economic development, public facilities and infrastructure enhancements, affordable housing activities, public service activities, and planning and administration,” Harvey-Ryan said.

This year the city will be moving up deadlines into the summer to better align with the budget process. The city is also stepping up efforts to ensure that funding is effective by requiring quarterly reports that measure how well executing agreements are being met by each entity.

“We monitor your reports for completion and to track how organizations are doing in relation to that scope of work and meeting their outcome,” Harvey-Ryan said. “So if we gave you X amount of dollars and you said you were going to serve this many residents, we are tracking to say you spent this much money, did you serve this many residents?”

An overview of the Vibrant Community Fund

Reginald Allen, a planner in the Department of Human Services, took Council through recent changes to the Vibrant Community Fund process. Previously, none of the funded entities would be on the hook for a site visit unless they received at least $75,000. That threshold is being removed.

“This change ensures that all programs receiving funding are subject to the same level of review oversight, regardless of the amount requested,” Allen said. “We believe removing the threshold promotes greater equity and consistency by ensuring that all organizations are held to the same expectations and standards, regardless of funding level.”

Allen said there will also be additional scrutiny if there are significant changes to the organization such as a new director.

Misty Graves, director of Human Services, said there were 84 applications to the Vibrant Community Fund in the past cycle plus another dozen from arts organizations and ten from organizations seeking to put on a cultural event. She said that if Council wants to make a big change to the system, organizations that rely on funding need some lead time.

“We wouldn’t implement anything, any major changes until FY29,” Graves said. “And again, that’s what we’re here for, is to kind of hear from you all about any expectations that council may have around that.”

Graves said one change will be a further separation of arts and cultural applications and allow that to run through the City Manager’s office or the new arts council. City Council has agreed to fund the hiring of a consultant to set up that council and a request for proposals should be posted in the fall.

Another change may be to encourage nonprofits to work together if provided services overlap.

City Councilor Michael Payne said the Vibrant Community Fund process should be about encouraging new services rather than funding operational support.

“This is for new programs or to do new things,” Payne said. “But if you’re relying on it to take care of your core staff or just to function as an organization, you’re not approaching the VCF process correctly. And we hear every year from numerous nonprofits that many don’t view it that way. They are applying, viewing it as kind of a guarantee baked in part of their core operational budget. And that without VCF funding, their concern is they may not be able to continue to function as a nonprofit.”

City Councilor Lloyd Snook said he expects the Vibrant Community Fund committee to review nonprofit budgets and tax filings and he does not usually want to second guess their recommendations. However, he noticed there is a lot of overlap in areas such as mentoring school students and providing services to people just released from jail.

“How are we going to fund a comprehensive support for people just getting out of jail?” Snook said. “We’ve got the jail itself, we’ve got [Offender Aid and Restoration] which is being funded as one of the other contractual organizations. We’ve got these other groups. There’s no sense of putting it all together as though somebody is looking at it from above and saying, saying, here’s how we’re going to direct this entire scheme.”

For instance, in FY27, the Fountain Fund asked for $50,000 and received $45,500 for a project with the title “Increasing Economic Opportunities for Formerly Incarcerated People and Their Families in Charlottesville.”

The Uhuru Foundation requested $200,000 for a project with the title “Transformative Futures: Reentry & Gun Violence Prevention Initiative” and received $54,000.

City Councilor Jen Fleisher has experience with grant-funded programs such as the MAPP2Health Community Health Assessment conducted by the Blue Ridge Health District. That cycle runs every three years and she said city funding could perhaps be tied to longer time frames.

“One year is unrealistic to move the needle on anything, much less achieve a strategic priority,” Fleisher said. “So it seems like it’s time to rethink how we spend this cash and make it a lot clearer that we are spending it to really get some outcomes which everyone is measured against.”

Mayor Juandiego Wade said many nonprofits also have an advantage because they are already well-funded and have resources to secure additional funding whether they really need it or not.

“I just know that in this community [there are] some nonprofits that have a full staff with grant writers and seasoned staff and others who are not as seasoned,” Wade said.

Toward the end of the discussion, Sanders repeated that any structural changes would be made in the FY2029 budget because there’s not enough time to do so for FY2028. He said many organizations in this community cry foul when they don’t receive what they requested.

“We have individuals who are not getting what they want and then they allege that it’s not transparent, not fair, and I beg to differ,” Sanders said. “So what I’m hearing you all say is that it’s okay for us to start clearly communicating to them. That’s not how we see it. That is not what we think is happening. You shouldn’t expect to receive the same $35,000 that you got last year just because you applied again this year.”

Council will further discuss the matter at a retreat later this year.

Before you go: The goal of Town Crier Productions is to increase awareness about what is happening at the local, regional, state, and federal government levels. Please share the work with others if you want people to know things. Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for this article which was originally published in the July 8, 2026 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement.  You can either subscribe through Substack or make a charitable contribution.