Editorial: Improved Marin grants program impactful for nonprofits

There’s likely little debate that the $1.6 million Marin supervisors have greenlit for grants to local nonprofits is needed.

With Washington’s policies threatening local providers of health care and food for needy households, the need for helping hands, even in our community that is known for its affluence, is growing.

That need is reflected in the 177 applications the county received for its Community Grants and Investment Program. Those applications sought a total of $6.3 million.

Supervisors approved funding for 96 organizations.

In addition, supervisors have appropriated another $238,000 outside of the program.

The need is real.

In a talk this week, Marin Community Foundation President and CEO Rhea Suh said that one in five Marin residents will lose vital benefits or face food scarcity due to changes in federal policies that will take place as the calendar turns to 2026.

That’s 20% of Marin’s residents facing real-life challenges.

The Marin Community Foundation, with the Buck Trust and its donor-advised funds, has launched a community fundraising campaign to try to meet those hunger needs. The county has pledged funds for that initiative.

The Trump administration’s cutbacks in federal funding are also reflected in many of the supervisors’ grants.

The county’s community grants program has long been the source of controversy, as critics say it is a form of political patronage where supervisors steer tax dollars to local charitable services, projects and programs while building local political loyalty.

For many years, there was little public oversight and review of those grants, either their purposes or amounts.

Over the years, some grantees who would have challenged supervisors’ decisions were wary that their public remarks could jeopardize that funding.

For many years, that criticism led supervisors to significantly reduce the size of its spending on those grants.

In recent years, instead of supervisors directly requesting the grants, the fund has been turned over to an open application process and committee of county staffers reviewing those requests and culling through those requests to come up with recommendations to the board.

The goal is to reduce the imprint of the supervisors’ political fingerprints from those recommendations, even though the board has two of its own aides on the committee.

When it comes to government funding, it’s hard to detach those dollars from even the slightest sense of political patronage.

At the same time, that effort is complicated by politicians themselves who typically are not shy about accepting applause for spending those dollars.

The committee-based grants program is an improvement.

It certainly has opened the door a lot wider for more applicants.

But the county also needs to open its review process, providing some opportunity for public input.

It should also build in greater accountability, requiring grantees to report back on the use and impact of the funding. Such public documentation and accountability should help quiet criticism of the program.

Among this round of grants was $30,000 each to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank for the purchase of an electric-powered truck, and construction projects for the Ross Valley Nursery Schools and the Marin Art and Garden Center.

The Family and Children’s Law Center got a $25,000 grant, as did Legal Aid of Marin, the Marin City Community Services District’s outdoor recreation programs and the Marin Community Clinics’ specialty eye-care services.

A $50,000 grant was awarded to West Marin’s Papermill Creek Children’s Corner, a bilingual preschool in Point Reyes Station, for repairing its roof, installing solar panels and school programs and services.

North Marin Community Services and the San Geronimo Valley Community Center, both hubs for local services and programs, each received $26,000 grants.

Some grants were specifically made at the request of individual supervisors, such as Supervisor Eric Lucan’s request for a $13,000 grant to support mentoring groups for Youth Transforming Justice, a Marin restorative justice program; Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters’ request for $10,000 for Marin City’s Hope Housing Community Land Trust, which plans to use the fund to help local residents – people who have faced historic housing discrimination – afford down payments or home maintenance and Supervisor Mary Sackett’s ask for $12,000 for capital improvements for the Rafael Film Center.

There were dozens of other grants approved by the board. There were also dozens that did not receive grants.

The grants amount to a piece of the financial patchwork these nonprofits need to build to meet their stated objectives. In some cases, the county grant can prove pivotal.

Demand for support from the county is expected to grow in the coming months. The need across Marin – especially for food, health care and housing services, as well as programs for needy households and marginalized populations – is expected to increase. The number of applications will likely rise, as well.

The program, despite some of the criticism it has generated over the years, is making a difference across the county.