San Juan Bautista
– The Mission City is looking to found a nonprofit, charitable
foundation officials hope will generate new funds to improve
everything from city parks and recreation opportunities to
historical preservation projects.
San Juan Bautista – The Mission City is looking to found a nonprofit, charitable foundation officials hope will generate new funds to improve everything from city parks and recreation opportunities to historical preservation projects.
City Manager Jan McClintock introduced the idea during San Juan Bautista’s June 20 City Council meeting. The nonprofit, she said, would be eligible for beneficial grant funding that the city cannot currently get.
“There are a lot of grants out there, but many of them are restricted to nonprofit 501(c) 3 organizations,” she said Wednesday. “Not to cities.”
A charitable foundation designed to support the city’s endeavors, however, is fair game because a private board of directors not affiliated with the city would determine how any grant money received is spent, she said.
“It would be a private board, but they are still responsible to the city council,” McClintock said. “It works a lot like a city planning commission that way.”
Obtaining funding for various projects has always been a challenge for San Juan, which operates on a budget of around $1 million every year.
An all-purpose charitable foundation would be particularly useful to San Juan because of its flexibility, McClintock said. Foundation directors could quickly raise funds to support a variety of causes, she added.
“We can go after grants that will help support historic preservation, after school programs, literacy programs, all kinds of things that will benefit the city,” she said. “For example if, God forbid, one of our firefighters should get hurt, the board could spin up their own program to raise money to help, and then spin it down when it’s no longer needed.”
Other programs such a foundation could support include the city library, historical society, renovations to the city’s community center and an agricultural museum.
Establishing a nonprofit is becoming increasingly popular with cities looking for a new avenue to explore grant funding, according to the city manager.
“More and more cities are doing this,” McClintock said.
The city council was enthused by the idea and asked staff to bring back the necessary paperwork to begin the process of setting up a foundation for the July meeting.
Before a nonprofit can be incorporated, a board of directors must be selected and a number of forms must be filled out with appropriate agencies, but McClintock believes a foundation could be up and ready to go by the end of the year.
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected].
