City of Muncie Awards $2 Million To Local Non-Profits Through American Rescue Plan Grants

By Jeff Robinson, President of Muncie City Council, District 2—

MUNCIE, Ind.—Seventy-four non-profits applied for grant dollars earmarked to help those organizations and their clients who were hardest hit by COVID-19. In total, $2 million of the City of Muncie’s American Recovery Plan funding of $31.7 million will be awarded to help the non-profit sector and the people they serve.

District 2 Councilman and City Council President Jeff Robinson and Heart of Indiana United Way’s President & CEO, Jenni Marsh recruited a diverse committee for the ARP Non-Profit Awards Committee. There were representatives of the LGBTQ+ and Black Indigenous People of Color populations as well as local grantors to review and score the submitted grant requests. The committee included: Susana Rivera Mills, John Anderson, Charlize Jamieson, Jon Moll, as well as representatives including: the Community Foundation’s Kelly Shrock and Marcy Minton, Ball Brothers Foundation’s Jud Fisher and Rich Spisak, George and Frances Ball Foundation’s Tom Kinghorn, and Heart of Indiana United Way’s Jenni Marsh and Jim Flatford.

Each community member had one vote. Each grant making organization only had one vote (even if they had multiple staff members serving on the committee). United Way coordinated and facilitated the grant-making effort.

“I am so grateful to these committee members and United Way for creating such a thoughtful and thorough review process,” Robinson, who attended the ARP Non-Profit Awards Committee meeting, explained.

Also in attendance, to field questions and offer legal guidance, was Muncie City Council’s attorney Dan Gibson of Delk McNally. Gibson reviewed all applications to ensure only those that fit within the parameters established by the ARP Non-Profit Committee and/or the United States Treasury in their final interim ruling for eligible uses of funds. Five of the 74 applicants were determined to be ineligible.

To be eligible for funding, non-profits must be located within the City of Muncie, be a 501(C)3 in good standing, and must not discriminate based on age, race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, economic status, or sexual orientation. Those agencies with religious affiliation must not refuse services to a client based on religion or require attendance at religious services as a condition of assistance, nor will such groups engage in any religious proselytizing in any program receiving ARP funds.

The ARP Non-Profit Awards Committee approved awarding 53 nonprofits ARP dollars. They kept the ARP Non-Profit Committee’s charge to be strategic and address equity and inclusion whenever possible at the forefront of their scoring.

“From folks determining how these dollars should be awarded to the folks making the final funding recommendations to the City, I cannot thank these people enough,” Robinson added. “The Awards Committee put in a lot of time reading all the applications and scoring them. To hear their arguments for their recommendations, as the committee worked toward consensus, was amazing. It speaks very highly of those 53 organizations who have been awarded funds.”

Last week, Robinson personally notified the organizations whether they will be awarded full, partial, or no funding. United Way will work with award recipients to get signed funding agreements and report forms in place. They will also explain to the organizations not receiving funding why they were not selected to help them with future applications to grantors.

The full list of awards is below.  Other information about the process can be found on the American Rescue Plan page of the City of Muncie’s website under non-profits.

Final and accepted recommendations by the ARP Non-Profit Awards Committee