NOMA to apply for next cycle's City grant

Last March, we informed you that NOMA's Board made the difficult decision to forego the City's annual neighborhood organization grant money after City Council attached many onerous conditions. Many of you stepped up your membership in support of that decision for which we are very grateful. We're pleased to announce that after months of interacting with City officials to modify and clarify the grant conditions, we feel we can once again apply for the next cycle of grant money our neighborhood is entitled to. Under the City's new distribution plan, the grant is just over half of the amount we previously received, so your membership dollars are still crucial to our mission. 

Specifically, here are the City grant rules that were most problematic and have now been addressed:

1. We are no longer required to request demographic information from our members. Board members may volunteer their demographic information but a recent poll of our Board indicates no members will supply the City with that information.
2. We are permitted to support or oppose ballot measures with our residents; we just can't use the City funds to promote our position. Originally, the rules implied that neighborhood groups were prohibited from taking positions on ballot measures if they had applied for the grant. This was important to us because there are some measures that will have a direct impact on NOMA residents and we wanted to be sure we could still provide guidance on them. With this new modification we can continue to do so. 
3. We are permitted to hold candidate forums as long as we don't use City grant money for them. This is crucial as one of our most informative events for residents is hosting or co-hosting candidate events (which already did at Franklin School on Sept. 19th!). But the previous rules implied we would not be permitted to do so under any circumstances if we applied for the grant. Now, we are permitted to hold candidate events using our own funds. These are expensive events requiring venue rental, school staff, extra insurance, etc., so again your membership dollars are what make this possible. 
4. We are allowed to use City funds for newsletters and encourage residents to become members. Originally, the rules stated we could not use City funds for "list-building" which is an ambiguous term that seemed to rule out soliciting members through a newsletter. This was problematic, as newsletters are one of our only means of reaching potential new members, and newsletters are also expensive (printing, postage, etc.) and were the primary use of City funds in the past. The City has now clarified that our newsletters can include a form for new members, without falling under their definition of "list-building," and can be paid for with grant funds. 

The only true prohibition that remains under the grant rules is that we cannot endorse candidates for elected office. But NOMA has historically never endorsed candidates as we feel it is our role to inform residents and let them make their own electoral decisions. 

Taken together, these changes and clarifications make it possible for us to once again apply for the grant money that you, our residents, are entitled to. This decision was never about the money; it was about the principle of the City exerting too much control over our independence as a resident group. We feel that our negotiations with the City have alleviated those unnecessary restrictions to the point where we can once again accept the grant money to which we are entitled, and put it to good use in support of our residents.

Feel free to reach out with any questions. Again, thank you all for your strong support over the past year. 

The NOMA Board