Grant Rules

GRANT ADMINISTRATION POLICY

CLAIREMONT TOWN COUNCIL

1. Background. Each year, a budget is prepared for the Clairemont Town Council (CTC) listing, by category, expected income and authorized expenditures. All but two of the expense categories are relatively clear as to what specific expenditures they include. However, two of the expense categories are set up in the budget as undefined “pots of money” for expenditures to be considered and approved through the course of the budget year. These two categories are:

· Donations and Awards – to benefit the community or to provide support or recognition for individuals or organizations selected as particularly worthy and deserving of recognition for their efforts to further the goals of the CTC and the Clairemont community. Examples are:

- donations to schools, libraries, police, parks, etc.

- “scholarships” to individuals, such as for schooling, Miss Clairemont pageant, skate

park, etc.

- community beautification awards, cleanups, public art

- community events, such as blood drives, concerts, Family Days, etc.

- donations to seniors, needy, faith-based organizations, etc.

· Publicity and Promotions – to promote or benefit the CTC or to provide support for the

efforts of individuals and organizations who play an active role in providing a broader

awareness of the CTC and our mission to the general public in the community of Clairemont and the city of San Diego. Examples are:

- fundraisers

- advertising, brochures, flyers, etc.

- membership drives, member canvassing

- plaques and other recognition for CTC business members

This policy, approved by the general membership of the CTC, provides guidance to the CTC Board of Directors in determining when and where to spend the money in these categories to promote the mission of the CTC.

2. Funds. Funds directed to these two expense categories will be determined with the approval of

each year’s annual budget. Funds not distributed within the year of any annual budget will be carried forward and continued as directed in the next annual budget.

3. Prequalified Grant Recipients. Some grant recipients may be predetermined and named in advance by the CTC as part of the annual budget process. The total of such advance designations shall be no more than 25 percent of the total budget for Donations and Awards, and all such grants are further constrained by recipient and calendar limitations as specified below.

4. Grant Fund Limitations by Recipient. Distribution of funds to any one recipient shall be limited to no more than 20 percent of the total annual funds available in the Donations and Awards budget unless such larger grant application is brought to and approved by the CTC general membership.

5. Grant Fund Limitations by Calendar. The annual cumulative distribution of funds for Donations and Awards shall not exceed the limits shown by the heavy lines in the chart below unless such larger distribution is brought to and approved by the CTC general membership.

J F M A M J J A S O N D

100

PERCENT OF BUDGET

6. Applicant Requirements. Applicants for a grant from Donations and Awards must live or work in Clairemont and be at least 14 years of age. Membership in the CTC is not required. Applicants not meeting these requirements are not eligible to receive funds.

7. Application Submittal. All applications shall be presented at a regular meeting of the CTC Board of Directors on a completed application form (see Attachment A) and by a representative of the person or group requesting the grant. Board members may ask questions of the applicant to clarify or add to the information presented on the application form.

8. Board decision. Generally, following any such questions and appropriate discussion among the Board, a decision will be made during the same meeting by majority vote of the Board members present. On rare occasions, the Board may elect to further study the application and/or seek advice from other persons and postpone the decision until the next Board meeting. Each Board member will complete an Application Evaluation Form (see paragraph 9) to help determine the merits of the application. The decision of the Board is final, and appeal to the general membership is not an avenue for the applicant. However, the applicant may note the reason(s) for a denial, revise his/her application to eliminate the objectionable conditions, and resubmit the application.

9. Application Evaluation Form. The CTC Board, in reviewing requests for financial support from the CTC, should have a consistent “yardstick” with which to evaluate the requests. Attachment B is an evaluation form which lists the attributes considered to be important in assessing how closely the request adheres to the general CTC mission and how much value would be gained byfunding the request. Each attribute should be given a numerical value from 0 to 4. This value is then multiplied by the attribute weighting factor to arrive at an attribute score. The sum of the attribute scores is the overall score for the application. The sum can be used to rank competing requests

or on its own as a gauge of the worthiness of the request. A request with a sum of less

than 60 does not substantially meet the CTC's criteria and should not be funded.

10. Award Recognition. Whenever possible, the successful applicant or a representative shall appear before a general membership meeting to accept recognition and the grant award.

11. Project Results. At the completion of the project to which the CTC awarded funds, the applicant or a representative will report to the CTC Board on the results of the project (essentially, toshow that the funds were used for the purpose for which they were requested). Failure to reportwill eliminate that recipient from consideration for any future grants.

12. Planned Expenditures. There may be events in either of the two budget line items which should be supported as a matter of philosophy. These events can be determined at any point during the budget year and added to this policy. Two such events currently exist for the Publicity and Promotions budget line:

a. Fundraisers. Recognizing that increased financial abilities of the CTC will allow the

Council to better promote its mission and that there are some expenses incurred in running a fundraiser, a portion of the Publicity and Promotions budget should be reserved for fundraisers each year. Recommendation: a sum of $200 should be reserved for this purpose.

b. Advertising. Recognizing that an increased awareness by the community of the existence and mission of the CTC can bring increased membership and that increased membership brings additional talent and finances to the organization, a portion of the Publicity and Promotions budget should be reserved for advertising (in all its forms) each year. Recommendation: fifty percent of the remainder of this line item should be reserved for this purpose.

Factors used to evaluate Grant project:

Group size Relevance to Clairemont as a community – none, one or two individuals, group, whole city or area, Clairemont only CTC share of project cost – are we just a little part of a large project Promotes safety Involves partnerships – community involvement (leverage our contribution) Has wide promotion Visibility of project – how apparent will it be to the community that something has changed Shared recognition (some for CTC) – publicity for us Permanence – how lasting will be the results of the project Involves education – schools - informing the community of Clairemont issues so they can take action Enhancement value – physically (beautification, fix infrastructure, etc.) or quality of life (noise, traffic, blood, etc.) Duration of project