That's sometimes a really difficult sell to both the county and the city about who we are and what we do and how it has an impact.

We keep the lights on, we keep the roof over their heads, and we allow them the space to grow and thrive.

And so our professional development is one of those areas.

Our fiscal sponsorship expansion of our fiscal sponsorship is also one of those areas.

Both of those things require a significant investment of time and energy to bring together those programs from a fiscal sponsorship perspective.

What we're doing is we're lending our 501c3 status to these organizations, and we're providing the accounting backdrop for them.

And if any of you have served on a nonprofit board and looked at the books of a set of nonprofits, that's not an uncomplicated task.

So we are ensuring that funders like the city have a trusted partner to work with with these organizations who may just be launching themselves, but have a gap that they're filling in the city in terms of programs.

And so we're the trusted partner that you all recognize, and you can say, yes, we will make an award because we know that federated charities is manage helping manage these resources and manage the programs.

And then the third piece of it is really to um work within the sector.

The sector in Frederick is a robust sector.

There it is the largest professional group within the Chamber of Commerce, nonprofits, 501c3 nonprofits is the largest membership group within the Chamber of Commerce.

By any given count, asking the community foundation, the Osherman Foundation, or any of the major funders, there are easily five to eight hundred nonprofits operating in Frederick at any given time.

And some of them are teeny tiny, some of them are extremely large.

But our ability to advocate about the impact of these organizations, that's a role that we are have actively worked with the Chamber of Commerce through the nonprofit alliance to do some uh surveying of the overall impact of the nonprofit sector on the economy of Frederick.

So we've worked actively with them, but it's helping people understand what the safety net really means.

The safety net exists for a variety of reasons.

It exists for people who are truly in need on a day-to-day basis, but it also exists for every single one of our quality of life.

So each one of you is probably never going to need the services of legal aid.

But the fact that legal aid exists in and is supported by federated charities in our community means that you have a different quality of life because anybody can go and get legal services.

So that kind of advocacy about the sector in Frederick and honestly, around the country, particularly in an atmosphere where nonprofits are being weaponized against one another, and 501c3 status is being weaponized by the government, is a really critical thing, is being able to help people understand what the safety net really is.

So those are the three pillars that we're hoping to expand.

But in answer to your question, we are also looking to expand a part of our physical footprint without actually growing our physical footprint.

So we have bond bill financing to expand our first floor to make it a much more easily accessible space, not just for our tenants, but as community space.

We already accomplished that through the renovation of our front patio, which is now a public space parklit on Market Street where anybody can go.

It's filled with public art, it's available for any nonprofit in the community to use, as is our back secret garden, which most of you probably haven't seen.

But it's there.

And those spaces are available as part of our physical architecture that we are responsible for maintaining.

So our plans include, as part of that bond bill financing, an expansion within our space on the first floor to truly create the welcome mat for federated charities, the place that people walk in and they immediately, instead of stopping at a desk and going, I don't know where to go, can look at it and say, I know exactly where I'm supposed to go.

I'm supposed to go to that meeting room right there that's right in front of me.

Um we see ourselves as stewards of a couple of different aspects of life.

We see ourselves, well, we know that we are legally stewards of the federated charities property, which actually encompasses two properties.

It's the original Williams building, the garden, and then the Paris pharmacy building.

So it's a massive piece of downtown real estate.

And we have preserved that for since we inherited it in 1930.

And that is an important part of Frederick's streetscape.

But what we also do is we protect and um uphold the emotional space that federated charities represents, the space where people on the worst day of their lives go to the building with the dog because they know they can find a resource there.

And even if that is not a resource in our building, we can help them find the services that they need.

And so what we're asking for is the city's help with this.

Well, I'll I'll go through really quickly part of my packet, or I've run out of time, you tell me.

No, no, that's that's fine because there's a question I have in here.

Go ahead, Alan, by all means.

Oh, so the packet that you have in front of you talks a little bit about our impact.

And one of the things that's very easy for us to track is the financial impact of federated charities.

So around 250,000 a year is money that stays in the nonprofits that are physically in our building in their programs and services instead of paying for rent.

That's the very first thing that's important to understand about what we do.

So there's a real dollars and cents savings that they get by being in the federated charities building.

We're very proud that we're fully occupied.

We were almost fully occupied all through COVID.

Um and what we've done over the last decade is we've really tried to create a space where nonprofits want to be, which is why we typically have a waiting list.

But the other things that we can point to and say these are direct savings to these nonprofits is we have built an infrastructure, an IT infrastructure that any of our partners can jump onto that they pay far, far less than their own Comcast bill by jumping into our secure network, which is managed by our IT provider, and they're saving on top of that quarter million dollars in rent.

They're saving on their IT practices.

We have also invested over the last 10 years in three um professional copiers printers in the building that are managed through a cloud system.

So any nonprofit who's in our building can also jump onto that network at a reduced cost and be able to make printing and copying far cheaper than staples and far cheaper than them buying their own toner and maintaining their own copy or leases.

So these are full color copier printers.

Our incubate plus tenants have access to free office space for one year and a sliding scale for the next two years.

This is for emerging and brand new organizations, less than three years old, less than $50,000 in revenue every year.

And we furnish an office space for them.

They have access to the same exact things: the meeting rooms, the outdoor space, the copiers printers, the free Wi-Fi.

They have access to all of that.

And that's a way that we're helping those organizations grow.

So those are the real tangibles that we can look at every single year, and we measure it every single year.

250,000 is a rounded number to make life easier for you and for me.

So I think last year it was 262,000.

So that is in here.

But I think what's important for us is that we have invested not just in their overhead, we're invested heavily in their success.

So when we say we're more than a landlord, we mean that.

We mean that our door is open anytime somebody is having difficulty with their board of directors.

We mean that our door is open anytime somebody doesn't understand how to generate new donated funds.

We are an open door for any kind of question that new emerging and established organizations have.

So we do four training sessions every single year for the Unity campaign.

And then we do anywhere from two to four additional professional development sessions.

And those are either led by us or they are led, we hire consultants to do um a variety of different things.

Um I think it's important to know that that we are just like our building is there for people who are experiencing their worst day, our staff are there for nonprofits who are experiencing the kinds of challenges that we all have to deal with as nonprofits on a regular basis.

And that is part of our safety net for the safety nets.

Any other questions?

Ellen, I'm not thinking I'm glad that you mentioned that that part because I'm looking at the slide, of course, was probably about 14, 15 nonprofits.

There are 14 nonprofits.

I can count.

It's good.

I have to count them.

Yeah, 14 that you house.

And then of course you mentioned in regards to how many others you work with in regards to the scope and size that you just not only your house nonprofits in the help them stabilize in terms of spacing, but also in terms of training mechanisms.

And I know you talked some about that.

And you mentioned between 500 to 800 nonprofits.

So how's it for you in terms of that scale?

How do you use your bandwidth when called upon to provide those those intricacies that these nonprofits need?

Sure.

So I mean, a big way to do that is a couple of things.

First of all, in terms of our physical space, any nonprofit in Frederick can use our meeting rooms and our event spaces for free during business hours.

So that is a way that we can reach out and touch with a very in a very fiscal way, more nonprofits than live are housed in our building, right?

And I would have to look at the numbers to give you an exact number, and I I prefer to give you an exact number, but we probably work with between 75 and 125 additional nonprofits in that way.

And then with the professional development, you know, there are there were 36 nonprofits in the Unity campaign this year.

And and then it becomes a matter of with our other professional development sessions, who shows up.

So with city support during COVID or right as COVID was starting, um bridging that year, the city gave us a grant to do a board training for I think it was 12 nonprofits.

Um it started out, it started out in person and it ended virtually.

But the goal of that was to um help try to replicate.

If anybody remembers boardwalk, anybody remember the boardwalk program that the no, that's fine.

Um so it was a program that executive directors and their board members and board members went to that was hosted by the community foundation and I believe the Chamber of Commerce, and it was probably 15 years ago.

Um but it was a really powerful program, and that to us is one of the main ways that we are amplifying how we serve is through work with people's boards of directors.

That is a critical relationship for any nonprofit to be able to navigate.

And so those examples and what we do now within our own board of directors.

Our goal within our board of directors, and this is a program of ours as well, is that we build our own board in such a way that they learn the basics of what it means to be a nonprofit board member.

Our goal there is they serve a term and maybe a couple years with us, or just a term, and they go out and they serve another board of directors.

That's direct amplification of how governance, good governance gets passed from organization to organization.

And that's a stated goal of all of our internal board recruitment processes.

So when you talk about amplification, council member Shackelford, it's about us being able to put the right people in the leadership positions with these organizations to help them function in a way that they can gain community support financially and emotionally for lack of a better term, but that they can build the kinds of nonprofits that don't fall apart within two to five years, right?

And that means a stronger sector that means potential jobs, it means a tax base for the city of people who are employed in successful nonprofits that figure out the formula that's working because these nonprofits are contributing into the city's coffers just as much as um anybody else through their employees, through their going to restaurants and living in apartments or whatever it is that they're doing in the city.

Because these nonprofits are contributing into the city's coffers just as much as anybody else through their employees, through their going to restaurants and living in apartments or whatever it is that they're doing in the city.

So that's the kind of amplification that we are interested in.

Is that easy to measure?

No, it's not.

It's not easy to measure at all.

But it is a stated purpose of what we do and how we how we try to accomplish what we're trying to accomplish is by building that strength of sector.

And uh well, I got two two questions or two comments.

One um particularly in the nonprofit sector, which we we know that overall speaking, that resources are limited, particularly when it comes to money.

Because oftentimes you're competing for the same dollars, the same funders in those capacities.

Um talk me through, I guess, in terms of and particularly when we look at federal legislation and what's going on with our state.

What are you finding on the ground, so to speak, in terms of that funding mechanism and financial financially supporting how how what kind of climate are we in now?

Oh, well, how much time do I have?

Um six o'clock.

Okay.

No, I was told I did not have that long.

Um I'm the chair, so you can go to the case.

Oh, okay, all right.

Good to know.

Um, so we are finding it increasingly difficult in the sector, and there's research right now that we are um we are losing smaller donors in favor of larger um larger interest donors.

And that is um it can be challenging for us from a perspective, and this goes back to I think my comments about the weaponization of the C3 status, is that if a large major donor wants to create influence, there's plenty of nonprofits out there who will take those funds.

Um and it's hard.

It's hard to resist that.

I have often said jokingly to my board of directors, I probably wouldn't take gun runner money, but would I take tobacco money?

I don't know.

No, I I probably wouldn't take tobacco or whatever, whatever it is.

But it is a supporting the economic viability of the sector as a jurisdiction is critically important to be able to get the kinds of services that you want to see offered.

And look, what we understand is that the city and the county aren't providing these services, don't have the capacity to provide these services.

And so what we have is a nonprofit sector that has jumped in full of caring people.

Those caring people still have bills to pay, they still have a mortgage, they still want to live in the same community that we all love, but they also truly, truly care about unhoused people, people who have substance abuse issues, people who are marginalized, women and children.

They all have a variety of interests.

So when you ask how hard it is to um how hard it is, what the economic trends are for nonprofits, I think it is worrying to those of us who've been in this sector for a long time to figure out how is the money going to be traded for what we know is necessary to ensure the safety and security of everyone in our community.

We know that's gonna be a harder and harder thing for us to have to figure out.

What federated charities has um what's called social enterprise revenue.

And I'm I'm not gonna lie when I say that that on one hand makes it easier for us, and on the other hand, it can sometimes make it challenging for us.

So we do charge rent to these nonprofits.

So we have built a financial model that keeps us weathered from many of these back and forth with how donors feel, how grant funders fund, all of those kinds of things.

And not every nonprofit can start a social enterprise.

I ran a social enterprise 15 years ago, and it was really remarkably difficult, but it was also remarkably easy to come up with a for-profit venture that helped fund this non the nonprofit that I was working for at the time.

However, most nonprofits don't function that way.

Most nonprofits are reliant on grants, grant funds and donation donor funds.

And those are those are challenging to come by now.

I know how many applications the city reviewed.

I know how many applications the county reviewed, how many they received, how many they reviewed, and how many they ultimately funded.

And it's a series of hard decisions, which is why we don't come to the city.

Um we don't come to the city every year.

We don't come to the city and ask for grant funds that we know we don't fit into.

It doesn't make sense for us to waste city staff's time simply creating a placeholder.

Have I done it?

Yeah.

You bought backpacks for homeless unhoused individuals two years ago and you gave money to us to do so, and we passed them out to unhoused individuals partnering with another organization.

But we don't believe that we want to ask the city for things every year.

What we'd like to see is the city provide some targeted support in a way that they have not done in our history, which is to say we have raised 150,000 through grant through uh bond bill financing, and we need to come up with a match for that.

We have a mortgage still left on our building.

We'd love to pay that off.

We'd love to finish that off so that we don't have that hanging over our heads.

So we're coming to you, and I'm not going to say I wouldn't apply for a grant again, but we're coming to you at this point because we have a very targeted project that we believe is going to support more nonprofits and help us expand what we're already doing in the community.

And how much would that be?

How much is it going to cost?

Well, so we have 150,000 in bond bill financing, and we believe that this project on the first floor is probably the last time we scoped it, which was four years ago during our unsuccessful bid for bond funding, um, was about uh 225,000 of a project.

So take construction costs, material costs, labor costs, increase it 3% a year.

And yeah, we we think it's probably going to cost between 275 and 300,000 to do this work.

We've already started to scope it.

We're working with Bates Architecture.

Um we are talking about taking out walls, but they're not load-bearing walls, so we're super excited about that.

Um so we think we're going to be able to create this space using what we already have, using the walls and the bricks that we already have.

We're not buying a new property, but what we're doing is we are creating the kind of welcome mat door opening that this community deserves in something that lives in the heart of downtown Frederick and is probably going to live there in perpetuity, maintained by us.

And space.

Sorry, I'm John Bowman.

Turn your microphone on, please.

Sorry, I'm John Bowman.

I'm the current chair of the board of directors.

And I think the other thing that Ellen didn't say there is the space is also meant to be meeting space.

Right?

This is space not just to make them feel welcome, but it gives us far more space to hold sessions, to hold trainings, to let them use for free to do their own sessions.

And in addition to looking to the county in the city, we're certainly constantly having conversations with the Oshermans and the Della Plains, who are also seeing all these additional needs and are also making it clear to us, they don't want to get into fiscal sponsorship.

They want us to expand our program.

And they have been generous in giving us some funding, but they made it clear at their recent nonprofit summit that as it's harder starting at the federal level and on down to get grants, that the requests coming to them are overwhelming.

So we're all trying to figure out within these pools how do we make it work.

I will say those two organizations are very good at understanding the role that we play and have been very supportive.

But they're also coming back to us with ideas about things they'd like to see us do as Frederick's nonprofit center, which includes expanding professional development, which means giving more space, trying to find within the space we have more space to house nonprofits because the needs aren't going away.

It's just the funding is becoming more challenging.

I have a couple of questions.

One is how much do you have left in your mortgage if you know?

We have 118,000 left on our mortgage.

It was originally a $3 million mortgage in 2000 when we purchased the Purie building.

And it we've gotten it down to 118,000.

We're refinancing in this month, so that's why we know.

Yeah.

That's incredible.

That's incredible.

And then we had an interest rate of three and a half.

And what we're looking at now is six and a half.

So that's people being nice to a nonprofit.

Yeah.

And I think what's important to understand in that is that what we've also done in the last 10 years, which we have not done consistently prior to that, is that we've built reserves.

What we what I watched happen as a nonprofit professional was the uh the 20 years ago, the county funding stopped overnight, right?

I watched that happen.

I watched nonprofits not be prepared for that.

So from myself from a fiscal management perspective, what that says to me is that nonprofits need to focus on how they are maintaining reserves to help themselves.

Same thing during COVID.

We all had to figure it out, and and the Federal Government was extremely generous with the PPP, but that money, that money stopped about a year and a half ago, and there were still nonprofits unprepared for that.

So what Federated Charities has built as well as paying down this mortgage and really focusing on that is we have also built building reserves that allow us to if we have to spend $22,000 to replace a broken air conditioner, and I've replaced 14 of them in 10 years.

So I replaced all the ones that were put in in 2000 that were brand new.

So that is something that we have been able to do without grant funds, with our social enterprise revenue, our rent helps us preserve and steward this building, this historic piece of property in downtown Frederick that was given to us specifically to be used to benefit Frederick's citizens.

That's what Margaret Williams said when she gave it to us in 1930.

That's what I want my home used for.

And we're very proud of that.

So we know practice some radical nonprofit accounting with a lot of great advice from our board of directors, our accountants, and our um our knowledge of what we've have to be prepared to face at any given moment.

None of us wants to look at the edge of that cliff again as a nonprofit.

And we know plenty of nonprofits.

And you know, I walked into a moment where there was a couple of times in those early months at Federated where I wasn't sure I was going to be able to cover payroll.

And so we started to build those reserves specifically for that reason.

And that is something that we counsel nonprofits to do in our practice, in our professional development, and in our technical assistance, is figure out what that looks like.

And for us, it's a percentage of our rental revenue goes into our building reserve every single month.

Because we know it's it's a building that was built in 1820.

It's old.

It's got an old couple old statues that we're also responsible for, and we're stewards of it.

And we're proud of it as part of our historic streetscape.

But it is a challenge.

So yes, the answer is 118,000.

No, I think that's incredible to go from 3 million to 118.

I mean, that feels very manageable.

Uh my second question.

If I lost it.

Oh, so your main project right now is the renovation.

And I know this committee has talked a lot about accessibility for um and its disability pride month.

Um and so I'm imagining that you're going to build in some some of that kind of accessibility.

Well, that was mostly built in in 2000.

Okay, good.

Yeah, we are we are a fully ADA accessible building with the exception of two suites, and the second suite is going to be ADA accessible with the new retail incubator, because they're putting a ramp on.

Excellent.

So we have one space that is not ADA accessible.

That's incredible.

I also want to say thank you for um working as a fiscal sponsor.

I have been part of in in part of my past you know, um career.

Starting nonprofits and getting that 501c3 is a huge administrative overhead and and that that can that fiscal sponsorship can can really make it or break it for a startup.

So thank you for doing that work.

You're welcome.

And I encourage if you haven't had the opportunity to visit the space that she's she's spoken about.

It's it's really it's really very unique.

It's got some good architecture.

That's a nice one.

Um with that.

Uh I do want to say this.

I think in terms of um what you're sharing, of course, is vitally important, I think also for the city because the needs are so great.

We can't do it all, nor should we, nor so the city try to do it all in the context of whether it be personnel, whether it be financially per se.

I think we can lead in various different different areas and also be supportive.

One of the things I'm looking at, particularly coming out of this budget is I think it's important for us to establish some parameters.

One of the things I'm gonna be looking at in our committee is our MOU arrangements because they're they're good faith agreements.

Yet they're good, they're good faith in everybody's in good faith.

That's good.

But if someone decides to walk away, there has been time and effort and energy.

Now, I'm trying to move some of our MOU relationships to contractual relationships so that when we start talking about dollars, we start talking about in-kind services, we start talking about whatever the city provides and and the entity provides that it's it's it's a contractual obligation and someone can't just walk away.

And there's also a level of commitment as well.

Um and so that's one of the things I'm gonna be looking at.

I've um it's gonna be coming before our committee, I'm really looking at.

And I think also important for us as a council, we probably need to establish parameters about how we I'm just speaking from our perspective.

One of the things that because the need is so great is I say like this picking winners and losers.

We pick and there's a winner, and somebody's somebody's gonna feel their gur los because they're like, hey, we're doing this over here, you're doing this over here.

And I think it's important for us to have some established criteria so that that doesn't happen and it's clear.

So the nonprofit sector, those who come to us and ask for funding, it's clear about what those parameters are.

We're operating from a guideline of what those parameters are, and it's clear, and it doesn't seem like we're picking someone over someone else.

And so I think that's that's important to some of what you said.

You don't come to us every you don't come to the city every every year.

And now you're I mean you know, at some point you're gonna be requested because of your need.

While others come to us every single year.

And of course I I've realized and recognize that the need is great.

Um you come to us every year, and no one's gonna come ever going to come asking for anything to say, we're we're good.

And I and I I get it.

I worked in nonprofit sector, I get it because resources are limited.

Because I think I also wanted to ask you the question particularly we look at we look at money in terms of what we talk about, the the money's the financial situation that we're in and services, because in the other part comes staffing or personnel.

And then when it's sometimes when it's personnel then is minimized, then programs are minimized.

And so um I don't know if you could speak, kind of speak to that in terms of what you're seeing.

Five or eight hundred um nonprofits, and of course, all of those nonprofits don't have 25 or more persons working in a nonprofit.

More than those nonprofits, maybe 10 or under or 5 or under from a staff perspective of providing those services.

So very much so.

I think one of the things that we what I see oftentimes in the sector is people chasing after dollars with programs that they don't have the capacity to truly provide.

That is a really that is where good board governance comes into play.

It's very easy.

Look, I I could go after all kinds of grants and turn myself inside out and say, we do this and we do this and we do this.

I know better through hard, hard experience.

Uh and it because it it is.

You get yourself into that hamster wheel and you're going after bigger and bigger dollars, and it becomes this self-perpetuating thing that you have a hard time getting yourself out of, and then all of a sudden 15 staff are on the hook for your for their livelihoods to your organization for a program that isn't really your mission.

And so we spend a a good amount of time counseling people to be very thoughtful, both at the board level and at the management level about the kinds of program dollars they go after.

And so we spend a good amount of time counseling people to be very thoughtful, both at the board level and at the management level about the kinds of program dollars they go after because it's really hard to extricate yourself from those situations and still look like you knew what you were doing.

And we watch it all the time that you know somebody's awarded a major grant, and then all of a sudden they have this huge staff upheaval, and you know, there's this mismatch that happens.

So we work really hard in our technical assistance to advise our uh partners not to get themselves into that.

And and to the extent that we are able to, we also try to advise their boards of directors to understand what some of these commitments mean to their organizations and how they can responsibly undertake them.

I the grants that I've written to the city and to the county have been very easy lifts for me to say, yep, I can do four more professional development sessions this year.

It makes sense for us.

These are the topics that we would be talking about, these are the impacts that we would have.

Um, or I can distribute 55 backpacks, right?

So it but it is it's a I think it's a thoughtful process that when you're in the thick of it and you're excited about your mission and you have a bunch of people that haven't ever served on a board on your board who are doing it because they're excited about your mission too.

It's really easy to fall into that.

And so I think there is an opportunity education-wise, about how we gain funding, how we go after this, how we advocate for the sector, how we partner truly with each other to provide the kinds of services that the city understands that it needs.

So how are we filling those gaps in the city rather than the city being presented with 65 proposals for all manner of things, including, well, the community foundation has a whole CAT fund, right?

And I'm like, I like cats, but what?

Um so is that really where our human resources dollars go?

And and I'm not I'm not trying to tell you all how to make those decisions, but I am saying that a part of it starts within these organizations, having good an understanding of what good governance is on the part of their board of directors and on the part of their staff about we can't chase after every dollar.

If we chase after every dollar, we are going to trip over all those dollars.

And we're going, and then you're gonna have the winning and losing, right?

And then you're gonna have however many proposals you have, and you have to turn down more than half of them.

Or you have to cut them back that much.

And those are hard decisions.

Nobody, I don't envy those decisions.

I have to say no.

And you have to say no.

Yeah, then along with them with those dollars or attachments.

And if you try to do everything to everybody, you want to be in doing nothing to nobody.

Right.

Um hundred percent.

And that, I mean, people's I I take very seriously the fact that people's livelihoods are tied to these programs.

And and I'm, you know, I've I've had the unfortunate task of laying people off in a nonprofit before, and it's hard.

It's really tough.

So, you know, what we believe is that making good decisions from a governance level within the organization first rather than chasing after all those dollars is a smarter, a smarter move for some of these organizations.

And you do about that board training, don't you?

We do.

Which is so important.

I was just uh about to say, as somebody who's been trained in board service here.

I mean, we have all these same challenges within our own board.

Ellen is a one-woman show.

We have two part-time facilities people.

They're really focused on the building and the immediate needs of our tenants.

Ellen is the one that's out there really helping the nonprofits that come to her with every kind of question, or even these other funders in the community that have said we'd like to see you do this.

We have board members that want to hop on that stuff right away.

And it's like slow down.

We have to figure out first, just because one person said it doesn't mean that the community absolutely needs that or that it should be a priority.

So we need to figure out, and we have a very actively engaged board because Ellen again is a one-woman show.

So we all have to be available to go out and do this research and talk to the community and to learn better.

And again, we want to improve our partnership with you to gain your insights on where you see needs.

But Ellen also has to continually teach her own board how to be responsible about how we grow.

Some people are just like, we need to get funding and add a person.

And it's like, let's talk about adding a person means into perpetuity, right?

It's not just a year.

It's not just get the money this year.

So let's make sure we understand the needs of the community and how we would approach filling those gaps before we start saying we need one person or three people.

Let's figure out and then let's let's take it in a responsible way.

That said, I I also understand why all my fellow board members want to try to attack every gap that's out there.

I applaud them for that.

But again, Ellen is training us all to be better board members to go out and serve on other boards.

Um sometimes that they're painful lessons.

I'm curious about so if you have uh a cohort or or a group of nonprofits that are operating in your building or within your organization, and you're talking about these gaps.

So, you know, we have a certain number of organizations that are youth focused, for example.

Uh do you do are you able to to get them to communicate with one another saying, hey, we have an overlap here, but there's a gap here in you know, like seven or eight different nonprofits.

Like, how are you able to foster that kind of collaboration?

So we we do it by fostering conversations.

And and really the many of the city's own economic development, when people come to them and say, Well, I want to start a nonprofit.

I I'm so excited about this idea that I have.

What they say is that you need to go talk to federated charities.

And that just happens.

That that is happening now.

Um out of it, right?

Because it this is not, this is not a way to have money fall down on you with no strings attached.

I talked to a lovely person on our front patio last week who said, Well, I'm gonna be a nonprofit, so I don't have to pay any taxes, and I was like, well, that's not really how that works.

But okay.

Um I think that it is about that that that goes back to this advocacy piece.

The advocacy piece says that we are out there in this community, both as a resource and as a voice for and with the sector.

So we do try to facilitate those kinds of things.

When we talk to people about fiscal sponsorship, what we what we suggest is that yes, it is a programmatic element of federated charities, but why don't you work with an organization that is already doing stuff for unhoused individuals and figure out what they've tried in that avenue rather than start your own.

So we try to be truth tellers in that.

Um, as anybody knows who is a truth teller, nobody likes to hear the truth.

Um, or some days we don't like to hear the truth.

So how we facilitate that is we we connect people in our in our landscape.

We connect them with one another.

We can't force it.

I mean, I do think that there is uh I think that we could as people who have funding, there could be more influence in that regard to say, you know, if you are wanting to get funds from us, we need your board to undergo this training, right?

That's those are ways, they are they're gentle ways of influencing.

Look, none of the funders who give out money in Frederick, um, all of the funders who give out money in Frederick know that the sector isn't perfect.

They know all of the gaps.

We all hear all the stories.

Sometimes it pops up in a news article, and sometimes it's just a murmur that's happening behind the scenes.

But we all know which nonprofits are struggling.

Um you may know one, and I may know five over over here, and you may know two.

So it's not there's no, there is no space in Frederick where all the nonprofits gather, unless there is an influencing funder who asks us to all gather in the nonprofit summit's a great example of that, right?

Everybody goes to that.

Um I think there is space in the space for those kinds of real conversations to happen.

And you all as the city in the grants program have the opportunity to carry forth that influence, as does the Osherman Foundation, as does federated charities, as does the community foundation.

It doesn't serve any of us to have 800 nonprofits, only 425 of which are actually functioning, and the rest of them are just holding their statuses until they realize that it's harder than they thought.

It's not responsible for a board to accept a grant when they know that their organization is on the verge of failure.

It's I mean, and and we all have an opportunity in this sector to help influence that and make the safety net stronger for all of us as a result.

Thank you, Ms.

Allen.

Appreciate you.

You're very welcome.

Thank you for having us here today.

Please, it's an open invitation.

The building's open from 9 to 4.

Really, all you have to do is come to the front desk and yell help, and somebody will hear you.

But usually we're our front desk is staffed.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

You're very welcome.

Thank you so much.

Next on our agenda is discussion of the work plan outlined.

We've covered a number of topics in a large amount of territory in these first around seven months.

And so this is just a compilation of what we've had some conversations around.

And of course, there's always opportunities to add, subtract.

As well as, of course, we know things are very fluid because things happen in our community which we we may need to address and so as well.

So this is the kind of the overview of some of the things in terms of which were prioritization in terms of our conversations which we which we talked about from the standpoint of addressing some of these various topics, maybe legislatively or partnerships in that in those regards.

So the floor is now open.

No, we're good.

Thank you.

I do think there's still a gap of us really understanding the number of the needs, like putting it with data.

And I would love for us to or hear from both of you of your prior how you prioritize the lists that we have here are things that you think we should look at first.

And I'm pulling myself back from that a little bit because I'm going to be out.

So I really don't want to champion anything and be like, okay, I'll see you later.

So I'm really going to step back a little bit and you know, I'll be here as much as I can and support you as much as I can, but really looking for the two of you to take the lead on kind of what where we're going first.

So sometimes it's it's challenging for me to take make priorities of priorities, um, you know, because it all feels really pressing.

So I don't know, as I was preparing for this meeting, kind of look at like what is what is some of these things that we could um see some quick success with.

And uh I could I'm not super knowledgeable on how to install Wi-Fi in an outdoor situation, but I feel like um that's one of the things that that could be done fairly quickly.

I mean, government speed quickly, and maybe I'm absolutely wrong because I have no idea what I'm talking about.

But that low-hanging fruit is a very important thing.

Well, that's just in regards to that.

That's not low-hanging because I've been advocating that for a couple of years now.

So it's it's not as it's not as simple as that, particularly.

Um it it it seems simple on on the premise, but it's not quite um that simplistic.

Um of these, of course, we're gonna have other because Parks and Records coming before us.

Okay.

So this is part of that part of some of these are rolled into some of the presentations that are going to be happening.

To your question in regards to data.

Some of these data are already available for some of these, um, for some of this information.

I guess for me, is what I shared before.

Um not necessarily now, but some at some point in the next couple of weeks.

Prior um prioritize these according to what you your prioritization, and then we'll provide the information around that.

We've we've generally had general overview conversations with the various presentations, and of course there's been some specificity to some of our conversations.

Um but in terms of this, like it I'm trying to get just a thing of prioritization in terms of what to what we what do you see that you want to address first, and around that we'll provide the data information, we'll provide the necessary information that you would need to move forward to any kind of legislation or any kind of partnerships that we may see on those end.

Um I'll go.

I feel like there some of these things have popped up in other conversations, like for example, wait, let's see if I can find it.

Um of the wayfinding came up during budget and then in conversations um that I've had with with Layla and and Parks and Rec.

And so uh I may let those rise to the top, even though it feels um I want to make sure that we have um digital equity.

I know at FCC we we do wonderful um professional development, and they they talked a lot about the digital inequity.

And now as AI is starting to become a a bigger tool, that there's a big difference technologically between free AI and paid AI, which creates a bigger socioeconomic digital divide.

Uh and um I know a lot of people can come to the library for free Wi-Fi, but if they don't have transportation, um so so anyhow, so that's one of the things that I highlighted, and I know that we talked a lot about the deaf community um ombudsperson during during budget, and um so the so the process for that I'm I'm imagining is working with HR and developing a uh job description, but uh but it definitely really needs to be in partnership with the community to make sure that that position um gets gets what they need.

So I don't know.

That's one that I highlighted that should rise to the top of it.

Yeah, the the the AI well city AI, of course, you we we see that and how does the city as well can use that as a communication tool.

Um also how do people use that communication tool with the city.

But yeah, along with that other piece of it is you you know you mentioned particularly libraries have access to technology.

I think about um persons uh residents in our community who don't have that access in terms of of course they have library access, but within the framework of their own homes or you know, wherever that space may be, they don't have the that access.

And so I think it's important for us as a city in terms of how do we and I think we're all um agreeing that communication is important.

I think that's another piece we need to look at for us, because that's a that's a cultural aspect.

And I I don't and I when I look at culture, I don't look at in terms of how we deem the cultural.

I look at the culture in terms of how do how do we do what we do and why do we do what we do?

That's also a culture.

Why do we you know and I give the example, you know, one of the things when I my first term I was um sponsor of the our um MWBE, and I I've my emphasis on on that was this is the way the city does business.

Now we're not doing a side light, but this is the way what the city does.

And so one of the things I'm from ours as a committee, not only just from the cultural aspect, but why do the city do what it does, does and how does it do it and it's embedded in the culture from as a as a as an employee sector as a service delivery model, why do we do what we do and how do we provide that?

And it's and that's embedded in the culture of of what we do and who we want to be.

So again, like this, I guess this is just a compilation list.

We can uh I'll come back and um we can do you can we can do some prioritization.

We'll also then provide the um information in regards from data from also what we are personnel, whether it be also um spaces or places who are already doing these kinds of this kind of work and what they've and what they've the results of that has been and how they implemented those or what they're currently working on.

So we'll be happy to provide that information for you.

Yeah, I would love to see it.

I don't know if they did data from the nonprofit summit, I wasn't able to go, but to see like she's you know mentioned like how many nonprofits are in the city.

And I know that that Frederick, our county has more nonprofits than the whole region, you know, that the I think that's part of our culture is serving one another, which I I love about Frederick.

You know that the I think that's part of our culture is serving one another which I I love about Frederick.

But I would love to see um what kind of nonprofits we have what do they do?

What kind of um impacts that they have I don't know if anyone um in the nonprofit sector does kind of a report on all of that.

Well I think some of that probably would come if we can get the Austrian Foundation who's a big funder because they're very tapped in as Ella mentioned when they when they kind of have when they're kind of talking about money or funding people show up.

So they probably have a good database of that information in regards to um the sector of nonprofits and the different categories that we may be looking for.

So that may be that not I think that's very important particularly as we see the various needs in our in our community and and how we provide the service because going back to the MOU conversation what the city can provide and what it cannot provide.

And how do we now support those services those nonprofits or service deliveries that that do provide that.

And should we even be in the business of trying to do that as well.

Not in business in terms of money I I know that we did have a list of the properties the un underutilized properties and I I have misplaced it.

So I'd like to I'd like to see that again and I have it okay okay.

Also with that we had asked them to look at more I think they were just showing us like vacant buildings and spaces but I think we had like an additional ask with that.

I don't remember exactly what it was but I don't think it's been followed up on so that would be okay we got to get it well Richard Griffith's coming back before so we'll make sure that um that's added to the agenda in terms of that conversation because we're going to go talk about MOUs.

So that's so we'll make sure that that's another part of conversation as well when he comes before us.

Yeah excellent there's there's been so much you know especially as a new person we've had you know all these budgets and we've met a lot of nonprofits and organizations and all the departments in the city uh and I I feel like we're starting to to get the lay of the land a little bit you know it's it's uh it's been overwhelming and also exciting to see I mean people in Frederick are are eager I think to serve one another so I love that.

And and then this you know of course we receive a wealth of information not only here from the dice but also from our connectivity in terms of our various aspects of of our community and um and in that you you process that information in real time.

And then of course it now has come at some point we have to come to a place of now prioritization and then holding in on that knowing that we can't do everything all at once and so it's important for us to um to do to do the small things or we maybe small but they actually are very impactful um to our city.

Yeah um I really appreciated today when there was a specific ask and this is what we would do if if you know we were able to provide that.

And then also when United Way presented to us we'd asked if you know any policy ideas they had and they said oh yes we have so many so I think that that's worth a follow up too because they they know this landscape better than we do and we've had this this you know overview but to really to dig down with those those partners that have that information we'll do we'll follow up with we'll follow with that some well Claire we'll get together and we'll follow up we'll follow up with that information and like I said in some in the next couple of weeks we'll have we'll have this list um centered and it's very it's very broad of course but of course this doesn't all have to be tackled in in one in one year.

Yeah I'm sorry that's where my brain is right now I'm like okay do you have a specific idea because let's go with that because yeah it is a lot and overwhelming so if we can just get something a little bit more specific.

Yeah we'll do that.

We'll do that.

And any ideas you may have in terms of that let's let us know.

Let us know.

Any other questions any other comments before us?

No other business before our committee we stand in adjournment