It didn't be the two.

And the first item is the agency grant recommendations, and I have a bunch of folks, I think, presenting Katie Conyers from Budget, Nick Doula from Housing, Tony Gatson from the Arts Commission, and Robert Quartz from Human Relations.

Oh, and I should say I always uh that we have two excused absences today, Jonathan Lambert Melton and uh Christina Jones.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

My name is Katie Conyers, and I am the grants and program manager in budget and management services.

The focus of this presentation will be our FY26 agency grant recommendations.

Here is today's agenda.

First, I will provide a quick overview of the City of Raleigh grants program.

Following the overview, I will invite representatives from the City of Raleigh Arts Commission, the Human Relations Commission, and our Housing and Neighborhoods Department to present their respective programs, agency grant recommendations for the upcoming fiscal year.

As we have a full agenda this afternoon, I will keep this overview very brief.

The City of Raleigh offers competitive grant programs in three areas that we will discuss today.

Arts, community enhancement, and human services.

Per council policy, the maximum funding request for any agency is 25% of that agency's prior year actual operating expenditures.

Agencies may only receive awards in two grant categories.

So for example, an organization may receive funding through both the Raleigh Arts and Human Services Grant Programs.

Finally, all agencies that make funding requests of $25,000 or more must submit an audit to be reviewed by our finance department.

Before we share the specific recommendations for each area, I wanted to show a breakdown of the funding recommendations for our human services grants, arts grants, and direct allocations for human services and arts residence companies.

This is an additional two hundred thousand dollars.

Nearly 7,000 children were served through arts education programs, supported by grant funding.

Notable examples include community music school, which offers one dollar music lessons and instruments to families facing economic hardships.

Raleigh Music Collective, which provides instruction to local refugee families.

We are also excited to highlight this year's Raleigh Parks Children's Day and Youth Music taking place this Saturday, April 26th, taking place Saturday, April 26th from one to five at Moore Square.

This collaborative event in partnership with the Consulate of Mexico will feature free performances by the Triangle Youth Music Consortium and engaging arts activities throughout the afternoon.

We warmly invite the mayor and city council members to join us and witness the power of arts grant funding in action.

This year, thirty-five organizations submitted grant application requesting over $2.3 million in funding after a thorough review process led by a committee of four arts commissioners and eleven community panelists with expertise in nonprofit management, finance, community engagement, and the arts.

A new applicant recommended for funding this year is Little Raleigh Radio, an online platform dedicated to amplifying local voices through radio, podcasts, and workshops.

Their grant will support a jazz festival featuring local musicians and youth jazz ensembles.

The application process remains focused on fairness and equity, with each proposal evaluated against consistent criteria, artistic merit, organizational management, financial accountability, and community engagement.

These grants are not just investments in individual organizations.

They are investments in our neighborhoods, our youth, and the creative life that makes Raleigh such a vibrant, inclusive city.

Finally, we respectfully request that City Council approve the FY 2025-26 arts grant funding recommendations as presented.

Thank you again for supporting the arts in our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you again to Tony Gadston for sharing those recommendations with council.

Next, I will invite Robert Quartz, Secretary for the City of Raleigh Human Relations Commission to present recommendations for grant funding.

Did our slide make it?

How do we advance?

There's a cover slide.

I don't present.

There you go.

Okay.

Mayor, Steam Council, my name is Robert Quartz, and I have the pleasure to serve as the Secretary of the Human Relations Commission, and this year I was co-chair of the Human Relations Grant Committee.

The Human Relations Commission works to promote human dignity, equal opportunity, and harmony among Raleigh's residents.

We have the task to promote activities and programs for residents without regard to race, color, creed, gender, age, sexual orientation, or national origin.

As the challenge to present grants to nonprofits that deliver needed services to low-income residents, including older adults, youth, housing insecure, and persons with disabilities.

This year we had two sets of nonprofits applying.

We had 31 competitive nonprofits.

These are small or large nonprofits where the commission gets to review.

And then there are seven legacy nonprofits that provide applications.

And then the Human Relations Commission's reviews, but have no input on their approval.

Of the 31 competitive nonprofits, we were able to review and award $810,500 to these nonprofits.

Our process is fairly simple.

We have first provided by the city a matrix, which does a fine job helping individual human relations commissioners to vet each and every one of the 31 nonprofits.

It provides a scoring system.

After that, we meet as a committee and have the hard task of deciding how to actually appropriate the monies because there's always more requested than provided.

However, our process uh did result uh in the awarding of 810,500 to 31 legacy grants, and we ask that you approve our recommendations.

Okay, thank you.