55A - RESO - GRANTS FOR BLOCKS PROGRAM

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Grants For Blocks Program August 5, 2013 Page 3 which has enabled the financial donor to receive a tax deduction for the gifts which are provided to the winners. In recent years, the neighborhood associations have continued to increase their organizational capacity and effectiveness, resulting in many neighborhoods initiating their own fundraising from private sources to accomplish their key milestones. However, most neighborhood associations in Santa Ana are not incorporated under Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and this has limited their success attracting private funding. In response, staff is recommending an enhancement to the Grants for Blocks Program to provide greater numbers of neighborhood associations, Communication Linkage Forum (Com-Link), and resident-driven initiatives with access to the private fundraising benefits of non-profit status under federal tax law. To accomplish this, it is recommended that the City transfer the Grants for Blocks fund from the Orange County Community Foundation to Charitable Ventures of Orange County (CVOC), a California non-profit public benefit corporation located in Santa Ana. CVOC is capacity building and grass roots-oriented and can provide the additional services such as bookkeeping and accounting assistance as well as insuring the organization under their blanket insurance policy, which is needed to expand the program. In addition, CVOC is staffed and set up to pay smaller transactions. Forming and maintaining a non-profit can overwhelm emerging charitable initiatives before they have a chance to impact the community. CVOC was formed in 2007 to address this need by offering Fiscal Sponsorship Services to emerging non-profit initiatives in Orange County. The proposed transfer to CVOC is recommended by staff and will strengthen Grants for Blocks as a fundraising mechanism for the neighborhood associations. Through this approach, CVOC will also act as the fiscal sponsor of Grants for Blocks, a role they currently also play for a variety of initiatives in Santa Ana including the California Endowment's Building Healthy Communities with programs such as the Santa Ana HUB and Lives Worth Saving Gang Intervention (Cedar Evergreen strategy). In this role, they will provide additional oversight as to the eligibility of the use of the funds. CVOC also provides back-office accounting and grant management services to organizations that do not have 501(c)(3) status. FISCAL IMPACT There is no fiscal impact associated with this action. Sandra D. Gottlieb Acting Executive Director Community Development Agency Francisco Gutierrez Executive Director Finance & Management Services Agency SDG/SK/kg Exhibit: 1. Resolution 2. Agreement 55A-2