MALIBU — The city of Malibu has been giving local nonprofit organizations a chance to apply for grant money for approximately 20 years and counting. The final grant awards will be approved by city council during their July 13 meeting.
As of this year, 25 groups altogether asked for a total amount of $495,361, yet only $150,000 was available. The general fund grants are normally taken from the city’s General Fund which is $30.2 million for fiscal year 2020-21.
The money distributed and examining grant applications will depend on Councilmember Skylar Peak and Rick Mullen who are a part of the current financial subcommittee. The application forms state the fundraiser’s purpose, why they need the money and how much they demand.
“It’s not an easy position for Skylar and I to be in,” Mullen stated at the committee’s virtual meeting. “If it were up to us, we’d allocate the full amounts requested.”
There was a Zoom meeting on Monday in which the applicants had a chance to address the city and incite a proposal with the council members already having a list of the amount of money they wanted to plan on allocating to each group.
According to The Malibu Times, some groups have gotten lucky. For instance, Malibu Search and Rescue Team had received the entire $10,000 they requested. Others have gotten much less than what they had requested including The Shark Fund, which raised money for arts and athletic programs for elementary and secondary schools in the city of Malibu as they requested $100,000 but only received $1,000. Additional groups such as Malibu CART, Optimist Club of Malibu, Poison Free Malibu, Sea Save Foundation, Priorities Center, Malibu Aquatics Foundation, and Nature of Wildworks did not receive any amount of the grant money ranging from the lowest amount of money requested ($2,500) from Sea Save Foundation and the highest (22,896) from Priorities Center.
The full list of applicants is on the city website. The final grant awards is still awaiting to be accepted at the city council meeting scheduled for Monday July 13.
