Explanation
BACKGROUND:
This legislation authorizes the Director of the Department of Development to execute a grant agreement with Alvis, Inc. a not-for-profit social service agency that has been awarded for this first year of the department’s Elevate!All program. Ordinance 0897-2026 contained 106 of the 109 not-for-profit social services agencies awarded for the Elevate!All program, this legislation represents one of the remaining agencies awarded and the additional agencies that have been awarded will be on subsequent pieces of legislation. The total amount awarded to the 109 agencies is $9,925,000.00 this legislation represents $75,000.00 of that amount. This legislation also authorizes the payment of eligible expenses prior to the issuance of the purchase order beginning January 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026 and authorizes the advancement of funding to each agency on a predetermined schedule.
The Elevate!All NOFA (Notice of Funding Availability) was advertised from May 8, 2025, through June 30, 2025, on the Department of Development webpage, the Human Service Chamber of Franklin County’s webpage, distributed via various listservs and provided individually upon request. Non-profit organizations eligible to apply were those which provide services and/or support directly to Columbus and Franklin County households below the ALICE Threshold in one or more of the following focus areas: Financial Security, Housing Stability, Homelessness, Wealth Building, and Behavioral Health and Trauma. Potential Applicants were instructed to request up to 10% of their local organizational operating budget with a minimum request of $25,000 and a maximum request of $200,000.
The City received 189 proposals requesting over $24 Million. Utilizing the first applicant-led peer review in the City’s history, 360 reviewers read and ranked unique sets of applications ensuring that each application was reviewed twenty times. The rankings were processed through a complex statistical...
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