Department of Finance

COMMUNITY ENHANCEMENT FUND (CEF) GRANTS FOR FY11 - Frequently Asked Questions

Non-profits with questions about the Community Enhancement Fund grants are directed to the Community Enhancement Fund FY11 Handbook.  For questions not answered by the handbook, email the question to dgc@nashville.gov.  Questions sent to that address will be posted and answered on this page within 24 hours of receipt.

1. Is it possible to provide the pre-application training via webinar either live or taped?
Good idea. We will follow up on this request and if we are able to do so, we will post the Orientation Session on the CEF website for viewing by interested parties.

However, please be aware that non-profits that wish to apply must be represented in person (sign in) at one of the Orientation Sessions. An on-line recording of the session would be provided as a courtesy for those who wish to share with other agency staff that could not be present or who wish to review what was said.
2. Will you accept a financial review in lieu of an audit? In these challenging economic times, nonprofits need to save money wherever possible. A review costs approximately 50-60% of that of an audit.
No, we will not accept a financial review, or any other kind of financial report, in lieu of an audit conducted within 12 months by a certified public accountant.
3. May we review proposals that were successfully funded last year?
Yes. Please make an appointment with Dennise Meyers at 8880-2640 to arrange to review successful proposals.
4. Where and at what time will the CEF orientation be held on April 20?
The CEF orientation for both days will be in the Auditorium at the Main Library at 615 Church Street downtown. The April 20 session will be 9:30-11:30 and the April 21 session will be 2:00-4:00.
5. If someone attends the training on The Bridge and the YMCA's behalf, is it mandatory that I (Associate Director of agency) attend?
Any non-profit that wishes to apply must be represented at one of the trainings. The representative does not have to be a specific person – it could be any staff member (or consultant) of the agency. (Note: Any consultant may represent only one agency at the training.)
6. Are “administrative” expenses (like rent, printing, etc.) allowable, if they are related directly to the program for which CEF funds are requested?
Yes, if the expenses are associated with the specific program, they are allowable. For example, if the Executive Director spends 20% of his time providing services under the CEF-funded program, that percentage of his salary would be an allowable expense.
7. Are Indirect Costs allowable?
Indirect Costs are allowable, but the indirect cost rate applied must be supported by an Indirect Cost plan which will be reviewed by the Office of Financial Accountability when they monitor the grant.
8. Can an agency which has multiple programs submit applications under more than one CEF Service Category?
No, agencies with multiple programs need to select the program which they consider to be the best fit with CEF priorities and submit only one application.
9. If the agency’s most recent audit is posted on Givingmatters, is it still necessary to send a copy to fred.adom@nashville.gov?
Yes, Mr. Adom in the Office of Financial Accountability will not accept an audit from a “third party” such as Givingmatters. It must be sent directly from the non-profit to him.
10. Can the application be post-marked by May 7, or does it have to be received by May 7?
Applications must be received by May 7, not just post-marked by May 7.
11. For the Program Narrative section of the application, can you cut and paste the responses from a Word document into the Program Narrative template?
Yes – just be sure to check if all the copy you paste into the template was accepted. Copy from any keystrokes in excess of the limit indicated on the form will not be accepted into the template.
12. When describing outcomes in the Program Narrative, do you just want the outcomes for the part of the program to be funded by CEF?
Yes, please make clear in your description of outcomes what outcome accomplishments you expect to achieve with the use of the Community Enhancement Fund grant only. If you wish also to list additional outcome figures to be associated with other funding sources, that’s fine, but you should clearly distinguish the portion of the the outcomes associated with CEF funds.
13. The cost of having an audit by a Certified Public Accountant is high. Can that cost be charged to the CEF grant?
It is important to recall that the only costs allowable under the FY11 CEF grant are costs incurred between 7/1/10 and 6/30/11. The cost of the audit required to apply for an FY11 grant would have to have been incurred prior to your application for the FY11 grant, and would therefore not be allowable. The cost of an audit paid for between 7/1/10 and 6/30/11 could be allowable under the FY11 grant. However, bear in mind that reviewers will be scrutinizing the application budgets and weighing the program “bang for the buck” for each application.
14. My agency provides services to victims of sexual assault. Would we be eligible under the Domestic Violence category?
Applicants must review carefully the service descriptions for each category to determine for themselves whether they can offer specific services which fit the service description, and then make a case in their application for how their services to their population fit that description. If they are unable to make a good case, their application could be screened out prior to being reviewed by reviewers, or else it could be reviewed but receive low scores for having a poor fit with the service descrption.
15. How are the Service Descriptions created?
There is a CEF Steering Committee comprised of the Vice Mayor, another Council member, community leaders, Metro employees, and Center for Nonprofit Management staff. The Mayor sets the overall direction and priorities for the CEF, and the CEF Steering Committee forms subcommittees to refine the Service Descriptions based on current community needs.
16. We have school-aged children in our agency program and would like to collaborate with another agency or agencies to provide afterschool services for them. Could we apply in the Afterschool category?
If the program you develop meets the other requirements of the Afterschool service description, you would be eligible to apply. You would use the “Collaborations” section of the Application Program Narrative to describe how the collaboration would work in your program.
17. You say an audit is required for eligibility. What kind of audit?
You must have a full “opinion audit” completed by a Certified Public Accountant.
18. There are fields in the Spending Plan form which calculate the percent of the program budget which will be provided by the CEF grant as opposed to the funding from “Non-Metro Funds”. How does that relate to the eligibility requirement that applicants for CEF may apply for no more than 20% of the total agency revenues?
There is no direct relationship between those two percentages unless the entire agency has only one program and that is the same program for which CEF funds are requested (see next question). Only amounts directly contributing to the program for which CEF funds are requested should be included in the Spending Plan form, whereas the eligibility requirement refers to the entire agency budget.
19. On the Spending Plan, if you have only one program in your agency, would you list the entire balance of the agency’s funding in the “Non-Metro Funds” column?
Yes, this is the only situation in which you would list the entire Agency budget on the Spending Plan form.
20. If the agency operates a regional program covering multiple counties, but you want to apply for CEF funding for the Davidson County part, should the application Spending Plan reflect the amounts for the entire multi-county program, or just the Davidson County part?
You should just include the Davidson County part on the Spending Plan form.
21. How do you handle it when your agency is applying for more than one Service Category?
You don’t. Each agency is allowed to submit only one application in one Service Category. Agencies which have multiple programs covering more than one Service Category have to choose only one for which to apply.
22. For Afterschool Programs, will the Program Narrative template allow more space to describe the program, given that it uses so many words to include the Program Design Factors in your program description?
No, you have the same keystroke limits as the other two Service Categories. It is anticipated that the applicants will cover the Program Design Factors in the context of describing their program, without necessarily having to include an additional section specifically addressing the Program Design Factors (although that is permissible as well).
23. How many grants were given last year, and what was the average amount?
Last year CEF awarded 24 grants with amounts ranging from $13,600 to $256,100. There is no fixed range, minimum or maximum for CEF grants.
24. Are current recipients of funding from the Nashville After Zone Alliance eligible to apply for CEF?
Yes. The amount of your current NAZA funding from Metro would be listed in the appropriate box on the application Cover Sheet.
25. Is $675,000 the maximum amount you can get for an Afterschool CEF grant?
$675,000 was the amount of the total FY10 CEF Afterschool fund last year, and it was divided amongst multiple recipients. The total FY11 Afterschool fund will not be known until after the Mayor submits his budget to Council on April 29. While it would be theoretically possible that one grant could use the entire Afterschool funding available, it would be unlikely.
26. I have questions about my agency programs that may or may not be competitive for CEF funding under the Community Service heading. Could you weigh in on how competitive you think any of these might be (or if they are even a fit), so I can get back to my program managers? (A list of three possible programs follows, including one for which the questioner had applied for last year.) Do any of those sound like programs that would fit or are there ways we can apply that would help us? Thanks!
DGC can’t provide that kind of guidance to applicants. All I can suggest is that you and your program managers review the service descriptions, talk about your programs, and make a decision about which one you think would produce the most competitive application. If you think it would help, you could come in and review the file from your application last year to find out specifically how the reviewers reacted to that application.
27. I have a question about the domestic violence portion of the Community Enhancement Funds. Would counseling children who are suffering from or witness domestic violence be a fundable application?
One of the FY10 Domestic Violence Community Enhancement Fund grants is for counseling children who witness or were victims of domestic violence. Please note that the recipient is required to provide documentation that proves that any client served under the grant witnessed or was a victim of domestic violence.
28. Our agency is a transitional house considering applying for The Community Enhancement Grant. Community Service is the area we would apply under. Our question is the definition of homeless as it relates to this grant. Our clients come to us from incarceration and are considered homeless under MDHA guidelines. Does this also apply for this grant?
If your clients are considered homeless under MDHA guidelines, then they would be considered homeless by Metro, and funding is not available under CEF guidelines for beneficiaries who are already homeless.
29. Our [Agency Name] Center for Health Services department is interested in applying for the COMMUNITY ENHANCEMENT FUND (CEF) GRANTS FOR FY11. Since we understand that you will accept only one application from each agency, please let me know if you have any other applications from [Agency Name] and if not, may we submit ours.
It is true that CEF will accept only one application from each agency. However, when the agency is very large, it is up to the agency staff themselves to coordinate the agency own grant application process and determine which subdivision of the agency will be submitting an application. We will shortly be posting on the CEF website a list of all eligible applicants (those who attended the Orientation Sessions on April 21 and 22). Looking over that list would enable you to know if any other division from your agency was represented at the training.
30. The camp [we operate] targets low-income/inner-city youth in Metro Davidson County and the organizations that serve these children and young adults. In order to offer the camp to these groups at low or no cost, the property is made available for rent to other groups from the general public. Our grant proposal will include all the details that outline a plan that will enable us to be able to completely fill our summer camp season with inner city youth and organizations. The proposal will include the programming, staffing, maintenance services and nutritional services that would be necessary to serve up to 1,200 youth during the course of the summer. Does this type of program meet the CEF grant specifications under the Community Service category?
The Afterschool service description’s requirement that 180 hours of programming be provided is intended to reflect 180 hours of programming for a given individual child, not just that the organization provides 180 hours of programming altogether. It appears from the description provided that, while your camp might be conducting programming for 180 hours over the summer, organizations using your program would only be using it for 1-2 weeks at a time, which would not meet the requirement for 180 hours of programming for individual children.
31. We need further clarification on [the application Program Narrative,] Question 5, Program Design, last bullet (Describe how the program will respond to the priorties described in the Service Category definition.) - What are the priorities for the After School Program? Are the priorities for After School Programs - Academic Enhancement, Life Skills, Community Service, Recreation, and/or Preparation for post secondary activities in an intentional and compelling way?
Yes.
32. On [the application Program Narrative,] Question 5, Program Design, last bullet asks - For "Afterschool Programs", describe how the program will align with the 3 Criteria listed on page 3; provide a separate answer for each criterion. Is this referring to the 5 program design factors listed in Attachment B? "Health, Safety & the Environment", "Relationships", "Programming & Activities", "Staffing & Professional Development" and "Administration"?
Yes. The “3 Criteria” was an error left over from last year’s wording (when there were 3 criteria instead of 5). The error has been corrected in the handbook now posted on our website, but can still be found in copies downloaded and printed before the correction was made.
33. We have received a second letter of extension on our Charitable Solicitation permit. Will the letter of extension be sufficient?
Yes, if you have a valid permit from last year, and have filed an appropriate extension for this year, then you would be considered legally current and OK.

Contact Grants Coordination

Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County
Department of Finance
Division of Grants Coordination
700 2nd Avenue South, Suite 201
P.O. Box 196300
Nashville, TN 37219-6300
E-mail: DGC@nashville.gov