Menomonie City Council Approves Nonprofit Grant Program

The Menomonie City Council approved a new grant program seeking to support local nonprofits at its meeting last week.

A total of $50,000 will be available through the Nonprofit Financial Assistance Grant Program this year for projects and initiatives that address community needs. Mayor Randy Knaack says the City of Menomonie will distribute funding to support those local nonprofits a bit differently compared to previous years.

“We used to do the grants, everyone on the council knows we used to have a program subsidy list where we subsidized nonprofits and so forth, and we just determined how much they needed and so forth,” said Mayor Knaack. “We’ve decided to take a bit of a different approach and do a grant program style so that these individuals could come in and apply for a grant, give us the reasons they want the money and how they would use the money, and then in the end result give us data and verification that they used it accordingly.”

Eligible nonprofits could receive up to $20,000 in funding through the grant program for initiatives that benefit a broad segment of the community, promote equitable access to services, encourage innovation, collaboration, or cultural enrichment, and enhance Menomonie’s appeal as a livable community.

Mayor Knaack also clarified that the City can use other funding sources if it receives more good applications than the designated funding allows for.

“If we get into a situation and the council decides that there’s really good applications that deserve, you know, more of that, we can look at the contingency fund to readjust the dollar value later on,” he said. “But as far as when it comes to budgeting and budget cycle, we had to pick a number. So that’s where that number came from.”

Applications for the Nonprofit Financial Assistance Grant Program are available online and must be submitted by February 19th. Menomonie Public Works Director David Schofield says they’re hoping to make funding award decisions by late February or early March.