D.C. Non-Profits Make Due Without Earmarks

The suspension of funds to non-profits from District coffers has affected fundraising efforts, but hasn’t stopped these organizations from continuing their missions. D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray (D), ended earmarks earlier this year, when it became clear that the process of funding city non-profits was getting out of hand.

"Earmarks were designed to be a one-time process to help organizations and groups get the money they needed for city projects and activities," Gray, 67, and a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for mayor, said.

"It was never designed to be a continuing funding source for organizations."

In March, D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) was censured by his peers on the Council, due in part, to the way in which he handed out funds to non-profits in his Southeast ward. However, the organizations that Barry funded happened for the most part, to be non-profits with small budgets and minimal staff. That’s also the case with his colleagues on the D.C. Council.

For instance, D.C. Council member Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) played a key role in obtaining earmarks for two organizations in her ward: Life Pieces to Masterpieces Inc., and the Northeast Performing Arts Group, both located in Northeast.

The two organizations are contrasts on how the earmark process has impacted their respective organizations. Life Pieces to Masterpieces Inc., is a non-profit that supports creative and artistic programs designed for young men and boys east of the Anacostia River. The paintings and art work created by the organization’s participants can be viewed in venues that include the Anacostia branch of Industrial Bank in Southeast and the new Benning Library in Northeast.

Its executive director and co-founder, Mary Brown, said that her organization has gotten along just fine despite the suspension. “We were one of the fortunate ones,” Brown, 47, said. “We have built relationships with family foundations and those who support our mission. We are not heavily [dependent on] government funding.”

Brown said that the $100,000 earmark that Life Pieces received due to the efforts of Alexander was a one-time request to move their headquarters. She said that her organization has no plans to seek earmarks if the suspension is lifted.

“We are doing okay but I am well aware of others that have been devastated because that money is not available anymore,” she said. Brown refers to another arts program nearby.

This year, the Northeast Performing Arts Group celebrates its 31st year of providing programs for youth in the performing and visual arts. The earmarks suspension hit the organization hard.

The non-profit received $50,000 -- in a one-time grant designation -- with the help of Alexander.

“The fact that we cannot get any more earmarks has hurt us tremendously,” Carrington Lassiter, the program coordinator, said. “As a result of the loss of that money, we have had to dismantle some of our programs. We have had to cut back on expenses and program costs and we cannot deliver the services that we have in the past.”

The Northeast Performing Arts Group instructs young people who range in age from three-years-old to 18 in fields that include dance, voice, drama, percussion and painting in addition to components in literacy and computation skills. The participants give 250 performances and two major shows a year to the community.

Lassiter, 22, said that the organization’s leadership is looking for “creative approaches” to fundraising. While the plights of smaller non-profits have been highlighted in mainstream media, what has not been as widely reported are earmarks that went to more established organizations.

With the assistance of D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), for example, the Ford's Theatre, known throughout the world as the place where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, received $10 million in earmarks. Paul Tetreault, the director of the Ford's Theatre Society, said that the money was put to good use.

"The money was spent to purchase the building at 514 10th St., N.W," Tetreault, 46, said.

"This building will become the Center for Education and Leadership, featuring additional exhibit space, educational studios and the offices for the Ford's Theatre Society. The exhibit space will focus on Lincoln's legacy today, while the educational studios will be used primarily for the programs that the Ford's Theatre Society provides to D.C. schools."

Construction will start shortly and is scheduled to open February 2012, he said. Tetreault, a District resident, is aware of critics who question why the Ford's Theatre Society should receive $10 million but he said such funding is not unusual.

"The money set aside for Ford's Theatre is very much in line with funding reserved for major cultural institutions in the last several years including Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, the Corcoran and others; and we are thankful to work in a city that supports cultural funding."

DC Vote, a well-known non-profit dedicated to voting rights for the residents of the District of Columbia, has also received earmarks for its work. D.C. budget records indicate that the organization received $500,000 for fiscal years 2008-2009 and that it received $140,000 from the Office of the Secretary for the 2009-2010 fiscal years.

"The $140,000 was a competitive grant, not an earmark," Leah Ramsay, communications director for DC Vote, said.

Ramsay said that the earmarked money was used solely for the purposes of the organization.

"These funds were spent to raise awareness locally and nationally for D.C. voting rights," Ramsay, 29, said. "Due to restrictions from the city, none of those dollars were spent on fundraising efforts."

Tetreault said that the Ford Theatre Society raises money from a "diverse range of individual, corporate and foundation donors. The suspension of earmarks has not affected other funding," he said. "Ford's Theatre does not have plans to pursue additional money from the city. The Center for Education and Leadership is the final phase of our capital campaign to turn 10th Street in Northwest into a campus focused on the life of Abraham Lincoln."

DC Vote gets its money from individual, foundation and corporate donors, like the Ford Theatre, as well as from 2,500 dues- paying members, Ramsay said. She said that DC Vote will work with city leaders to obtain more money.

"We work with all members of the Council and the mayor's office to request funding from the D.C. government," she said. She said that her organization and the city are on one accord in terms of winning voting rights for District residents. Lassiter said that the earmark process is not just about getting money for an organization.

“We are trying to save the young people in this area and the earmarks are just a part of that process,” he said. “Money is needed to help save these young people.”

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