Seattle Neighborhood Matching Fund
The Neighborhood Matching Fund was started by a group of
community
activists who wanted to have input on how city monies were spent in their
districts.
Citizens of Seattle sit on the program's advisory and application review
boards,
which operate in conjunction with the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods.
The Seattle Neighborhood Matching Fund awards $3 million annually to
locally-based
organizations requesting money for visible and lasting improvements to their
neighborhoods. The grants match money that the neighborhood has raised through
volunteer
labor, which is valued at $10/hour; professional services; materials; or cash.
25% of the
money must come from the neighborhood itself.
The program is divided into five categories of grants: the Semi-Annual Fund
gives
grants of $5,000 to $10,000 for large projects; the bi-monthly Small and Simple
Fund is
for groups requesting $5,000 or less; the Neighborhood Outreach Fund, giving
grants of
$500 or less, is for projects such as leadership development and membership
expansion; the
Youth Working in Communities, which gives grants of up to $1,000; and the
Involving All
Neighborhoods Fund, which gives funds of $500 to $2,000 for projects which
include the
participation of neighbors with developmental disabilities.
Types of projects that have been funded in the past include youth programs,
playgrounds, traffic safety, site-planning/design, and public art. The parks
that have been included in the program have been very diverse in size and scope. There are parks like Ross Park, which received $4,600 to add benches, picnic tables, and a basketball court, and there are also parks like West Seattle Weather Park, which received $20,865 to create a tiled park dedicated to the history and methods of weather measurement.
Applications are only accepted from neighborhood-based organizations whose
purpose is to improve the quality of life in a neighborhood. The group may be one that has formed just for the purposes of doing the project for which it applies.
For more information, visit the City of Seattle's Department of Neighborhoods website.
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