Charity Case

Can the city fill budget gaps with private fundraising?

by Andrew Thompson

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Published: Nov 19, 2008

budget shitstorms

Two weeks ago, when Mayor Michael Nutter announced his proposed budget cuts, his newborn Office of Sustainability didn't take a very hard hit — just $68,000, or about 10 percent of its operating budget. Partly that's because the office could help save money by making the city more efficient, and partly it may be because it's a pet project of Nutter's. But it's also, in large part, due to the fact that a large chunk of the office's budget doesn't come from the city: The Office of Sustainability receives nearly $400,000 in private funding.

With all the public outcry that's accompanied the proposed cuts, the concept of reaching out to alternative sources of funding may now appear especially attractive. Is the city looking into it?

"It's clearly something we want to pursue and have some interest in," says Rob Dubow, the city's director of finance. Dubow and others interviewed declined to specify what partners were being considered and for what areas of the city budget. When asked where the funding might be applied, Dubow answered, "You probably know which areas are ripest for this."

Nutter has stated that private partnerships would be pursued to continue running three of the city's ice rinks. This has left people wondering whether similar partnerships could be formed in other areas.

"If Nutter has reached out and said that private funding has kept some of the ice rinks open, you'd think he would say something similar to keep the libraries and pools open," says Brett Mandel, executive director of Philadelphia Forward, who previously worked in the city controller's office. "When I was in the controller's office, that was one thing I constantly complained that we should be going after more."

The Department of Recreation has already been promised $25,000 by Villa, an urban apparel company based in Philly, to upgrade one of its recreation centers and provide additional programming. The company has committed to upgrading two more centers in 2009, according to Alain Joinville, the Department of Recreation's public affairs coordinator.

Joinville says the department itself is not seeking more sponsors right now, but that's not because it doesn't want the money. Rather, it's because operating budgets are organized by City Hall — meaning that if there's fundraising to be done, city higher-ups will do it, not individual departments.

The private funding for the Office of Sustainability came mostly from a $341,250 grant from the William Penn Foundation, but money to backfill the new budget holes will probably not come from such charitable trusts. Brent Thompson, communications director for the Penn Foundation, says organizations like his usually commit to supporting long-term strategies and major projects rather than shoring up operating budgets.

Instead, the city could look more to corporate donors who see sponsorship as an opportunity for visibility. Turning a library slated for shutdown into, say, Comcast Library might appeal to our local media behemoth.

Of course, some residents might be uneasy about public facilities brandishing corporate insignias — though it's been done before. For example, when Comcast-Spectacor and Toyota paid for renovations to a city basketball court and learning center, 76ers and Toyota logos were included. The question may end up being: Is it better to swim in a corporate-branded pool, or to not swim at all?

The other possibility is for the public to pitch in. Friends of the Free Library has launched a "$10 Challenge," arguing that, "If every Philadelphia resident gave just $10, we would have enough money to keep all of our libraries open." Some library advocates have raised questions about whether the administration even wants that funding, based on how quickly it's been looking to move forward with the closings.

That may be because, no matter who gives the money, raising enough funds will be a tall order: To recoup the millions of dollars the city expects to earn by closing the libraries and selling their buildings, it would have to bring in much more than what corporate foundations, for example, are accustomed to giving — anywhere from $5,000 to $25,000, according to one grant writer. Still, it's doable.

"If [local companies] pooled their resources and got themselves together, we wouldn't have to worry about the pools for years," says the grant writer, who requested anonymity because of his ongoing relationship with potential donors. "The question, given the nature of politics, is whether the will [of city officials] is there."

(andrew.thompson@citypaper.net)

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