My nonprofit Lucky Shoals Community Association’s $20 million EPA Community Change Grant was canceled.
It is something I worked to bring to my community — unincorporated Norcross, in Gwinnett County — for years before we even applied in 2023. And it was going to do work that united that community: create local construction jobs, make repairs to blighted commercial and residential buildings that currently attract crime and deter economic development, and preserve greenspace for mixed-use — in lieu of the constant out-of-state owned, low-quality, high-density development we’re battling in this area, like in other parts of Georgia.
I am really sad. This was our second federal grant cancellation in the same month. I started Lucky Shoals Community Association after becoming an elected state representative, because I was frustrated with the ability of government to get results, even while I was in it.
And just as we finally got big wins for the community, they have been taken away, despite widespread support.
About 1,000 community members — of diverse backgrounds and political leanings, but united against not just environmentally unfriendly, but bad development, period — signed a petition in support of our proposed Environmental Protection Act work, back in 2022 and 2023. It also got bipartisan support from elected officials.
Nonprofit was fighting for a healthier environment
To address a few likely misconceptions off the bat: We were not accused of fraud, mismanagement or waste. And we were not accused of being “too DEI.”
We have simply been told that agency priorities have shifted, and this work was not consistent with those priorities. But I do not think even that’s true.
I strongly believe in environmental justice — I try to live it and not just say it, thus my work. But you don’t need to think in any “woke” terms to appreciate that, say, poor air quality — which we were attempting to address with this grant, because, in my county, my community has the worst of it — is linked to debilitating cancer, or ALS or any number of conditions no one wants, regardless of their political leanings or where they live.
I have said so often this year: We can all agree government can be more efficient. Again, governmental inefficiency is why I started my nonprofit in the first place.
That said, I ask people to make a good faith attempt to understand the virtuous work people in nonprofits are doing.
Nonprofits successfully stimulate economic and human development
Federal government has historically funded nonprofit programs traditionally seen as both conservative (i.e., abstinence-only education) and progressive (i.e., environmental justice). But at the end of the day, the vast majority of the work federally funded nonprofits do is bread and butter, universally good work for local neighborhoods.
People are putting their hearts and souls into decent, honest work that stimulates huge educational and economic dividends for their communities — usually going far beyond government’s abilities, with much fewer resources to begin with. (They are nonprofits, after all. I personally make almost nothing from my nonprofit — $1 a year for most of its life, even with federal grants).
And past administrations, including the previous Trump administration with its $2.2 trillion in CARES Act funding, have seen the role of nonprofits as some of the best stimulators of our economic and human development.
Grant cancellation affects multiple applicants
To correct other possible misconceptions: This grant went through a long, super-competitive process. I wrote the application myself, and we weren’t awarded it until exactly a year after we applied in December 2023. Just over 4% of almost 2,800 applicants were awarded, and only three were in Georgia.
It also required us to partner with others, increasing both resources and accountability. Here our partners were Gwinnett Housing Corp., Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance and Georgia Hispanic Construction Association.
When we together applied, we’d already been working for three years, with public and private funding, around repairing homes and providing construction certification in this area — the goal being that our local workforce can provide those much-needed repairs, right where they live, providing twice the economic boost.
And, of course, we are required to undergo an annual audit during the duration of these grants.
Government pulled the rug from under good people
At the end of the day, I would like to think few of us wouldn’t feel sad and misunderstood in this situation.
Would you be OK if you had a contract to do honest work and were suddenly terminated, without any accusation of poor performance, and without any attempt even to try to work it out with you, somehow?
Make government more efficient; don’t pull the rugs out from under good people.
Of course, we are still going to do the work — our work did not start with this grant, and it was never going to end with it.
We have got other grants, other funding. But to think of the thousands of hours of work in preparation, and then finally getting a win for a community that really needs it, only for it to be taken away, for reasons that misunderstand your work, that is sad. We can do better.
Credit: Cam Ashling
Credit: Cam Ashling
Marvin Lim is CEO and founder of the nonprofit Lucky Shoals Community Association Inc. He is also a state representative for House District 98 (D-Norcross) and an attorney.
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