The City of Fishers will distribute 13 grants totaling about $255,000 to area nonprofit organizations through the city’s nonprofit grant program, but the appropriation wasn’t unanimously supported during a recent Fishers City Council meeting.
A resolution to approve the grant distributions, as recommended by the city’s Non-Profit Committee, passed 5-2, with Councilors Pete Peterson and Todd Zimmerman voting no. Councilor Selina Stoller abstained due to a conflict of interest.
Peterson was particularly vocal in his opposition to the grants.
“It has nothing to do with the not-for-profits. I think all of them are great groups,” he said. “I think they serve great purposes and I have no issues with what they do. My issue is, it’s not our job as a city council to spend taxpayer dollars on not-for-profits. So, I’m going to be vehemently against this.”
He added that he would be more supportive of the program if the nonprofits receiving funds focused their services on Fishers residents.
Zimmerman said he, too, preferred grants to support Fishers-based services.
“It does need to be focused on our residents,” he said. “If we’re going to use Fishers’ tax dollars, it needs to go to Fishers residents. And I think it gets too convoluted when we have a lot of different organizations — that are wonderful organizations. They are great organizations. But I think we need to focus on the blocking and tackling of what we’re supposed to do with tax dollars.”
Many of the organizations provide services countywide, including but not exclusive to Fishers.
The organizations that received funding were:
- Hamilton County Youth Assistance Program – $65,000
- Youth Mentoring Initiative – $45,000
- Conner Prairie Museum – $55,000
- The Indiana Center for Prevention of Youth Abuse and Suicide – $3,000
- Humane Society of Hamilton County – $5,000
- Indiana Parkinson Foundation – $5,500
- Outside the Box, Inc. – $10,000
- Hamilton Southeastern Education Foundation – $10,000
- Same As U – $10,000
- Recovery Café Hamilton County – $12,500
- Advocates for Children and Families, Inc. dba Cherish Center – $24,000
- Hand, Inc. – $4,000
- Still Waters Adult Day Center – $6,000
For more about the city’s nonprofit grant program, visit ishersin.gov/government/mayors-office/nonprofit-grants.