For five years, the city of Coronado has allocated over $1 million in grants annually to non-profit organizations in the community. This year, $1,075,000 went to grant recipients, with a funding cap of $125,000 for each organization.
The top three recipients were Safe Harbor Coronado receiving the funding cap at $125,000, the Coronado Chamber of Commerce at $109,000 and the Coronado Historical Association at $104,000.
The city counted 38 applications from 26 organizations, totalling over $1.8 million in grant requests.
This was a significant change from 2023, noted management analyst Kelli Maples, as funding requests totaled over $2.1 million last year with several council members expressing disappointment over organizations upping their grant request amount.
This year, five organizations requested the total amount of $125,000: Coronado Historical Association, Coronado Island Film Festival, Coronado Junior Arts League, Islander Sports Foundation and Safe Harbor Coronado.
The city’s total budget for grants was also $60,000 higher than last year’s budget of $1,015,000.
The grant requests fell into four categories: arts and culture, community pride/sense of place, economic development and social services.
The arts and culture category received the most applicants, with 17 of the 38 falling into that category. However, the top three recipients were all for community pride.
Each grant application was reviewed by three independent grant readers and scored across six weighted rubric criteria, according to the staff report. They provided comments and justifications for their score and city staff examined the final results.
Any applications that scored below a 75 were not recommended to council for funding.
Council reservations
Several council members mentioned that showing up to speak on behalf of their application was important, which may be why some organizations didn’t receive grant money.
“If you don’t show up to ask for the money, I do, kind of, hold that against you,” Mayor Richard Bailey said during deliberations. “I think it’s a sign of disrespect if you’re not going to be here.”
The council also had thoughts on funding Emerald Keepers, as they often lobby city council for policies.
Emerald Keepers has lobbied the city council on matters such as the electric shuttle with Circuit, the beachfire ban and the plastic ordinance to ban all single-use plastics.
I do have some reservations about the notion that we are using public dollars to finance an organization, help support an organization, that then lobbies city council on pending policy decisions…I’m not sure that’s the best, most appropriate use of taxpayer funds.
Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey
“I do have some reservations about the notion that we are using public dollars to finance an organization, help support an organization, that then lobbies city council on pending policy decisions,” Bailey said. “I’m not sure that’s the best, most appropriate use of taxpayer funds.”
Several council members more or less agreed with Bailey, but also pointed out the important work Emerald Keepers does in the community like their high school internships that the city wants to help fund.
I do think, in the end, Emerald Keepers is doing what we want.
Council Member Casey Tanaka
“I think there is a common sense line of how far you take your advocacy before you start to, I don’t know, make people up here uncomfortable, and I have felt uncomfortable at times,” Council Member Casey Tanaka said. “I do think, in the end, Emerald Keepers is doing what we want.”
Emerald Keepers originally asked for $102,400 and the council ended up awarding them $70,100.
Council member Carrie Anne Downey expressed that they shouldn’t be giving money to lobbyists, but that the council should be able to separate out what the organization does for the community versus their lobbying work.
“I’m happy to fund the student work,” Downey said.
Asking for more
Bailey also noted some organizations asked for much more money than they did when the grant program first came out in 2019.
“I’m a little apprehensive when I see a group that’s asking for five times as much as they received just a handful of years ago,” said Bailey, echoing a sentiment raised last year by Council Member Mike Donovan.
Concerns were raised that some organizations asking for much more money were not figuring out how to get help from other places and were relying heavily on just the grant program.
“I scratch my head if we’re taking over a lot of the responsibility that they previously had in-house to go out and fundraise for themselves and pay for this,” Bailey said.
The grant recipients
In the end, 22 organizations and 33 of the 38 applications received grant money.
The five applications that didn’t receive money were for Camarada, Islander Sports Foundation, Pacific Animal Welfare Society, San Diego Historical Society and Storytellers of San Diego.
Certain organizations had multiple programs funded. Here’s a complete list of the grant recipients:
- Classics for Kids
- Music education access for Coronado students, $17,500
- Coronado Chamber of Commerce
- Holiday parade & tree lighting, $15,000
- Advocating for Coronado’s business community, $70,000
- Coronado Visitor Center website, $24,000
- Coronado Community Band
- July 4th patriotic concert, $1,500
- Operations support, $17,200
- Coronado Community Theatre
- 2025 free classic & general operating cost, $22,000
- Coronado Floral Association
- Coronado Flower Show, $92,000
- Coronado Fourth of July
- Coronado Fourth of July diamond jubilee, $96,000
- Coronado Historical Association
- Cross-border architecture exhibit, $15,000
- Hotel Del restoration exhibit, $12,000
- Keep the Coronado museum free, $77,000
- Coronado Island Film Festival
- Year round production and outreach, $50,000
- Production of the annual 5-Day Coronado Island Film Festival, $50,000
- Coronado Junior Arts League
- Arts and culture grant, $30,000
- Coronado Philharmonia Orchestra
- CPO 2024-25 concert season, $50,543
- Coronado School of the Arts Foundation
- Palette and Palete: A Progressive Journey for CoSA, $7,223
- Coronado Schools Foundation
- Coronado Art & Wine Festival, $24,850
- Emerald Keepers
- Community programs, events & education, $27,800
- Youth services, leadership development & engagement, $42,300
- Islander Sports Foundation
- Community pride & sense of place, $0
- KMAC Foundation for Accessible Sailing
- Accessible sailing, $15,000
- Lamb’s Players Theatre
- 2024-25 season, $75,000
- MainStreet Coronado
- Community enhancement, $13,875
- Economic vitality, $6,125
- Memorial Day Ceremony Planning Committee
- Coronado Memorial Day ceremony 2024 grant, $2,800
- Musica Vitale
- 2024-25 Main Stage and school program, $27,500
- Crown City Chorale Coronado Choir arts and culture, $9,000
- Pacific Animal Welfare Society
- Two decades of animal advocacy community event for PAWS, $17,700
- PAWS transportation grant for animal welfare, $0
- Reading Legacies
- Intergenerational reading programs, $15,000
- Safe Harbor Coronado
- Safe Harbor Coronado Healthy Families program, $75,000
- Safe Harbor Coronado family support services, $50,000
- San Diego Historical Society
- Hotel del Coronado: Historic Places, $0
- Storytellers of San Diego
- Storytelling institute, $0
- Villa Lobos Chamber Music Festival
- Coronado residency, $15,984
- Coronado school outreach, $8,800
