County to seek grant for Ozaukee Nonprofit Center

The Ozaukee Nonprofit Center in Grafton will receive a significant upgrade if it receives the $748,500 state grant that Ozaukee County supervisors last week voted to apply for.

The Flexible Facilities Grant Program, or FFP, grant administered by the Wisconsin Department of Administration, uses federal funds allocated through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

The Ozaukee County Health and Human Services Committee voted last week to approve the grant application on behalf of the Nonprofit Center, following the lead of the county Finance Committee that voted on it last year and County Administrator Jason Dzwinel who tentatively approved the application in July.

The county is the lead applicant for the grant and is basically a pass-through agency to the Nonprofit Center.

It’s a similar situation the county has had with other nonprofit agencies, such as Family Promise and Ozaukee Advocates, when state or federal funds are being sought by private nonprofits who have similar goals to those of the county, Dzwinel said.

The Nonprofit Center is a 42,250-square-foot-building at 2360 Dakota Dr., Grafton, that offers office and meeting space, office equipment and services, including a commercial kitchen, at below-market rates to local nonprofits.

The Nonprofit Center had its genesis in the mid-1990s when several agencies collaborated to share facilities and services. It moved to its current location in 2021.

According to a memo submitted to county supervisors, the grant funds would be used to renovate “underutilized spaces to accommodate expanded high-speed internet opportunities for community residents to access and use for work, education and virtual healthcare visits.”

That would include equipping three meeting rooms with an immersive conference room webcam, outfitting a large multipurpose space for dual use for educational symposiums that can be divided into 10 concealed workstations, dedicating two rooms for virtual health care visits, creating an outdoor learning center with a raised garden bed and mobile workstations and updating and expanding high-speed internet throughout all those spaces.

More than 20,000 people visit the center each year to receive services from the 13 nonprofits located within the building, the memo said.

“This project aims to enhance community access to additional resources by consolidating them into a single central hub,” according to the memo.

“The meeting rooms will be available for local health-care professionals to conduct educational sessions on mental and physical well-being,” according to the memo.

The Nonprofit Center serves an important function, organizers say, citing a recent national study by the Nonprofit Finance Fund, which showed that 31% of nonprofits have less than three months of cash reserves on hand, and 62% of them list long-term financial sustainability as their top operational challenge.

If the center is awarded the grant, no county matching funds will be required, Dzwinel said.