County debates nonprofit funding

Months after deciding not to fund the Community Funding Pool for another year, Macon County Board of Commissioners restarted a discussion about how and when the county should fund nonprofits. The Community Funding Pool has operated for more than 20 years; the fund awarded $75,000 to local organizations in fiscal year 2024-25. The pool and applications for funding were managed, reviewed and recommended by a committee of community members and then approved by commissioners. The commissioners voted in June 2025 to reduce the board from 13 to seven community members. In July 2025, they created a subcommittee of commissioners Barry Breeden and Danny Antoine to review applications rather than appoint seats from the 14 community members who applied to serve on the Funding Pool board. The 2026-27 budget did not include funding for the pool, but County Manager Warren Cabe restarted the conversation at the Aug. 11 meeting when asking how the board wanted to review funding requests from outside agencies. "We're starting to have a couple of agencies come ask for funding," Cabe said, asking if the board wanted to place them on the agenda as they come in, or bring them forward as a list every three months, or some other structure. He noted the county has contingency funds ready to go, so the requests can be funded without drawing from fund balance if the board is interested. Commissioner Gary Shields said this problem was why previous boards had established the Community Funding Pool and its task force, to review and make recommendations on nonprofit funding requests. He said the county funding helps nonprofits when applying for grants and the taxpayer funds are worth the comparative reduction in costs to enforcement or crisis management to other agencies the county would need to cover without organizations like KIDS Place and Smoky Mountain Pregnancy Care Center (SMPCC) to mitigate harm. "We had an estimate one time, if we had to dissolve KIDS Place … the county would have to pick up $250,000 in the community that they do," Shields said. Kellie Burns, who was in the audience and has organized several fundraisers for local nonprofits, said, "I do try to do events for the nonprofits, but it doesn't get enough revenue to really help them. But we have to show as a county we're supporting them. It's very crucial for them to get grants." "I totally disagree," Commissioner John Shearl said. "These nonprofits are absolutely vital … if you take and go to your community and ask for donations, offer a service to them, people will open their pocketbooks up. But for a county or a government body to tax its citizens to supply money to a nonprofit is not our role." He said Franklin and Highlands both shut down similar funding pools, and while "they've never disclosed why they did," "we know why they did: they decided that that's not what their role is." "A nonprofit organization that is absolutely critical to a community will be self-supported by donations. They should not be looking at county government handouts," Shearl said. Burns reiterated nonprofits need to demonstrate community buy-in to be competitive for grants, and said organizations like Men's Challenge of the Smokies and No Wrong Door for example, which deal with addiction support, help keep people off the street and save the county money on EMS and law enforcement. Burns said if the county is willing to invest taxpayer money into other services which benefit them, investing in nonprofits is no different. Shearl said the difference is the county is required to fund other county agencies but is not required to fund non-governmental organizations. "Bring me documentation that says that these non-governmental organizations cannot get a grant without support from the government. It's nonexistent," he said. Burns said KIDS Place got a $1,000 grant "automatically" because of her fundraising demonstrating community buy-in. "This is feel-good stuff," Shearl said. "This is emotions." Town of Highlands Commissioner Amy Patterson said Highlands removed its funding pool because organizations kept asking for money and the board decided funding things that benefit everybody rather than just some people was preferable. "I'm kind of with John [Shearl] on this, it became a real problem … then people start looking to the government to fund everything and we just can't," Patterson said. "If people have made a decision that they want to support something like this, it's not up to us to say no," Antoine said. "So really I'd like to hear more from the citizens personally … if the people in Macon County want to support these nonprofits, then that's what's got to happen." "It's kind of one of those 50-50 issues," Breeden said. "We either have to set up … a system do to it like we had the Community Funding Pool or we just have to say 'no, we're not going to do anything.'" "It's a judgement call for each and every one of us, and I feel like we just have to respectfully agree to disagree, but I feel like we need to make a decision," Board Vhair Josh Young said. He requested Cabe and the county attorney meet to discuss options for handling community funding requests and report back in September. Shelby Powell can be reached at reporter@thefranklinpress.com.

County debates nonprofit funding

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