He’s calling the group the Grant Factory, and it is his proposed solution to the lack of federal funding received by the Bloomington community.
Kemp is the founder, chairman, secretary and treasurer for The Updraft Supplemental Scholarship Project Inc., a nonprofit that provides financial aid for low-income and foster children.
He realized several years ago that there is a lot of government money that small nonprofits are unable to tap into. Unless they work together, that is.
Kemp explained that these larger grants, ones that give $100 million or more, are only given when the money will be used to alleviate multiple problems that the federal government wants to address. Most of the time, nonprofits and businesses are narrowly focused on one specific community need and are unable to meet the criteria.
“When we band together to provide several services required under the grant from both nonprofits and businesses, we qualify for those funds,” Kemp explained in an email he wrote to the organizations who had expressed interest in his idea. “In fact, the Department of Labor prefers to fund groups that form a ‘Career Pathway Collaborative.’”
To apply for the money, Kemp needed a letter of support from a politician. He recently received that endorsement from Congressman Todd Young, giving him the go-ahead to move forward.
“The Monroe County area only makes about 80 cents on the dollar when compared to the rest of America,” Kemp wrote. “So, Bloomington needs more money from somewhere to improve the lives of our citizens.”
Since his initial announcement of his plans, Kemp has been contacted by more than 20 local organizations, including My Sister’s Closet, the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Hoosier Hills Food Bank and Middle Way House.
“This is a new concept for local nonprofits to actually work together,” Kemp said. “If I keep calling you for 35 dollars, you’re eventually going to get tired of giving me 35 dollars. There are literally hundreds of millions of dollars we can get that the federal government wants to use to solve these problems, so we should be calling ?them instead.”
