Without assistance from groups like the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, summer programming at the Village Learning Place might not have been possible.

The Charles Village lending library and learning space was the recipient of a $14,000 grant in 2024 through the youth fund’s Summer Funding Collaborative, which assists organizations serving Baltimore youth from low-income backgrounds.

Executive Director Siobhan Hayes said the youth fund is a “backbone organization” — one that helps nonprofits develop in a way that small-dollar grants cobbled together cannot.

Established via a 2016 charter amendment and backed almost exclusively with Baltimore tax dollars, the fund is loved by many of the groups who benefit from its funding.

It’s also a lightning rod.

The group’s expenditures, large and small, have been assailed. One member of the Baltimore City Council cited the fund’s support of Baltimore’s summer jobs program as the reason for his vote against the city’s budget. And a report from Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming recommended greater oversight and more detail on grant recipients.

Now the fund is the target of legislation proposed by Mark Parker. A freshman member of the council who was appointed to the fund’s board in September, Parker said his legislation was inspired not by the noise surrounding the fund but by a desire to better support the work it does.

It’s important, however, for the council to revisit all past legislation, Parker said, particularly for publicly funded entities like the youth fund that largely operate outside the city’s budget.

“I know the difference these organizations make in the lives of these young people,” said Parker, whose work as a pastor and community leader gave him a window into the nonprofit sector. “I know how hard it is for organizations to access funding.”

The council member’s legislation would require more detailed disclosures of the group’s budget, increase the size of the group’s board by adding more political appointees and restrict spending on programs beyond direct grants.

So far, the bill has met resistance. A presentation the group made to the city’s spending board devolved into a terse discussion that stretched for more than an hour. Mayor Brandon Scott has said he is concerned about the bill as currently written.

Youth fund leaders argue the legislation would water down youth representation on their board and curtail mission-critical spending. In an interview, Alysia Lee, president of the group, said parts of the bill seemed “duplicitous,” while others appeared “rooted in harm.” The council didn’t seek feedback before drafting the legislation, which is evident in some provisions, she said.

“I’m hyper aware of how you can have a higher-level view and have good intentions and create harm for people,” she said.

Some of the tweaks Parker’s bill proposes would codify things the fund is already doing. Original legislation establishing the fund required it to adopt a financial plan each year. Parker’s bill mandates the pieces that should go into that plan, including a budget, details about the group’s multiyear fund balance and audit results.

Also proposed are tighter regulations on how the fund is allowed to spend its money. Baltimore paid $14 million into the fund for the current fiscal year, about two-thirds of its $22 million budget. Baltimore’s charter requires the city to dedicate 3 cents for every $100 in assessed property value to the fund.

BCYF expects another $150,000 to come from contributions, grants and events, according to a budget supplied by the fund. The remaining budget will be covered by a fund balance accrued when the organization was growing in its first years, a spokesperson for the group said.

Of that budget, city ordinance allows 80% to be spent on grant making, BCYF officials said. Of that money, 75% goes to direct grants while 25% is used for capacity building and technical assistance, according to fund officials.

Parker’s legislation would cap technical assistance funding at 15%.

That technical assistance funding is at the heart of some concerns about BCYF cited by the council. The fund uses the money to host workshops and events to help local nonprofits who work with youth to build their capacity. It also uses the money for travel, which has included pricey trips to New Orleans and Alabama, first reported by Fox 45.

In Alabama, a group of 100 grantees and BCYF staff spent three days at the Legacy Museum, learning about historic oppression including enslavement and segregation. This year, 80 more people traveled to New Orleans for another three-day trip to study youth-led movements. Lee declined to give the total cost of the trips but said the budget per person is $2,500 — the equivalent of sending participants to a conference, she said.

Lee argued the trips have fostered the creation of a youth master plan that the group is drafting for the city. The travel also increased compliance among grantees who are required to file monthly financial reports to BCYF, she said.

“I want to now see a change in the way that your reporting represents and has a cohesive thread, that the metrics that you have are directly tied to your mission statement,” Lee said.

Council President Zeke Cohen, a cosponsor of the proposed legislation, said he was “not fully convinced” the travel was meeting the purpose of the fund, which the city’s charter says is dedicated to establishing and boosting programs for young people.

“I would like to see more of a focus on the dollars going directly to technical assistance,” he said. “I know they’ve done a lot of good work around supporting organizations, whether it’s financial management, navigating 501(c)3.”

Brittany Young, founder and CEO of grant recipient B-360 Baltimore, said she hasn’t been on a trip with BCYF because of her schedule, but she insists “there’s not an organization where it has been frowned upon to go to conferences or to convene outside of Baltimore.” Young said she’s traveled with other organizations in the past.

Young said she respects legislative oversight and public accountability but is concerned about the long-term impact of the council legislation and whether it would trickle down to require more paperwork and reports from already inundated grantees.

Young hopes that won’t be the case for her nonprofit, which uses Baltimore’s dirt bike culture to promote STEM education, and for other organizations she anticipates will face challenges finding funding in the upcoming year.

Parker’s proposed legislation would also change the makeup of the youth fund’s board, a change fund leaders have pushed back on. Legislation currently calls for a board of nine to 20 members. Parker’s proposal would increase that to 13 to 21 members, including new participants from the Baltimore City Youth Commission and the city school board.

Youth participants, ages 14-25, are required to be at least one-third of the board. Under Parker’s proposal, they would be one-quarter at minimum.

Lee said youth participants bring energy and wisdom. They’re also trusted messengers in the community, she said.

“To reduce their seats in favor of political appointees, I think, is a dire mistake,” Lee said. “It’s not the intention the organizers and architects had.”

Parker said the new appointees would represent groups that are relevant to the fund, including the city school board and youth commission. He emphasized that the youth participation requirements are a minimum and can be exceeded. Still, the council member said that section of the bill would likely be amended based on feedback he’s received.

The bill has the backing of several cosponsors, including council members John Bullock, Ryan Dorsey, Zac Blanchard, Mark Conway and Cohen.

Conway, who represents North Baltimore, has been voicing concerns about the fund since the summer. He said he didn’t like how money from BCYF was used to fund city youth programs as a means to balance the city’s current budget.

Baltimore used $4.8 million from the fund to pay for the YouthWorks summer job program.

Conway, a candidate for Congress who featured footage of his vote against the budget in a campaign announcement video, said he believes the transfer violated the city’s charter, which barred BCYF money from being used to plug holes in the city budget specifically in the fund’s first year. He also doesn’t think there’s been transparency on how the money was spent.

“My fear is that this sets a precedent that if the mayor leans on any board for which he appoints people to they’ll do whatever he says,” Conway said.

Scott said in a statement the bill would prevent BCYF from supporting YouthWorks in the future.

“That should concern anybody who cares about the young people of our city, especially at a time when we have a federal government actively slashing funding for initiatives designed to create opportunity and open doors for young Baltimoreans,” he said.

Lee emphasized that the YouthWorks funding was a one-time emergency investment. She said the council may have been frustrated by the way the grant was communicated, but she doubted anyone was upset that thousands of city youths had summer jobs.

“There’s no question this is in alignment with our mission,” she said.