In an effort to funnel some federal dollars to town to help support local not-for-profit organizations, the Guilford Board of Selectmen (BOS) recently approved four grant applications to be submitted to the state through the Neighborhood Assistance Act (NAA). If the money is awarded, organizations in town will receive funding for a variety of projects from building improvements to program assistance.

NAA is a federal grant program run through the State of Connecticut. According to the State of Connecticut Department of Revenue Services website, “The NAA Tax Credit Program is designed to provide funding for municipal and tax exempt organizations by providing a corporation business tax credit for businesses who make cash contributions to these entities. Businesses can receive a credit of 60 percent of their approved contribution to certain programs (or 100 percent in the case of certain energy conservation programs) approved by the Department of Revenue Services. Any tax credit that is not taken in the income year in which the contribution was made may be carried back to the two immediately preceding income years (beginning with the earlier of such years).”

Each year organizations based in town come to the BOS to request that a grant proposal be submitted to the program. An organization can receive a maximum of $150,000 in a single year through the program and the applications are judged by the state.

First Selectman Matt Hoey said the process for applying to the program requires the applications be put forward by the town, but it isn’t Guilford-specific money that is awarded.

“Every year we entertain requests or presentations for the funds from various non-profits and it looks like we have a repeat set of requests for funds from last year,” he said.

The three organizations putting in requests include Lifelinx, the Women & Family Life Center, and SARAH, which had two requests. SARAH Foundation Executive Director Ken Alberti said the organization is seeking a total of $5,000 for an eight-week program for SARAH, Inc., that would teach clients food prep and other proper eating and $40,000 for the continuation of an HVAC project.

“There is a facility that we run programs in that does not have proper air conditioning and heating systems in place,” he said. “Last year we requested a higher number because we were still early in the process and we didn’t know exactly what we were going to do there and how much that was going to cost. This year we are requesting 40,000…This falls under the energy efficiency category.”

Women & Family Life Executive Director Meghan Scanlon said the organization’s $13,800 also builds on a project—window replacement—supported by the NAA grant program last year.

“We have started our window replacement, but it is all of the windows in the main building,” she said. “This year we were able to go through all of the approvals for the various town commissions. We received approval from the Historic Commission in April on the windows, so we purchased them using last year’s NAA grant and some other funds, but we are looking for the balance of $13,800 to complete the project moving forward.”

The board unanimously approved all the applications to be put forward for inclusion in the Neighborhood Assistance Act Program.