Envision Lincoln awarded master planning grants, considers formalizing as a nonprofit

The future of downtown planning and revitalization took a major step forward this week with the notification that Lincoln has been awarded a Montana Main Street Grant for $20,000 to help fund development of a master plan.

Karyn Good, the lead organizer for Envision Lincoln, learned of the award Monday after receiving a call from Gov. Greg Gianforte's office. While the announcement came later than expected, she was fairly confident Lincoln had been successful. Her cautious optimism was based on the fact that the MMS grant was to serve as matching funds for a grant application to the Big Sky Trust Fund. Good learned at the beginning of March the Trust had awarded Lincoln $27,000. The Montana Business Assistance Connection applied for the funding on Lincoln's behalf.

Combined, Envision Lincoln will have $47,000 to fund a contract with a professional planner to develop a master plan for Lincoln.

The next steps should be determined by next week, after Lewis and Clark County Grants Administrator Ann McCauley meets with MBAC for an "onboarding" meeting. In December, when the Lewis and Clark County Commission approved the application for the MMS Grant, they planned to do a "sub-receipt agreement" with MBAC to administer the funds.

Although Envision Lincoln has generally been successful with grant applications, the effort to secure grant funding for master planning highlights a major obstacle the group faces: It is entirely reliant on other organizations and agencies to apply for and administer the grants needed for Lincoln's economic development.

Since its inception in 2017, Envision Lincoln has been somewhat nebulous. Although it has been working to realize a set of well-developed goals for the community, its lack of a formal organization reflects its origins and evolution.

Begun in October 2017, Envision Lincoln was the name given to the process for developing a cohesive, community-driven vision for Lincoln's future. It was intended to help point the various community organizations interested in Lincoln's development in the same direction, with generally reinforcing efforts and goals.

A 'core team' of individuals who were active in the initial in-depth meetings were meant to refine the resulting blueprint for Lincoln's future. And, as the planning process drew to an end, 'action teams' were meant to tackle specific community projects related to the economy, natural resources, and health and well-being. However, those action teams all but fell by the wayside since many of the teams' active members were also part of the core team. As a result, most of the goals they were meant to pursue were folded back into the main Envision Lincoln group, which took on several project goals in addition to its strategic mission.

During a March 10 meeting of the Core Team, the group decided a formal structure will be necessary for Envision Lincoln to pursue projects and funding independently.

"The necessity for this would be (so) that when we are looking for grant funding, we aren't scrambling every time to find other organizations or partnerships to help us administer those grants, write the grants and apply for the grants," Good said during a March 11 update for the Lincoln Valley Chamber of Commerce.

As a 501c3, Envision Lincoln can establish a degree of long-term stability , expand its economic development capabilities and its own tax-deductible fundraising.

"There are always matching funds we have to come up with for grant opportunities, so fundraising for some of this would be really helpful," Good said.

For the time being, Envision Lincoln is exploring its options for functioning under the fiscal sponsorship of an established non-profit organization, in much the same way Blackfoot Pathways: Sculpture in the Wild operated under the umbrella of the Lincoln Council for the Arts for its first couple of years.

"The other reason it's so important for Envision Lincoln to move to some sort of formal structure is because, right now, all of my time and funding is up in the air from year to year."

She explained that the funding that pays her salary currently comes from both Heart of the Rockies and The Wilderness Society, but she said that's not sustainable.

Good said they've had discussions with the Blackfoot Challenge, MBAC and Heart of the Rockies and plan to talk to other organizations who may be willing to work with them.

Good said they will have to set up a strategic plan to ensure they stay on task to become their own 501c3 within the next three to five years, a timeline that will depend in part on the organization they partner with.

"I'm pretty excited about this. This has been a long time coming," Good told the LVCC.

MBAC Community Development Manager Ann Pichette, who also took part in the LVCC meeting via Zoom, said Envision Lincoln needs to make sure the organization they settle on as a fiscal sponsor is the right fit. She suggested MBAC may not be the best option.

"There are grants we have access to that you would have access to through the county, but because you don't have an incorporated city, you can only go through the county for some of those programs, or (through )us," she said. "We would still be doing that kind of work for you . We can be partners without being that sort of sponsor organization."

Pichette said she would also explore whether Envision Lincoln could find itself ineligible for grants through MBAC, if MBAC were their fiscal sponsor.

Regardless of their fiscal sponsor, the goal for Envision Lincoln is to become an independent non-profit, with an established board of directors and a paid executive director, capable of both supporting itself and advancing economic development projects for Lincoln.

"We're to the point where we're getting big enough that we're going to have to have something in place," Good told the BVD Monday.