The FOSP Board has voted to not apply for a city grant this year.
Until 2024-25, the city website Neighborhood Organizations page said, The Neighborhood Organization Grant Program “is designed to provide financial support to assist neighborhood organizations so that they may further communication with the residents within their neighborhood and build membership.”
However, as of February 27, 2026, it says, “On Sept. 30, 2025, the City Council reformed how the City distributes funding to neighborhood organizations and established a new Neighborhood Organization Grant Program. The Council created a new, opt-in program with specific guidelines governing allowable uses of City funds, designed to ensure funding is used for community-building events while promoting transparency and accountability.”
https://www.santamonica.gov/neighborhood-organizations
Therefore, we can’t use city grant funds to “further communication with the residents within our neighborhood and build membership.”
Since at least 1990, the neighborhood groups and City Hall have had a shared goal of supporting our neighborhoods. City staff and City Councilmembers have come to our monthly meetings to talk about important issues, explain new programs, and hear directly from residents.
Recognizing that it’s always difficult to get community engagement from new members, before the 2020 “restructuring,” the city provided assistance by printing and mailing an annual newsletter for each group to every residence in each neighborhood, so that more people would know about us and the work we were doing, and hopefully be inspired to join. There was also a $4,000 matching grant.
After the restructuring in 2020, the city stopped funding the annual mailer program. Each group could apply for up to $7,000 per year. Staff had to approve our proposed expenditures before we received the funds, and we had to provide invoices at the end of the fiscal year to prove how we had spent the grants. Some groups used all or part of their grant to mail out membership letters to all residences in their neighborhoods.
FOSP membership forms at the bottom of our letters, for example, included an invitation to share “concerns,” and that is how the FOSP Board determined priorities for advocacy. Other groups used the grants for D&O Insurance, websites, Zoom, P.O. Boxes, MailChimp, domain renewal, etc.
Prohibited uses of the grants — This year, neither mailers nor postcards will be considered allowable uses of the city grants. A brief mention once a year in Seascape, a city-produced newsletter, is considered by our current City Council an adequate substitute for a 2-sided letter, with a return envelope, mailed to individual households for building membership. We disagree.
Demographic information — In addition, there is a new requirement to collect “demographic” information about our Boards and members (age, income, and renter or homeowner). This was the direction from City Council member Jesse Zwick, and we consider it an illegal invasion of privacy, with no indication as to how the information would be used.
Prohibition from political endorsements, participating in ballot measure campaigns, and independent candidate forums — Neighborhood organizations that are 501c4’s abide by IRS regulations regarding political engagement in civic affairs. FOSP is a 501c4 non-profit, and we abide by the IRS regulations.
The FOSP Board has endorsed City Council candidates only twice in the last 25 years, and we have spent no funds, city or otherwise, on those endorsements. In 2024, the FOSP Board endorsement consisted of one paragraph in one of 52 weekly 15-page emails to our members.
The Board has also taken positions for and against various local ballot measures over the years. Again, this is allowed by the IRS for 501c4 organizations. These are “Board” positions only, not pretending to represent all of our members, or all Sunset Park residents.
Prior to the 2024 City Council election, the city-recognized neighborhood organizations also collaborated on a well-attended public City Council Candidates Forum at the Lincoln Middle School auditorium. This provided an important educational service to local voters.
Our monthly Zoom meetings, open to the public, include guest speakers as well as updates and Q&A with SMFD staff and our SMPD Neighborhood Resource Officer and Crime Prevention Coordinator.
In addition, FOSP has participated in and/or sponsored “Art in the Alley” (murals in the alley just south of Ocean Park Blvd. and east of 17th St.), “Art in the Park,” the “Save Our Fairview Library” rally, a Celebration & General Membership Meeting in Clover Park, the Main Street 4th of July Parade (the FOSP Beach Towel Drill Team), SMPD’s National Night Out, and the FOSP Picnic & Movie Night at Clover Park.
Conclusion — The current City Council seems to be trying to use the new grant requirements to restrict divergent viewpoints. We agree that city grant funds should not be used for political endorsements, but applying this to all the activities of the organizations undermines our Constitutional rights.
Not only do these strings attach to the grant program, but the city has removed our ability to be a “city-recognized neighborhood organization” by requiring us to take the money with strings to even be listed on the city website as a neighborhood organization.
Friends of Sunset Park is a grass-roots organization that was created by residents in 1989. This year, we will rely upon our members for support so we can continue to inform and advocate for the residents of our neighborhood.
We, the Board of Friends of Sunset Park, are, frankly, outraged by these unreasonable, unwarranted, and unwelcome demands.
