Charlotte, NC: Neighborhood Matching Grants
By Alanna Margulies, Democracy Cities
Charlotte, North Carolina – like many US cities – is home to neighborhoods diverse in race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. In Charlotte, there is a strong culture of residents identifying with and supporting their neighborhoods. Many residents elect to serve on Neighborhood Boards, which have become ubiquitous throughout the city. For almost 30 years, the Charlotte Department of Housing & Neighborhood Services has sought to engage these community members and connect neighbors by incentivizing residents to volunteer and invest in their communities.
One of Charlotte’s most successful and long-standing programs is its Neighborhood Matching Grants (NMG) Program, which strives to simultaneously engage community members in volunteer service around their neighborhoods and address important neighborhood small-scale needs surrounding public safety, beautification, and signage, and more. NMGs provide funding for improvements that are too small for city government to prioritize, but too large for a neighborhood to independently amass resources to address. The NMG Program concurrently provides an opportunity for community members to get to know one another, take ownership over their neighborhoods, and feel pride in where they live. Meanwhile, Charlotte residents gain access to services and amenities that genuinely improve daily life and make Charlotte a more desirable and equitable place to live.