photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

A sign for the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence's location inside New York Elementary School, located at 936 New York St. The Club is one of 10 programs with AmeriCorps volunteers in Kansas that were terminated, effective Friday, impacting over 200 people.

As it faces new restrictions on grants and grapples with changes to federal programs, the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence is facing a $750,000 shortfall this year, and it’s urging donors and the community to help fill the gap.

The Lawrence club is a major provider of after-school programs that serves more than 1,300 students each year. But problems started to appear this spring, when the organization announced that it would be eliminating seven jobs. And the situation looked even more dire after cuts to AmeriCorps funding, when the organization had to scramble to hire on many of the AmeriCorps volunteers it was relying on for its child care programs.

Fortunately for the club, those AmeriCorps cuts have been reversed since then. But the $750,000 shortfall is still there, and Laci Maltbie, CEO of the club, told the Journal-World more about how this situation developed in the first place.

The biggest problems, Maltbie said, have been new restrictions on the grant funding that the club relies on.

Maltbie said that the Boys and Girls Club receives grants from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families 2Gen program in Kansas, AmeriCorps, and 21st Century Community Learning Centers. The latter, as the Kansas State Department of Education’s website explains, promotes academic and enrichment opportunities for children outside of the regular school day.

“Decreases in grant funding are due to changes in our ability to charge fees at some 21st Century sites and restrictions on what the grants (cover),” Maltbie said via email. “Basically, the grant parameters have become more restrictive … that contributes to the initial shortfall.”

That initial shortfall, in March, looked to be more than $650,000 — and that required the club to reduce its staff. Maltbie said that seven positions were eliminated, and a dozen staff members were affected.

“Each of the positions were discontinued, so they were given a notice period to give them time to find another job,” Maltbie said in the email. “I can’t stress this enough – this was a very difficult situation and BGCLK did everything they could to help people transition. For example, one of our employees is now working for Boys & Girls Club of America.”

Maltbie did not disclose to the Journal-World which positions were affected, citing former employees’ privacy.

The very next month, there was another blow to the agency’s staffing in the form of cuts to AmeriCorps.

The federal agency, which was established in 1993 to promote national service and volunteerism, announced cuts at the end of April to its program that deploys members nationwide to support local communities. As the Journal-World reported, more than 200 volunteers in Kansas were affected by the cuts.

In Douglas County specifically, there were 80 AmeriCorps positions eliminated and the combined financial impact was just over $400,000. Four agencies were directly affected — the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence, the Ballard Center, the Center for Supportive Communities and the United Way of Kaw Valley — and of those four, the Boys and Girls Club was the hardest hit.

The estimated impact of the AmeriCorps cuts on the club’s finances was $300,000. The club had 55 AmeriCorps positions staffed for spring and summer child care programs, and the cuts meant the organization had to hire some of those volunteers as staff.

Maltbie said that when the contract was canceled, the club transitioned as many of the volunteers to employees as possible before the summer started. The club had hired on 30 of the volunteers for the summer, and the positions were funded with the organization’s operating budget.

The organization, of course, was expecting that to exacerbate the shortfall even more. But a couple of weeks ago, the club got some good news — the funding for the AmeriCorps programs was being reinstated. Now, the shortfall for 2025 sits at $750,000 — slightly more than what it was in April, Maltbie said, because of outstanding program fees.

A couple of other organizations in Kansas that had used AmeriCorps volunteers decided that they would no longer take part in the program after the cut and reinstatement. That includes the Ballard Center, whose CEO no longer believes the federal government’s support is reliable.

But the Boys and Girls Club won’t be doing that, Maltbie said. While she said there was still some uncertainty about the stability of AmeriCorps funding beyond the 2025-2026 term, she said that if it continued, the club would continue to utilize the program.

“The Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence has the largest AmeriCorps contract in the state,” Maltbie said in the email. “If we were to lose this funding long-term, it would negatively impact the financial health of the organization.”

She said she hadn’t heard anything that would lead her to be concerned about AmeriCorps’ stability in the future. But she noted that the Boys and Girls Club of America has been advocating at the federal level and doing everything it can to keep AmeriCorps stable.

But, at the same time, the national organization can’t do everything.

In its 2025 budget, the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence had planned for three main sources of income: 40% was expected to come from program fees, 45% from grant funding and 15% from corporate and individual donations. Where it doesn’t receive funding from is the Boys and Girls Club of America.

Maltbie said it’s a common misconception that the Boys and Girls Club of America covers local clubs’ operating expenses. It’s actually sometimes the other way around, she said.

“We, in fact, pay them for membership, safety evaluations, etc.,” Maltbie said.

Because it’s getting so much less from grants, donations — currently the smallest piece of the pie — will be important for the club’s viability going forward.

In response to the shortfall, Maltbie said the club was actively adjusting the budget, decreasing its expenses as much as possible without compromising programs, fundraising to increase corporate and individual donations and “rallying the Lawrence community to invest in the Club.”

People interested in donating to the club can do so online at bgclk.org/donate.

“We need the people of Lawrence, the city and the county to step up to ensure the long-term presence of BGCLK,” Maltbie said.