Maryland allocated more than $800 million in grants to nonprofits

MARYLAND (WBFF) — The state of Maryland spent more than $800 million on nonprofit grants and loans of $50,000 or more in fiscal year 2025, according to state data.

Spotlight on Maryland is still digging into the approximately 1,300 grants – which compose the vast majority of the funds – designated for a wide variety of initiatives, from housing assistance to education, business development, and health care. The largest grant – $72 million – went to Behavioral Health System Baltimore.

The big question isn’t how much money is being spent, but whether the state is getting results from its spending, said Chris Sharp, chief of staff for the Cicero Institute, a public policy think tank based in Austin, Texas.

“There have to be guardrails,” Sharp said, explaining that the state needs to be focused on a nonprofit’s “outcomes,” not just “outputs.”

“I would argue that if the state wants to continue using nonprofits, that’s fine, but change the nature of the relationship to say, ‘These are the things that we want to have accomplished for the populations that are being served by these nonprofits,’” he said.

Spotlight on Maryland and The Baltimore Sun have asked the state for more than a year to provide information on how much state money is allocated to nonprofits. Starting with the 2025 fiscal year, the state has begun identifying organizations according to nonprofit status in the online Maryland Transparency Portal’s data downloads for grants and loans.

The total amount of nonprofit grants and loans in the portal data adds up to around $872 million, though Spotlight identified a handful of instances where a grant recipient appeared to be incorrectly identified as a nonprofit, including the University of Maryland Baltimore, the Harford County Public Library and the Housing Authority of Calvert County.

The total amount of money that Maryland spends on nonprofits is likely much greater than $872 million, since that number doesn’t include vendor payments, and it also doesn’t include grants and loans of less than $50,000.

Raquel Coombs, chief of staff at the Department of Budget and Management, told Spotlight that information can be obtained from agencies that provided the funds.

Asked why the “nonprofit” designation wasn’t available in the portal prior to the 2025 fiscal year, Coombs said in an email, “The state is committed to continuing to make information on public funds more accessible to the public. Marylanders interested in obtaining information regarding grants to nonprofits prior to 2025 can submit a request to the agency providing the grant.”

David Brinkley, former budget secretary under former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said there’s an “awful lot” of state grants under $50,000, adding that there needs to be accountability for the money that is spent. Brinkley noted that several Baltimore nonprofits have received taxpayer funding despite not being properly registered with the state of Maryland, as previously reported by government funding watchdog Open the Books.

Brinkley added that while the “vast majority” of nonprofits deliver “very good services” and do “important work,” the state has to make sure it’s holding them accountable.

“The state has to determine: Do we have other priorities that taxpayers should fund first? And if we’re going to give you some resources, how are you spending the money, and what outcomes are you getting?” Brinkley said.

The portal launched during the Hogan administration, and Brinkley said identifying an organization’s nonprofit status is a step toward further transparency.

Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO at Truth in Accounting, pointed Spotlight to the state’s new nonprofit data, saying while many nonprofits may use state funds for good purposes, the state needs to be vigilant about potential waste and fraud.

“There’s very numerous nonprofits that the state is giving money to – and some in small amounts – and we don’t know if each and every one of those has been vetted and is using the taxpayers’ money wisely,” she said.

When asked if Maryland spends an acceptable amount of money on nonprofits, given the state’s projected budget deficits, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s office didn’t answer the question.

“The conflation in your original question shows a stunning lack of interest in the substance of the topic,” David Turner, the governor’s director of communications, said in an email.

Have a news tip? Contact Brooke Conrad at bjconrad@sbgtv.com or 443-578-2126, or contact the Spotlight team at SpotlightOnMaryland@sbgtv.com or 410-467-4670. Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by The Baltimore Sun, FOX45 News and WJLA in Washington, D.C.