The Franklin County Board of Commissioners had ambitious goals in 2020 about disrupting structural racism and combatting poverty in the county when they spun off a new nonprofit called RISE Together Innovation Institute.
After investing $4.9 million over six years, the county is now shutting down the nonprofit's operations on Aug. 21 and moving some of its work in-house.
RISE Together Innovation Institute was formed in 2020 to test big ideas to counter poverty that came from a 2019 report commissioned by the county as part of the "Rise Together Blueprint for Reducing Poverty in Franklin County." For one, the innovation center was originally tasked with piloting universal childcare in the county, although that did not happen.
The nonprofit did work
on two pilots on universal basic income, where struggling families were given direct cash. Rise Together also held two summits on poverty and produced research on jobs, housing, health and youth.
The county commissioners were RISE Together's primary funder and appointed all of the nonprofit's board members.
Molly Thrasher, a spokesperson for the county, confirmed that the county is absorbing some of RISE's operations and contracts starting this week and that the nonprofit's five employees will cease work after this week.
"I think the county got a fair return on that investment," Franklin County Administrator Kenneth Wilson said. But he said the nonprofit did not meet the expectations to which he strives to holds agencies.
Sonja Nelson, interim CEO of the RISE Together Innovation Institute, declined to comment to The Dispatch. The United Way of Central Ohio, the fiscal sponsor for the RISE Together Innovation Institute, declined to comment via a spokesperson. Charleta Tavares, the board chair for RISE Together, did not return a request for comment.
Wilson said the nonprofit was conceived of as an innovation hub that could move differently.
"The thought was an entity was needed that would not be just another programmatic organization, not out there to compete with existing nonprofits," Wilson said. "It was to be a place to vet and advance big ideas ... to be able to take the county's money and leverage it by raising it from other sources."
But the nonprofit never generated much revenue from outside fundraising, Wilson said.
"Because they didn't do a ton of raising money, it began to bring us to the conclusion that we do health and human services, housing and all these things well within our county structure," Wilson said. "So, therefore let’s take a step back, let’s do this work internally and look at cost efficiencies that way."
The county terminated the grant contract with the RISE Together Innovation Institute on May 22 and Wilson said the county intends to totally dissolve the nonprofit by the end of 2026.
RISE Together lost its CEO to another job in 2025 before Nelson became interim CEO. Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce told The Dispatch when Nelson took over that the commissioners and RISE Together's board were not on the same page. He said the commissioners asked the nonprofit to fundraise for its operations and that was in part due to the changing economic landscape following the COVID pandemic and the eventual loss of related federal funding.
Franklin County is facing a strained budget and again making cuts across the board to county agencies heading into 2027. The county is absorbing the effects of federal cuts, Wilson pointed out, such as pending changes to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that could cost the county more than $7 million next year.
Other nonprofits locally have seen the county cut funding. The commissioners are weighing at what level to fund the Community Shelter Board, which coordinates the county's shelters and other services for the homeless.
Government and politics reporter Jordan Laird can be reached at jlaird@dispatch.com. Follow her on X, Instagram and Bluesky at @LairdWrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Franklin County ends experiment with nonprofit it created to fight poverty
