Unalaska raises the audit threshold for its nonprofit grant recipients

Unalaska nonprofits receiving less than $40,000 a year in city grant money will no longer have to pay for an audit. The City Council raised the threshold from $25,000 last week, in a change to the Community Support Grant Program that touched the audit rules and nothing else.

One grant recipient told the city that annual audit costs were consuming roughly 13 percent of its city award.

Under the new tiers, grantees below $40,000 file end-of-year reports only. Between $40,000 and $300,000 they can submit either a review or a full audit. Above $300,000 an audit is required, which Planning Director Cameron Dean noted in a memo is something nonprofits that size generally need for other funders anyway. Councilmember Looby argued for dropping the top tier and requiring at least a review from everyone above $40,000.

Dean's memo put the change in context: $40,000 today is worth about what $25,000 was in 2011. The guidelines were last revised in 2024.

The money matters to the organizations that get it. The program funds nonprofit operating budgets for health, safety and quality-of-life services in Unalaska, and the council awarded about $2.25 million for the current year across eight organizations, with the largest share going to Iliuliuk Family Health Services.

The program is under strain. Last year ten nonprofits requested about $2.27 million against roughly $1.72 million the funding formula made available, and the city manager raised concerns about long-term sustainability. Dean's memo floats creating a separate health care grant program, prompted by sharply rising requests from Iliuliuk. The resolution does not create one.