Miami-Dade’s nonprofit drama — a big show with a black hole ticket price

A ‘new’ review initiative smells like the old ‘report card’
Gather ‘round, pups, because Miami-Dade County is putting on a big show — and this one stars our ever-growing, ever-hungry nonprofit industrial complex, also known as Community Based Organizations (CBOs). You’ve seen them at County Hall: matching T-shirts, matching talking points, matching publicists… all singing from the same hymn sheet about “the children” or “the services” or “the vulnerable populations,” right on cue.
But this year, for the first time in ages, regular taxpayers — the ones actually footing the bill — finally started to notice something: these nonprofits are loaded. And some may be questionable.
Read related: Shady charity with political ties gets $450K from Miami-Dade Commission
The scandal that The Miami Herald’s Doug Hanks broke on the millions of taxpayer dollars that went to fund the A3 Foundation — a seemingly sham charity run by a politically-connected Miami insider — for the horse and pony show at Tropical Park every year, put a focus on just how easy it is for these non-profits to get serious money for nothing.
And they have pull. Serious pull. Enough that even Mayor Daniella Levine Cava — who loves nonprofits the way a pastor loves a microphone — proudly reminds everyone she founded or served on the boards of Kristi House, Voices For Children, and a few others that always seem to find their way to the county trough. She said she was heartbroken to have to cut their budgets.
“Many of the organizations that have presented today are organizations that I either founded or served on the board or collaborated with for decades,” she said at the Sept. 4 budget meeting. “It is personally painful to me to be in a situation where I had to choose between running buses, filling potholes or providing for our nonprofit partners.”
But here’s what nobody inside County Hall likes to say out loud: Nonprofits are not an essential function of government.
They don’t run elections. They don’t fix roads or buy buses. They don’t guard inmates or treat sewage or keep our water drinkable. They are optional partners who, sometimes, on paper, serve as a safety net for insufficient resources that the county allocates to the most needy. Key word: Optional. Yet, in 2025 they collected more than $70 million in taxpayer money as if it were some sort of constitutional mandate. Many of them act like that cash is automatic. Owed. Guaranteed. God-given.
And nobody has embraced this cozy arrangement more than Commissioner Kionne McGhee, Miami-Dade’s self-appointed Patron Saint of Nonprofits, who reports in his financial disclosure that he is paid $99,416.18 every year by Children of Inmates, a CBO that gets funding from the county and the state. Down to the penny. That’s not “consulting.” That’s a salary — a tidy little side hustle from an organization that (surprise!) shows up during county budget season to lobby for funding.
Recently, McGhee proposed a new vendor-fee trust fund — a permanent money machine for nonprofits, skimmed off the top of county vendor contracts, which would probably end up passed along to the county anyway. It was punted after county budget staff estimated it would generate only $4 to $5 million. Pocket change compared to the $70 million nonprofits already gobbled up in this year’s budet.
Read related: Miami-Dade committee punts hard on Kionee McGhee’s non-profit slush fund
Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins called it what it was — not even a band-aid. A Post-It note, maybe.
Still, McGhee may not give up. He has suggested putting the whole thing on the ballot. Just like that. No math to support it. No justification. No logic. Just vibes.
Maybe he should wait until the county mayor’s office comes back in March with a report and analysis of how nonprofit organizations are funded, selected, and evaluated. This review measure, a hard look at the county’s CBO funding process — basically the Wild West with PowerPoints — was sponsored by Commissioner Natalie Milian Orbis and approved unanimously earlier this month.
Milian Orbis wants a full accounting: who gets funded, how they get picked, what they actually do, and whether the “legacy” nonprofits — the ones grandfathered into money year after year without ever standing in line — are really delivering anything close to results.
“For too long this process has confused the public and frustrated the very groups trying to serve our families,” she said.Translation: For too long this process has been a hot mess and nobody wants to say it out loud.
“Residents deserve a process that is fair, transparent, and focused on real results,” she added. And somewhere in the back, Ladra swears she could hear a few legacy CBO directors shifting uncomfortably in their seats.
Because legacy does not equal legitimacy.
The report, due 120 days from when it was approved, will examine this year’s competitive grant process, review the sacred cows of the CBO world, and compare them to other nonprofits and even county-run programs. In other words: show us the receipts or get out of the line.
Milian Orbis added: “We owe it to our residents to make sure these dollars are reaching people in need and supporting programs that work.” Which is adorable, because it assumes the system has ever been designed around “what works” instead of who knows who.
Once the mayor’s office delivers the report, it will come back to the board for public review and action. And that, pups, is where things get interesting — because once the disinfecting sunlight hits these numbers, somebody’s gravy boat is going to run aground.
Read related: Miami-Dade budget restores 100% funds to non-profits = self preservation
Or is it? Because Milian Orbis, very proud of herself, says this will be the first public countywide analysis of the performance, reach, and results of non-profits. Shows how green she is. Because  there have been issued “report cards” on CBOs for years. CBOs are managed by the Office of Management Budget and funded annually as part of the budget process. That everybody knows. But what everyone might not know is that the OMB already conducts performance reviews to evaluate (1) deliverables and program achievement and (2) administration and contract compliance. These reviews serve as the basis for report cards, which use a green, yellow and red stoplight scale as follows:

Green: Less than five instances of non compliance. You know, because three or four instances is no big deal.
Yellow: More than five instances of non-compliance. Stuff that can be fixed so the county gives you time.
Red: “any number of instances of non compliance that merit contract or payment suspension.”

In the report card for 2023-2024, 116 CBOs were evaluated and only two were in the red, according to a memo from the mayor to commissions in May. Their contracts were terminated and remaining unspent grant monies were returned to the general fund, she said. Thirteen other organizations received a yellow rating. “However, 10 of the 13 yellow rated organizations were previously rated red and were changed to yellow upon acceptance of a Corrective Action Plan,” the memo says.
The report cards for fiscal years 2018-19 is much worse, with more red lines than one would think there should be.

Read Full Story