As concerns mounted, a local nonprofit continued to receive city money, partially at Council’s insistence

In a February 2023 meeting, Michael Bailey told City Council that Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School students, families and leaders were “begging” for his help. 

Already volunteering in the school, he said a student had died by suicide, and he was ready to get to work. He handed councilors green, yellow and red folders.

“There’s enough testimonies in there; there’s enough exercises; there’s enough discipline and organization and research to tell you: I’ve done my work,” said Bailey, a former football coach and athletic director at Virginia Union University. “I’m ready to do the work. I want the work done. I’m your coach; I’m on your team. You have recruited me. Please allow me to do my work.”

Councilors approved $50,000 for his nonprofit, which operates at the school as UBU100, a few months later. The total payout would grow to more than half a million dollars over the next two years. 

That funding was largely given outside of the city’s standard process for awarding money to nonprofits, which involves application reviews and a scoring system designed to determine whether a group appears organized enough to use public funds effectively.

Just one month after Bailey’s visit to City Hall, a city official emailed colleagues cautioning them that the organization’s funding application “scored very low.” Others warned against giving money to what they said was a vaguely defined organization that didn’t provide enough paperwork detailing how it would use it.

But the group had a champion in Councilwoman Ellen Robertson (6th District), who made amendments to city budgets for the organization to receive funding, even as she was aware of internal concerns about the organization’s lack of documentation.

The unusual treatment city officials gave UBU highlights the concerns some city officials have about a nonprofit funding system that lacks clear rules and allows elected politicians to influence which groups get taxpayer dollars.

The city has proposed overhauling its nonprofit funding process with a procedure that allows outside experts to decide who gets the money. However, UBU received funding by direct decree of Council, circumventing the process entirely.

As the group began receiving city funding, it was filing bare-bones tax forms with the IRS meant for tiny nonprofits with less than $50,000 in annual revenue. Since 2023, UBU has received $550,000 from the city alone, with $517,320 distributed in the 2024 calendar year.

As officials raised internal concerns about the group’s lack of paperwork, Robertson intervened and urged the city to send the money anyway, according to emails and memos The Richmonder obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests beginning in May.

When asked why the organization was able to step out of the application process, she said it is common for councilors to make amendments to budgets for organizations and services they support. 

As payments to Bailey’s group were delayed, Robertson privately emailed Lincoln Saunders, then the city’s chief administrative officer.

“It’s time to stop denying poor African American children a fair opportunity in life,” she wrote. “I will bring this back to Council for action, if needed.”

The nonprofit’s leaders – Michael Bailey and his wife, Queen Bailey – told The Richmonder they provided requested documentation each time the city asked and were told what they submitted was insufficient.

They painted a picture of a group formed out of a desire to help inner-city kids, but instead got caught in a tangle of bureaucracy and paperwork issues that stifled their ability to serve. 

The emails show repeated internal warnings from city administrators and indications that the group was not following contract requirements. City officials also questioned the accuracy of the organization’s filings with the IRS.

Organization leaders said their tax preparer submitted a proper 990 tax form for 2024 to the IRS in August, but the IRS website still only shows that Rings Vs. Rent Scholarship Foundation submitted tax forms saying it made less than $50,000. 

The tax preparer told The Richmonder that the correct form was submitted and that the IRS’ website is incorrect. A spokesperson for the IRS said its website is up to date.

An inner-city impact

UBU’s parent organization, Rings Vs Rent Scholarship Foundation, works solely out of MLK Middle School, a school in Richmond’s East End where about 90% of the students are economically disadvantaged, according to the latest Virginia Department of Education data.

Michael Bailey said he coached and taught in Richmond Public Schools before serving as football coach at VUU. He told City Council he wanted to take what he learned from his coaching experiences and bring it to the school.

The Baileys told The Richmonder they provide life skills like self care, anger and time management, and early career development through their UBU100 and My Life Coach Academy programs at no cost to students. 

Leaders also teach students how to play golf and take field trips to college basketball tournaments and other events. 

“How would you know about the CIAA, the NCAA or ACC tournament if you're from the 6th District? You're never going to see it,” Michael Bailey said. 

When asked how many students the organization has in its program, Michael Bailey said they document 100 students “for legality purposes and data,” but they have more in the program than that number. 

“You should have data. And that's why I chose the number 100. It's easier to provide information on 100 than it is for 76,” he said. 

Queen Bailey said the program is impacting three-quarters of the school, which has an enrollment of about 500.

The program reported reducing negative behaviors by 51% amongst incoming 6th graders, above its stated goal of 40%, during the 2022-23 school year. However, when The Richmonder recalculated the percentage with the same data, it came out to 24%. 

School principal Inett Dabney has been a public booster of the group. She attributed UBU100’s presence to a school-wide drop in chronic absenteeism, from 39% to 20%, as well as improvements in discipline infractions and Standard of Learning scores.

“Their positive impact is undeniable,” she wrote.

Emails also showed school teachers and counselors describing the group as a “godsend” that allowed students to “excel by executing their academic and personal goals.” Danielle Greene-Bell, Richmond Public Schools’ chief engagement officer, visited the program and said students enjoy it.

The students echo that sentiment. The program helps them deal with negativity and they feel at ease when asking the program’s six employees for advice, one said. If students do a good job, they receive awards, including lunch-time trips to fast food chains. 

“You just feel comfortable here,” another student told The Richmonder. 

But emails showed city officials were skeptical.

Over the course of two years, they repeatedly pointed out inconsistencies within documents, or lack thereof, provided by Rings Vs Rent Scholarship Foundation, most notably the organization’s budget. 

An unusually large budget request

One public official, who asked not to be named to protect internal budget discussions, said it is not typical to see $250,000 increases to the city budget when “we don’t have enough money to go around for our needs.”

“Because we have such constrained revenue, it is really, really hard every year for any department to secure additional funds, and $250,000 is a lot of money inside city government,” the official said. “That amount of funding would be considered game-changing for those departments and what they’re able to do for kids.”

The official noted other youth development organizations like Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Richmond and Communities in Schools Richmond, which respectively received $244,084 and $500,000 to do work at three middle schools – including MLK Middle School – and 20 elementary schools. Smaller organizations, similar to Rings Vs Rent Scholarship Foundation, received about $10,000 to $30,000 in the most recent budget cycle.

Torey Edmonds, the community outreach coordinator for VCU’s Clark-Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development, worked closely with UBU100 and other grassroots organizations as a city consultant.

“They're getting a lot more money than other organizations,” she said, referring to Rings Vs Rent Scholarship Foundation. “If they’re doing the work, then we should support them. Do they have to prove they’re doing the work? Hell yeah. This is taxpayer dollars.”

Edmonds said smaller nonprofits are doing the work and proving it, like the RVA League for Safer Streets, a basketball league for men aged 17 to 28 from high-crime areas. The organization joined the city this summer in a press conference emphasizing the need to reduce gun violence in the city. Its funding was reduced to $40,000 from an initial $50,000 during this year’s budget process. 

ReWork Richmond, which helps build careers for lower-income residents in the East End, hasn’t received city funding despite applying for it twice, Edmonds said. She is on the group’s board of directors.

In addition to receiving more than half a million dollars in city funding since 2023, Rings Vs Rent Scholarship Foundation was also approved to receive nearly $430,000 from the state beginning in 2023. The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services awarded the group two grants, one starting in July 2023 for $25,000 and the other for $154,000 over a two-year period starting July 2024. Sen. Lamont Bagby, D-Richmond, also made a budget amendment after its approval for fiscal year 2025 that allows the group to receive $250,000 through the state DOE. 

‘I desperately need your help with getting payments to this group’

During the February 2023 City Council meeting, Robertson warned that the free services Bailey was providing at MLK Middle School as a volunteer would not continue without funding and requested an amendment to provide funding to the organization. 

Councilwoman Cynthia Newbille (7th District) said she also confirmed in a brief conversation with Bailey and his wife before the meeting that “the program is stellar.” The Baileys then submitted an application for non-departmental funding.

In an email one month later, the group “presented an enormous budget request without providing evidence of other funding sources or effective budget justification,” wrote Eva Colen, manager of the Office of Children and Families and then senior policy adviser to former Mayor Levar Stoney. “It was also unclear what exactly they did and what their goals were.”

Le’Charn Benton, the city’s principal management analyst, and City Deputy Attorney Bonnie Ashley also shared concerns about the group, including the organization’s lack of compliance with their grant contract with the city, as well as a lack of documentation indicating progress and goals had been met, according to a June 2024 email. 

“In conclusion, it was advised that we do not release any additional funding without an audit,” Benton wrote to Traci DeShazor, former deputy chief administrative officer for human services. 

City Council approved $250,000 to the organization five months later. 

A major component of the group’s ability to continuously receive money was Robertson’s advocacy. Communications showed Robertson demanded city funds for Rings Vs Rent Scholarship Foundation despite her awareness of the organization’s insufficient documentation. 

In a February 2024 email, Queen Bailey forwarded Colen’s email to Robertson, requesting documentation from the foundation. Robertson forwarded that email to Sabrina Joy-Hogg, the city’s former deputy chief administrative officer. 

“I desperately need your help with getting payments to this group,” Robertson wrote in an email. 

Joy-Hogg responded a day later.

“I just heard about this,” Joy-Hogg said. “Apparently, they have not submitted the required documentation to get paid. We cannot release the funds without the documentation. But let me get more information.”

Robertson also requested meetings with Saunders.

“Please say the paper work is done and [their] guy will get a check before Christmas!” she wrote in one email.

“I am totally embarrassed and insulted by the lack of our ability to employ a process which meets reasonable expectations and responsibilities," she wrote in another.

This May, Robertson worked with Queen Bailey to ensure the organization was registered with the State Corporation Commission, as city officials told Robertson that the Rings Vs Rent Scholarship Foundation was listed as inactive, so the city couldn’t allot $250,000 for the organization in the budget.

The high-ranking public official said it is not uncommon for council members to approach top city officials directly about funding an organization.

“But there’s only been one or two times that a councilmember has advocated for that organization to get funding past the guidance that we’ve provided them,” they said. “And this is one of those times.”

Robertson told The Richmonder in a phone interview she requested funding for the organization because the previous administration promised it.

Michael Bailey oftentimes expressed his frustration with the city’s process and request for documentation. When the city declined to release funding to his organization, he persisted in contacting other officials outside the process.

In an October 2024 email to former Mayor Levar Stoney, Michael Bailey said RPS and city staff, namely Colen and DeShazor, “slandered,” “discriminated” and “intentionally harmed” him and his business. 

In other emails to officials, he called the city’s vetting process “a nightmare” and “the most exhausting and emotionally stressful part of serving this low-income community and school.” 

The Baileys praised Robertson for her support and said she works with the organization because she cares about the families in the 6th District.

Questions about tax forms

City and RPS officials also questioned the validity of the organization’s tax forms.

Rings Vs Rent Scholarship Foundation submitted Form 990-N each year since 2015, excluding 2018, telling the IRS the nonprofit brought in less than $50,000 annually. Above that threshold, the more rigorous Form 990 is required.

Matthew Stanley, the RPS director of advocacy and outreach, asked the nonprofit in September 2024 for an accurate IRS 990 form for 2023, as well as a budget containing current and expected income sources in order to do work at the school.

Michael Bailey responded: “If you don’t mind me asking, what does the financial health of our organization have to do with an agreement to service the youth of this at-risk community, especially when we have not requested nor received any funding from RPS?”

While the money provided to the group came from the city, RPS sets the terms by which they can engage with students at the school.

Greene-Bell, who was new to the job at the time and overseeing RPS’s partnership process, stepped in and told the Baileys that the organization would not receive the agreement without the appropriate tax forms. Queen Bailey eventually offered the explanation that RPS hadn’t given the organization $50,000 in a year until 2024.

“This upcoming tax year we will not file the 990-N,” she wrote to officials, referring to tax year 2024. IRS records still show the group filed the 990-N for that cycle.

RPS ultimately allowed the group to continue working at the school.

Greene-Bell said RPS didn’t know the organization’s financial status because it doesn’t pay for its services. But she stressed the need for the accurate tax forms because the division wants to ensure that a group has enough money to run the entire school year.

“I don't want it to be a case where you come in, our children are looking for you, they enjoy spending time and are learning, and then your organization runs out of money and has to leave mid-year,” she said. “That's not student-centered, that's not protecting their children.”

The organization has submitted the new 990 form for 2024 to RPS, along with other application materials, which The Richmonder received through FOIA from the school division.

The forms stated that the group’s “students planned and executed several major school events, including Ellen Robertson Day” during the 2024-2025 school year.

Robertson was copied on a chunk of the correspondence. She told The Richmonder that she met with the group in 2022 and created budget amendments for the group to receive funding due to the work it was doing, but otherwise doesn’t know a lot about the organization and hasn’t seen its documentation. 

“In no way am I suggesting that the city do business with someone that they feel have not met whatever obligations that they need to meet,” she said. “I do encourage the city to make sure that we are working with people to get what we need from them so that we can do service with them, but I am not saying you've got to do business with these companies.”

As to why Robertson went outside the traditional funding process, she said members of the previous administration told her the organization would be included in the budget for this fiscal year, but she didn’t feel comfortable with that and she submitted the budget amendment to be sure. 

Edmonds, who worked closely with the group, said she wasn’t aware how much money the organization received until she was called into a meeting with Robertson, Saunders and DeShazor. She said Robertson was adamant about the organization receiving funds despite city officials’ reference to the organization’s failure to meet contract requirements. 

“She was going hard for them. And the documentation that was being asked for, I didn’t think was unreasonable,” she said. 

She added: “Anybody would have to answer, ‘Why are we giving them this kind of money and they don’t have proper 990s?”

After initial budget promise, city reopens funding application

Mayor Danny Avula’s initial budget did not include funding for the group, but during a work session for the approved fiscal year 2026 budget, City Council agreed to earmark $250,000 for the group at Robertson’s insistence.

When the budget was published, the $250,000 was only given to “life skills programming” at the school, not Rings Vs Rent Scholarship Foundation, or any of its other names. 

The decision came after reporting by The Richmonder on nonprofit funding in May.

“City administration plans to issue a notice of funding availability for life skills programming,” a city spokesperson said in July, adding the city was working through requirements for grantees. “This notice will include requirements similar to other Fiscal Year 2026 non-departmental grants such as demonstration of fiscal management and fulfillment of previous reporting requirements, and have other contractual obligations.”

The Baileys, however, said the city already committed money for 2025-26, and that money belongs to them.

“We’re supposed to get that,” Michael Bailey said. 

The city published the notification in August, requesting applications from organizations that could deliver life skills programming to students at MLK Middle. At least five organizations applied, including Rings Vs. Rent Scholarship Foundation, according to a source familiar with the matter. 

The $250,000 was recently awarded to the Boys & Girls Club.

An ordinance is required to proceed with the grant contract with Boys & Girls Club. One will be introduced to City Council in coming months.

Nonprofit grants by the city have come under scrutiny in the past year.

A recent report by the city auditor's office found that the city gave nearly $1.5 million to nonprofits that didn’t meet the city’s application criteria, while denying funding to nonprofits that did. Amy Popovich, current deputy chief administrative officer for human services, said the city is committed to developing an equitable and transparent process for funding local nonprofits. 

In a May 2023 email to Saunders, Robertson said grassroots organizations like Rings Vs Rent Scholarship Foundation “usually don’t understand the complexities of government grants. They are usually people moved by heartfelt lives and pain to right the historic racial wrongs done largely by the government and people of force.” 

The city official disagreed.

“That kinda goes away when you become a six-figure organization,” the official said. “An organization that … is named in the state budget and who has a council member actively advocating against staff recommendations is not a grassroots organization anymore.”

Contact Reporter Victoria A. Ifatusin at vifatusin@richmonder.org