By Brian Shane

Staff Writer

The nonprofit agency Diakonia expects a $50,000 funding boost this year for its new West Ocean City headquarters from a state program that aims to attract donors to nonprofit projects.

Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) selected Diakonia to participate in its fiscal 2025 Community Investment Tax Credit program. People and businesses who donate at least $500 to a nonprofit get a tax credit in the amount of their gift. The recipient then gets back twice that amount as an award, which must go toward a specific project.

It means Diakonia is slated for a $50,000 award if they can secure $25,000 in tax credits for this funding round. The award specifically funds Diakonia’s long-planned campus project along Route 611 south of the Decatur Diner, part of a $4.1 million project, according to executive director Ken Argot.

“It’ll be a veteran’s center with administrative offices, case management, as well as a larger thrift story. We’re currently renting space for the administrative offices and thrift store right now,” he said.

This first phase of their campus project would include affordable rental units and a living facility where they can move people from emergency shelters to temporary housing. Residents could then get adjusted to paying a monthly rent, and then onto independent living, Argot said.

A new facility would provide more room to serve shelter clients and a much larger space to accommodate food donations. They’ll save money, too, by not having to rent office space, Argot said.

More revenue could come from a larger store in the new location. Argot said about 10 percent of Diakonia’s income is raised through its thrift store.

“Our hope is with the expansion of the thrift store, we can move that to 25 percent,” he said. “The more we can get through a service industry like the thrift store, the less we have to beg for money. It’ll allow us to provide more operational money for the program that we serve.”

Founded in 1972, Diakonia now runs a shelter on Old Bridge Road in West Ocean City and has a separate thrift store and office space nearby on Route 611.

Land for the project was gifted by West Ocean City-based Blue Water Development. The real estate development and hospitality business donated $150,000 to Diakonia in 2021 to pay off the loan on the property, which they bought in 2018.  “At that point it became ours to start building, this project that we’ve been talking about forever,” Argot said. “

Diakonia also participated in the same tax credit incentive program last year, and raised $50,000 from that campaign. Argot said Diakonia still has another $400,000 in preconstruction cost to raise for this phase of the project, which they hope to complete in the next two years.

Argot, who joined Diakonia in 2022 after 15 years with the Salvation Army, also said they still need to secure additional wastewater capacity for the second phase of the project, which has no timetable yet.

For this round of awards, which has a 24-month window, the state will give $1.75 million in statewide tax credits for nonprofits involved in community and economic revitalization activities.

To date, the program has leveraged nearly $27 million in charitable contributions to approximately 700 projects in Maryland, according to DHCD.

The program helps nonprofit organizations to “build connections with the communities they serve on an everyday basis,” said DHCD Secretary Jake Day in a statement. “This tax credit encourages residents and business owners to directly invest with local nonprofit partners to improve the places where they live and work.”

Anyone who wishes to participate in the Community Investment Tax Credit program with a donation to Diakonia may contact Ken Argot at 410-213-0923 for the paperwork.