Nevada does not get its fair share of federal funding, and it's his mission to fix that.

Miles Dickson, Founder and President of Nevada Grant Lab, is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

A third generation Las Vegan, he knows just how needed Nevada's nonprofits are.

As such, he's dedicated himself to making sure they get the federal funding they deserve.

Miles Dickson, Founder and President of Nevada Grant Lab, thank you for joining Nevada Week In Person.

(Miles Dickson) Thanks for having me.

I really appreciate it, Amber.

-So let's start off with Nevada does not get its fair share of federal funding.

What does that even mean?

-Yeah.

Nevada does not get its fair share of federal funding.

What that means is that all of us as Nevadans are paying into a federal system, every other Friday for most of us, on our paycheck.

And in most communities what that means is those dollars leave our pockets and our purses, go to federal agencies, and then, in many cases, flow back to the communities we call home in the form of paying for everything from transportation infrastructure, to affordable housing, to the arts, to workforce development, and really everything in between.

But here in Nevada, that system hasn't worked the way it's supposed to for a really long time.

And so instead, what all of us are doing is federal taxpayers are effectively helping build stronger and more inclusive economies and communities all around the country.

You know, when we rank what we do in healthcare in terms of access to care, the fact that we're 55th in the nation, excluding Medicaid--so yes, it's possible to be 55th when you include territories in the district.

We're 55th in the nation, in the rate of U.S. HHS spending, Health and Human Services spending.

That doesn't make sense for people in any community, especially in a community that really lacks the access to high-quality health care that we need.

-How can that be fixed?

-Well, there's a long list.

I think for us at Nevada Grant Lab, what we try to do as a team, thanks to really generous donors, is provide capacity buildings, to training and professional development, technical assistance, and actual hands-on grant writing services.

So we support fellow nonprofits, local governments, public agencies, and we cover all sorts of issues.

We do everything from the arts to workforce development.

We'll support organizations as they build high-quality applications and get ready to submit federal grant applications and get ready to administer those dollars.

But that's only part of it.

The other big part of it is that, especially in state government, it's time to modernize and update the way we operate federal grants so we have policy issues and process issues, especially in state government, to some extent in local governments as well, that it's just time to take a really hard look at the way we do things and recognize that it's not working for Nevadans and get those processes updated.

-And get the fair amount of funding that the state deserves.

-Get money flowing to Nevada taxpayers and their communities, especially through nonprofits and local governments who are delivering direct services.

-What do you think the average person thinks of when they hear "nonprofit," and then what would you say the reality is?

-So I think a lot of people, when they think about nonprofits, they think about organizations who are helping people, right, whether it's delivering food or helping folks get back up on their feet after a crisis or delivering health care.

All of those things are true.

That is exactly what I hope people think of is amazing individuals and organizations that are helping their neighbors have the greatest opportunity they can in their lives.

I think what we also need to understand is that nonprofits operate as corporations.

So yes, we want organizations to be in a place where they can deliver great programming, and that's the thing we think about, food in someone's hand, workforce assistance.

But what I hope more and more folks recognize is that delivering the program also requires a great team.

It requires lights in a building where your staff sit.

It has a lot of costs that are associated with delivering programming that for a long time I think we've tended to overlook and really just focus on the feel good part of it.

That's always, I think, if you ask any nonprofit professional, at the core of their work is helping people.

But the reality is it takes an entire corporation to do that work well.

And so I'd love for more folks to recognize that there is a lot of work behind the scenes, and that work requires investment.

-What inspired Grant Lab?

When was that, and why did you start it?

-Grant Lab started in June 2020, so just over four years ago.

What inspired it is that I've worked in and around the nonprofit sector here for almost 15 years; and at almost every single juncture, I've seen great people and great organizations doing really important work, and so often they just don't have the resources they need to do their best work.

And the absence of federal funding is such a key part of that.

And so as the pandemic took its grip and, you know, the Strip closed and folks found themselves out of work, and here in Nevada, also without the immediate access to unemployment assistance that they needed, the importance of nonprofits was going to be, and in fact was, higher than ever.

And those federal dollars that were coming in the form of the Cares Act and ultimately the American Rescue Plan, they were the funding to address the very needs that our community and so many communities had.

The problem is we were bad at getting federal money on an ordinary day.

And so the prospect of somehow getting so much better at that while we were also figuring out how to address, as a community, longer lines for food assistance, vaccines, business closures, all the things, it just didn't seem realistic.

-And when you say "we," do you mean at the state level, we as a state, or are you talking about individual nonprofits within Nevada and their ability to get federal funding?

-It's all of the above.

So the challenges that exist at every level of every level of our community.

I think the state, as a state government, has historically really missed the mark on getting federal funds, and because the vast majority of federal money goes first to a state government and then it flows down to local governments or public agencies like a health district or a nonprofit.

When the top of the river is all dammed up, you don't see much coming downstream.

And so we lack that infrastructure at every level in the state.

-How did you get into this line of work with nonprofits?

Because originally you intended to become an attorney.

I mean, you have your law degree-- -Yeah.

- --from UNLV.

-Yeah.

I'm a really proud Boyd Law alumni.

I graduated in 2011.

I got into nonprofits I think like many people do, which is a little unexpectedly.

I went searching for a job in my 1L, my first year of law school.

After my first year, went, searched for a job.

I was trying to get a job at MGM, actually, and a friend of a friend knew a senior executive there named Punam Mathur.

And I got an introduction to Punam, and I went and sat with her at a Starbucks on Paradise Road and introduced myself and told her I had been working for seven years and I love the hospitality business, because that's kind of the space I was in, and I wanted to work at MGM.

And she said that was great and that she also thought there was another job I should look at, which was at a food bank that was just starting, which was Three Square.

So in 2009, rather than going and working in, you know, a corporate law environment like I thought I would and like I wanted to, I found myself as an intern at Three Square.

And that was 15 years ago, and I've never left the space.

-That experience, I mean that was in the infancy of Three Square.

-Yeah.

-To see what it's become, how do you think that all impacted you?

-It's, I think, so significant, whether it's Three Square or I think about the Smith Center.

You know, this city and this community, when it wants to set its mind to something, it can do really extraordinary things.

And so seeing Three Square grow from that really small place and a small team but a really, really big vision and ambition to close the hunger gap into what it's become today, I think is an example to, you know, what is possible here in the region, and I think especially what is possible with really, really hard work and pretty extraordinary support from donors, public elected officials, government leaders, et cetera.

When this community rallies, it can accomplish some pretty extraordinary things.

-We talked a little bit about this off camera, but what did your peers and your family members think when you said, "I'm not gonna be an attorney.

I'm gonna go into the nonprofit sector"?

-Yeah.

So, you know, most people go to law school wanting to be an attorney.

I was the same.

I always envisioned that.

I come from a, you know, grew up in a working-class family here.

And you know, when you, just like a lot of kids who think they want to have money and do well, you become an attorney or a doctor or something, right?

And so I went to law school fully expecting to become an attorney, and I think through the process, realized that may not be the right career for me.

I was fortunate to work for years before going to law school, so I had a sense of what was important to me, the experiences I liked.

And, yeah, when I finished law school, I was working for a large law firm as an extern up in Carson City and came back to Las Vegas, walked across the stage for graduation, withdrew from the bar, and decided to do something pretty different with my life.

-What did people say about that?

-Yeah.

I think people were pretty skeptical.

I have to say, I think I was skeptical.

I had plenty of nights thinking, what did you do, especially with student loans.

And going into the nonprofit sector is not exactly a highly compensated role often.

And so, yeah, I think people probably thought I was a little nuts.

And I thought the same some days, but you know, sometimes you just have to know yourself.

-Are you still nuts, you think?

-Yeah.

I think that there are-- I think when you want to make change, I think it takes some level of just being comfortable being uncomfortable.

And I think that I've spent 15 years talking to people about federal funding in the state, and so many folks-- and I can think about mentors along the way that I've been fortunate to have.

I think often in this state, or at least experiences I've had, someone will observe a problem and then say, someone should do something about that.

Someone should do something about that problem.

And I think about a really dear friend and mentor, Tina Quigley, who I remember sitting in a meeting with her years ago at the RTC, and she said, Someone should do something.

You should be that somebody.

Go do something.

And not, not about Grant Lab, but just generally, if you're not going to do it, who's going to do it?

And so, yeah, I still feel a little crazy some days, but it's really fun.

-Tina Quigley is a favorite guest of ours here on Nevada Week.

-She's great.

-So third generation Las Vegan.

Tell me about your original family members here in Las Vegas.

-Yeah.

My grandparents moved here in the late '30s and early '40s, and I think in the case of my grandmother, she came looking for a better life.

She was an orphan in the Great Depression and spent most of her childhood bouncing around orphanages and sometimes her own parents' home.

And when she was 18, she moved here to be with a great aunt.

Her and her older sister moved to Las Vegas, I think it was 1942, and came, I think like so many other people in Las Vegas, looking for some sort of opportunity.

And she ended up staying, had three kids, married my granddad in the mid '40s, had three kids, including my mom.

And my parents met here at Las Vegas High, and they had three boys.

Now I'm the only one who still lives here, but Vegas is home.

-What kind of influence did your grandma have on you?

Do you remember her stories?

-Yeah.

I think that my grandmother had this huge influence, especially for me.

I mean, as a kid, always just having a place to go that I felt, you know, it's like grandma's house, nothing better, right?

But also, I think as a person who now works in this space, I think about my grandmother and I think about so many other people who could use a hand and sometimes don't want to ask for it.

And so I think my grandmother probably had some really challenging experiences as a kid.

And I think about so many kids and adults and-- you know, folks have challenges.

And I think if we can build nonprofits and a community and neighborhoods and all those things that try to make it a little easier for people, people do better when they feel supported and feel part of something.

So I think that it matters.

And I think about my own parents.

You know, my mother was born here, and she loved Las Vegas.

Like, I grew up driving around town, hearing about how she learned to drive on Sunset Road when there was just desert.

And so I think the combination of my grandmother's story, my mom's love for Las Vegas, and my dad's a kind of person who I think always saw as important to help people and taught all of us kids that.

So I think between the collection of them, it has a lot of impact on what I do.

-It resulted in the Miles Dixon we see before us.

Thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-Thanks so much for having me.

-And to see more episodes like this, go to vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

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