An Imbalance of Need and Aid

In Langley Park, an immigrant community hub that straddles the Montgomery-Prince George's border, children from Montgomery have access to CentroNia, a new nonprofit bilingual early learning center for disadvantaged Latinos. Those from Prince George's are relegated to a waiting list.

All of CentroNia's government grants come from Montgomery. "We're only allowed to use Montgomery County dollars for Montgomery children," CentroNia President Beatriz Otero said.

Prince George's and other counties, she said, need more agencies to serve new populations. "You have a larger number of low-income families, a larger number of immigrants and greater diversity of income," she said.

A few miles away in Silver Spring, Mary's Center, a nonprofit clinic for pregnant women and infants, has been treating an influx of uninsured patients. Although all of the government grants in its $1 million budget come from Montgomery, more than a third of its 850 patients come from the neighboring county.

The situation occurs in Northern Virginia, too: Policies in Prince William seem to be pushing more Latinos toward Fairfax County agencies, leaders say. At Fairfax Area Christian Emergency and Transitional Services and other agencies last winter, staff members noticed an increase in Latino residents in their homeless shelters.

Generally, though, Northern Virginia's agencies are better aligned with the needs of the local population, and there is not the stark imbalance between need and resources seen in Prince George's, the study shows. The District has long had a strong nonprofit sector, bolstered by regional and national agencies, to match the city's needs.

In Prince George's, officials said the assessment of its nonprofit sector understates the county's contribution. Jim Keary, a spokesman for County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D), also questioned the objectivity of Iliff, who is also an elected member of the county Board of Education.

"You have a consultant to a nonprofit group saying there needs to be more funding for nonprofits," Keary said. "Of course they think there needs to be more funding."

But some of the county's elected officials are engaged in discussions on how to grow local charities. "The needs are really tremendous, and despite the best efforts of an awful lot of good organizations and people, we haven't been able to keep up with the needs," said Rep. Donna F. Edwards (D), who has run several nonprofit organizations.

For small, secular nonprofit groups in Prince George's, competing against large churches for charitable dollars has been difficult if not impossible. Many families that tithe a portion of their income to their churches might not be able to afford additional contributions, nonprofit leaders said. The county has more than 700 churches, 12 of them large enough to be considered mega-churches.

Community Ministry straddles these worlds. Created by churches in the 1970s to coordinate food and housing for the needy, it serves 19,000 lunches a year out of the county's largest kitchen. Still, it has encountered many of the same fundraising difficulties as secular groups.

Volunteer board President Jimmie L. Slade, a retired Army colonel, compared the situation to the competition among branches of the military, saying, "There's enough bad guys for all of us, the need is so great.