COEUR d’ALENE — Amid a financial shortfall, Gizmo-CDA has laid off half its full-time employees and will cut back programming as the remaining staff search for ways to save the nonprofit maker space.
Executive director Erin Lanigan said Gizmo has not received enough grant funding this year to meet its $500,000 annual operating budget. Much of the nonprofit’s overhead costs go toward full-time staff.
“We have been working really hard to make up those losses financially, but the board and I have not been able to make up the funding to continue operating the way we have been at NIC for the last five years,” Lanigan said Friday.
Gizmo laid off three full-time employees this week, including two educators who worked on K-12 programming. As a result, some K-12 programming will be cut or scaled back.
Operating hours have also been…