Maine nonprofits try to navigate funding cuts, unclear rules and an uncertain future

Yahoo

29-04-2025

Apr. 29—The staff at Victoria Mansion in Portland found out about the loss of federal funding in degrees.
First came the news that President Donald Trump had signed an executive order declaring the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the primary federal support for libraries and museums nationwide, was "unnecessary." Then the entire staff of the federal agency was placed on a 90-day leave.
Finally, Timothy Brosnihan, executive director of the mansion, got a short email last week saying the organization's grant from the IMLS "is no longer consistent with the agency's priorities and no longer serves the interest of the United States and the IMLS Program."
That loss leaves a $90,000 hole in the budget for an ongoing restoration project at the 19th-century mansion.
"To have a wrinkle like this in the final homestretch is a challenge," Brosnihan said. "Nothing like this has ever happened in our experience here."
Nonprofit community organizations and research facilities across the state have seen federal grants canceled over the past two months and are now facing a bigger challenge: how to come up with a large chunk of money that had previously seemed guaranteed. And even as they scramble to figure out how to cover funding gaps, they're also navigating an uncertain future and how to apply for new funding in the face of a slew of executive orders that target diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and other topics.
The cancellation of federal grants has come fast and furious for Maine nonprofits, the vast majority of which are small organizations without deep pockets to cover the losses. The cuts have hit a wide swath of organizations statewide with varying missions ranging from support for the arts to historic preservation, scientific research and programs to end hunger.
"It's happening in an arbitrary, capricious and likely unlawful way," said Jennifer Hutchins, executive director of the Maine Association of Nonprofits, a nonpartisan, privately funded organization with a network of more than 1,000 nonprofits across the state. "The scale, the scope, the speed is unsurpassed and extraordinary."
The National Council of Nonprofits is advising organizations to conduct a risk assessment for federal funding, look at all of their funding sources and to plan ahead as much as possible. It also recommends nonprofits try to understand the circumstances under which their grants or contracts were canceled and review executive orders that focus on issues covered by the organization, including DEI initiatives, immigration and environmental policies.
But figuring out why grants were canceled and understanding what the new rules for future grants — if they're even awarded — isn't easy. Nonprofits are resilient and used to changes with new administrations, but they typically have more information about how and why things are changing, Hutchins said.
"A changing environment is not new to nonprofits," she said. "What's happening now is that no one is explaining what the rules are and how they've been changed. It's happening at a fast speed and without any clarity."
A SCRAMBLE FOR FUNDING
Victoria Mansion is in a constant state of restoration, requiring careful financial planning and coordination with the experts and artisans who do the work. Most of the money for the projects comes from private foundations and donors, but it has also received federal grants.
The recently canceled grant was from the Museums for American program and required the nonprofit to raise a match of $148,043. The grant was expected to cover half the cost of a paint conservation project in the Grand Stair Hall of the Danforth Street mansion.
With federal grants like these, recipients pay for the work first and are then reimbursed. The Victoria Mansion expected it would be reimbursed for another $90,000, which has been canceled. Now, it must now figure out how to cover that gap from private donors, Brosnihan said.
"It has definitely left us scrambling to figure out how we take this project to the finish line. It's not easy to simply shutter the project," he said. "Once you start some of these things, you have to see them through completion. It's left us determined to forge ahead."
The Children's Museum and Theatre of Maine and Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village also had federal grants canceled this month.
The Trump administration terminated a grant to Children's Museum for programs about Wabanaki culture and history. The Portland nonprofit had already received $40,000 of its $224,143 Museums for America grant, but a reimbursement request for $15,000 submitted earlier this year hadn't been fulfilled before the grant was canceled.
Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester was told that $187,000 of a $750,000 multiyear grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities had been canceled — just weeks after it lost $1.2 million from a separate federal grant. The village, home to the last two Shakers in the world, is in the middle of a $4.4 million project to restore a historic herb house to be used as a history and cultural center.
The Shaker Village, which had already raised matching funds, now has to turn to private donors to try to complete the project, likely competing with other organizations in the same boat. In turn, private funders may be reprioritizing how they give their money and to which organizations.
"It's going to be very difficult because this situation that's happening right now is forcing all types of nonprofit organizations and other agencies to scramble to find alternative sources of funding to keep their doors open," Shaker Village Director Michael Graham said.
UNCERTAIN FUTURE
Through These Doors, Cumberland County's domestic violence resource center, receives about half of its annual $2.5 million to $3 million budget from the federal government, including direct grants from the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women for work with domestic violence survivors, shelter and transitional housing for people fleeing violence, and safety planning.
When Trump issued a sweeping freeze on federal funding this year, Through These Doors Executive Director Rebecca Hobbs started worrying. While the freeze was rescinded, Hobbs lost confidence in the system.
Worried about the availability of money from the grants, Through These Doors has started submitting for reimbursements more frequently. Hobbs is also concerned about future grants, noting that application forms have disappeared from government websites.
"It is not unreasonably dramatic for me to say that lives will be lost if our funding is significantly cut," she said.
At the Shaw Institute in Blue Hill, executive director and senior research scientist Charles Rolsky is unsure about the money he expects to receive through a $150,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to study the impact of PFAS on seals over a 30-year period. The funding was frozen and then unfrozen, but Rolsky doesn't fully trust that it will be available.
"If something happens once, it can happen again," he said.
'I'M NOT GOING TO STOP'
Some nonprofits are now considering how they need to change their mission statements, grant applications or tax forms to comply with Trump's executive orders regarding DEI initiatives.
Hutchins, from the Maine Association of Nonprofits, said most nonprofits in Maine are community organizations that are apolitical and are just "neighbors coming to neighbors and deciding they want to make their community a better place." But she already sees a chilling effect.
"Nonprofits are saying they don't want to lift their heads up and say too much because it might shine a spotlight on them," she said.
The National Council of Nonprofits had advised organizations to review their mission statements, social media accounts and IRS 990 forms for potential conflicts with executive orders, including those that restrict grants and contracts for groups with DEI initiatives and LGBTQ+ issues.
"As you make changes to reduce risk, make sure you are communicating with key stakeholders to explain what changes you are making and what work is still continuing that aligns with your mission," the council advised.
For Hobbs, the limitations on all nonprofits is troubling, especially for domestic violence centers that operate without gender or income requirements for the people they help.
"It's important we be able to serve anyone affected by abuse and not distinguish between groups," she said. "We're very concerned about certain groups being identified and us being told we can't serve them."
Rolsky has decided he's not going to stop talking about climate change and DEI, even if that makes it more difficult to secure federal grants.
"At first, I was scared because we do speak about DEI initiatives. There's a better chance (applications) get rejected now, but I'm not going to stop," he said. "They're all things we've benefited from as people, and I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I stopped."
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