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Al Arabiya
4 hours ago
- Business
- Al Arabiya
Takeaways from AP's report about cuts to government grants for nonprofits
President Donald Trump's policies are poised to upend decades of partnerships the federal government has built with nonprofits to help people in their communities. Since the 1960s, presidential administrations from both parties have used taxpayer dollars to fund nonprofits to take on social problems and deliver services. A vast and interconnected set of federal grants fund public safety programs, early childhood education, food assistance, and refugee resettlement services in every state. In January, the Trump administration sought to freeze federal grants and loans. Nonprofit groups immediately challenged the move and won a court-ordered pause. But in the six months since, the administration has cut, frozen, or discontinued many federal grant programs across agencies. An analysis by the Urban Institute provides a sense of the scale and reach of government support for nonprofits. Published in February, the data comes from the tax forms nonprofits file where they report any government grants they receive. In response to questions about the cuts to grant funding, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said, 'Instead of government largesse that's often riddled with corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse, the Trump administration is focused on unleashing America's economic resurgence to fuel Americans' individual generosity.' How much support does the government give to nonprofits? The Urban Institute found $267 billion was granted to nonprofits from all levels of government – federal, state, and local – in 2021, the most recent year a comprehensive set of nonprofit tax forms are available. That figure underestimates the total funding nonprofits receive from the government. It includes grants but not contracts for services nor reimbursements from programs like Medicare. It also excludes the smallest nonprofits which file a different abbreviated tax form. The data includes all tax-exempt organizations that file a full tax return, from local food pantries to universities and nonprofit hospitals. But government funding does not just go to the largest organizations. A majority of nonprofits in the dataset, across every sector from the arts to the environment to human services, report receiving government grants. In most places, the typical nonprofit would run a deficit without government funding. The Urban Institute cautions that just because a nonprofit would run a budget deficit without government funding, it does not necessarily mean the nonprofit will close. Even in wealthy areas, nonprofits would struggle without government support. In only two Congressional districts – one that includes parts of Orange County, California, and one in the suburbs west of Atlanta – would typical nonprofits not be in the red if they lost all of their public grant funding, the analysis found. However, funders in Orange County warn that nonprofits are not as optimistic about their resiliency. Taryn Palumbo, executive director of Orange County Grantmakers, said local nonprofits are seeing their budgets getting slashed by 50 percent or 40 percent. Last year, a large local foundation, Samueli Foundation, commissioned a study of nonprofit needs because they were significantly increasing their grantmaking from $18.8 million in 2022 to an estimated $125 million in 2025. They found local nonprofits reported problems maintaining staff, a deep lack of investment in their operations, and a dearth of flexible reserve funds. The foundation responded by opening applications for unrestricted grants and to support investments in buildings or land. Against this $10 million in potential awards, they received 1,242 applications for more than $250 million, said Lindsey Spindle, the foundation's president. 'It tells a really stark picture of how unbelievably deep and broad the need is,' Spindle said. 'There is not a single part of the nonprofit sector that has not responded to these funds. Every topic you can think of: poverty, animal welfare, arts and culture, civil rights, domestic abuse.' Private donations can't replace government support. The nonprofit Friendship Shelter helps house and support 330 people in Laguna Beach, California, which falls within Orange County. Dawn Price, its executive director, said the organization has an annual budget of about $15 million, $11.5 million of which comes from government sources. Price said the government funding is braided in complex ways to support different programs and fill in gaps. Private donors already subsidize their government grants, which she said pay for 69 percent of the actual program costs. 'We are providing this service to our government at a loss, at a business loss, and then making up that loss with these Medicaid dollars and also the private fundraising,' she said. Even in a wealthy place like Orange County, Price said she does not believe private donors are prepared to give five, six, or eight times as much as they do currently if new cuts to government grants occur or programs are not renewed.
The Independent
5 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
Takeaways from AP's report about cuts to government grants for nonprofits
President Donald Trump 's policies are poised to upend decades of partnerships the federal government has built with nonprofits to help people in their communities. Since the 1960s, presidential administrations from both parties have used taxpayer dollars to fund nonprofits to take on social problems and deliver services. A vast and interconnected set of federal grants fund public safety programs, early childhood education, food assistance and refugee resettlement services in every state. In January, the Trump administration sought to freeze federal grants and loans. Nonprofit groups immediately challenged the move and won a court-ordered pause. But in the six months since, the administration has cut, frozen or discontinued many federal grant programs across agencies. An analysis by the Urban Institute provides a sense of the scale and reach of government support for nonprofits. Published in February, the data comes from the tax forms nonprofits file where they report any government grants they receive. In response to questions about the cuts to grant funding, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said, "Instead of government largesse that's often riddled with corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse, the Trump administration is focused on unleashing America's economic resurgence to fuel American s' individual generosity.' How much support does the government give to nonprofits? The Urban Institute found $267 billion was granted to nonprofits from all levels of government — federal, state and local — in 2021, the most recent year a comprehensive set of nonprofit tax forms are available. That figure underestimates the total funding nonprofits receive from the government. It includes grants, but not contracts for services nor reimbursements from programs like Medicare. It also excludes the smallest nonprofits, which file a different, abbreviated tax form. The data includes all tax-exempt organizations that file a full tax return from local food pantries to universities and nonprofit hospitals. But government funding does not just go to the largest organizations. A majority of nonprofits in the dataset across every sector, from the arts to the environment to human services, report receiving government grants. In most places, the typical nonprofit would run a deficit without government funding. The Urban Institute cautions that just because a nonprofit would run a budget deficit without government funding, it does not necessarily mean the nonprofit will close. Even in wealthy areas, nonprofits would struggle without government support In only two Congressional districts — one that includes parts of Orange County, California, and one in the suburbs west of Atlanta — would typical nonprofits not be in the red if they lost all of their public grant funding, the analysis found. However, funders in Orange County warn that nonprofits are not as optimistic about their resiliency. Taryn Palumbo, executive director of Orange County Grantmakers, said local nonprofits "are seeing their budgets getting slashed by 50% or 40%.' Last year, a large local foundation, Samueli Foundation, commissioned a study of nonprofit needs because they were significantly increasing their grantmaking from $18.8 million in 2022 to an estimated $125 million in 2025. They found local nonprofits reported problems maintaining staff, a deep lack of investment in their operations and a dearth of flexible reserve funds. The foundation responded by opening applications for unrestricted grants and to support investments in buildings or land. Against this $10 million in potential awards, they received 1,242 applications for more than $250 million, said Lindsey Spindle, the foundation's president. 'It tells a really stark picture of how unbelievably deep and broad the need is,' Spindle said. 'There is not a single part of the nonprofit sector that has not responded to these funds. Every topic you can think of: poverty, animal welfare, arts and culture, civil rights, domestic abuse.' Private donations can't replace government support The nonprofit Friendship Shelter helps house and support 330 people in Laguna Beach, California, which falls within Orange County. Dawn Price, its executive director, said the organization has an annual budget of about $15 million, $11.5 million of which comes from government sources. Price said the government funding is 'braided' in complex ways to support different programs and fill in gaps. Private donors already subsidize their government grants, which she said pay for 69% of the actual program costs. 'We are providing this service to our government at a loss, at a business loss, and then making up that loss with these Medicaid dollars and also the private fundraising,' she said. Even in a wealthy place like Orange County, Price said she does not believe private donors are prepared to give five, six or eight times as much as they do currently if new cuts to government grants occur or programs are not renewed. ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit
Boston Globe
5 hours ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
The government was once a steady partner for nonprofits. That's changing.
'Government moves slowly usually, and I think what was so disorienting early on was government was moving really fast,' she said. Advertisement In the early days of his second term, President Trump froze, cut or threatened to cut a huge range of social services programs from public safety to early childhood education to food assistance and services for refugee resettlement. Staffing cuts to federal agencies have also contributed to delays and uncertainty around future grant funds. Altogether, his policies are poised to upend decades of partnerships the federal government has built with nonprofits to help people in their communities. This vast and interconnected set of programs funded by taxpayers has been significantly dismantled in just months, nonprofit leaders, researchers and funders say. And even deeper, permanent cuts are still possible. That uncertainty is also taking a toll on their staff and communities, the leaders said. In response to questions about the cuts to grant funding, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said, 'Instead of government largesse that's often riddled with corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse, the Trump administration is focused on unleashing America's economic resurgence to fuel Americans' individual generosity.' Advertisement He pointed to a new deduction for charitable giving included in the recently passed tax and spending law that he said encourages Americans' 'innate altruism.' But experts say private donations will not be enough to meet the needs. In 2021, $267 billion was granted to nonprofits from all levels of government, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute published in February. While the data includes tax-exempt organizations like local food pantries as well as universities and nonprofit hospitals, it underestimates the total funding that nonprofits receive from the government. It includes grants, but not contracts for services nor reimbursements from programs like Medicare. It also excludes the smallest nonprofits, which file a different, abbreviated tax form. However, the figure does give a sense of the scale of the historic — and, until now, solid — relationship between the public sector and nonprofits over the last 50 years. Now, this system is at risk and leaders like Price say the cost of undoing it will be 'catastrophic.' Government funding to nonprofits reaches far and wide The Urban Institute's analysis shows more than half of nonprofits in every state received government grants in 2021. In the vast majority of the country, the typical nonprofit would run a deficit without government funding. Only in two Congressional districts — one including parts of Orange County, California, and another in the suburbs west of Atlanta — would a typical nonprofit not be in the red if they lost all of their public grant funding, the analysis found. Advertisement But in Orange County, famous for its stunning beaches, mansions and extraordinary wealth, funders, nonprofits and researchers said that finding surprised them. In part, that's because of major economic inequalities in the county and its high cost of living. Taryn Palumbo, executive director of Orange County Grantmakers, said nonprofits are not as optimistic about their resiliency. 'They are seeing their budgets getting slashed by 50% or 40%,' she said. 'Or they're having to look to restructure programs that they are running or how they're serving or the number of people that they're serving.' Last year, the local Samueli Foundation commissioned a study of nonprofit needs in part because they were significantly increasing their grantmaking from $18.8 million in 2022 to an estimated $125 million in 2025. They found local nonprofits reported problems maintaining staff, a deep lack of investment in their operations and a dearth of flexible reserve funds. The foundation responded by opening applications for both unrestricted grants and to support investments in buildings or land. Against this $10 million in potential awards, they received 1,242 applications for more than $250 million, said Lindsey Spindle, the foundation's president. 'It tells a really stark picture of how unbelievably deep and broad the need is,' Spindle said. 'There is not a single part of the nonprofit sector that has not responded to these funds. Every topic you can think of: poverty, animal welfare, arts and culture, civil rights, domestic abuse... They're telling us loud and clear that they are struggling to stay alive.' Charitable organizations have held a special role in the US One of the founding stories of the United States is the importance of the voluntary sector, of neighbors helping neighbors and of individuals solving social problems. While other liberal democracies built strong welfare states, the U.S. has preferred to look to the charitable sector to provide a substantial part of social services. Advertisement Since the 1960s, the federal government has largely funded those social services by giving money to nonprofits, universities, hospitals and companies. Several new policies converged at that time to create this system, including the expansion of the federal income tax during World War II and the codification of tax-exempt charitable organizations in 1954. Then, the Kennedy and Johnson administrations started to fund nonprofits directly with federal money as part of urban renewal and Great Society programs. 'It was a key approach of midcentury liberalism of addressing issues of poverty, sort of making a reference to civil rights and racial inequality, but not growing the size of government,' said Claire Dunning, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. Conservatives also tended to support working through local, private, nonprofit organizations, though for different reasons than liberals, she said. With various expansions and cuts during different presidencies, the federal government has continued to fund nonprofits at significant levels, essentially hiding the government in plain sight, Dunning said. The size and importance of the nonprofit apparatus became suddenly visible in January when the Trump administration sought to freeze federal grants and loans. Dunning said the speed, hostility and scale of the proposed cuts broke with the long legacy of bipartisan support for nonprofits. 'People had no idea that the public health information or services they are receiving, their Meals on Wheels program, their afterschool tutoring program, the local park cleanup were actually enabled by public government dollars,' she said. Advertisement A coalition of nonprofits challenged the freeze in court in a case that is ongoing, but in the six months since, the administration has cut, paused or discontinued a vast array of programs and grants. The impacts of some of those policy changes have been felt immediately, but many will not hit the ground until current grant funding runs out, which could be in months or years depending on the programs. Private donations can't replace scale of government support Friendship Shelter in Laguna Beach has an annual budget of about $15 million, $11.5 million of which comes from government sources. Price said the government funding is 'braided' in complex ways to house and support 330 people. They've already lost a rental reimbursement grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. But the Samueli Foundation stepped in to backfill those lost funds for three years. That kind of support is extremely unusual, she said. 'We don't know of any large-scale private philanthropy response to keeping people housed because it's a forever commitment,' Price said. 'That person is in housing and is going to need the subsidy for the rest of their lives. These are seriously disabled people with multiple issues that they're facing that they need help with.' She also believes that even in a wealthy place like Orange County, private donors are not prepared to give five, six or eight times as much as they do currently. Donors already subsidize their government grants, which she said pay for 69% of the actual program costs. 'We are providing this service to our government at a loss, at a business loss, and then making up that loss with these Medicaid dollars and also the private fundraising,' she said. Advertisement She said her organization has discussed having to put people out of housing back on to the streets if the government funding is cut further. 'That would be, I think, a signal to me that something is deeply, deeply wrong with how we're looking at these issues,' said Price, adding, 'If I was placing a bet, I would bet that we have enough good still in government to prevent that.'
The Independent
5 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
In the nation's poorest Congressional district, federal funding cuts create perfect storm
On a sweltering summer day, children leap between rocks along the Bronx River while cyclists pedal on newly paved paths. Kayaks rest on what was once an industrial dumping ground, now transformed into a bustling promenade along the city's only freshwater river. The Bronx River Greenway, a series of stitched-together waterfront parks built atop once largely abandoned and polluted wasteland, is a hard-fought victory for the country's poorest congressional district — one that locals call a 'beacon of environmental justice' built by federal dollars and water-pollution settlements from the borough's wealthier neighbors. Now, like thousands of nonprofits around the country, this organization's future is in jeopardy. The Trump administration's sweeping federal grant cuts have left nonprofits nationwide and the communities they serve in precarious straits. But few places face as stark a reckoning as the Bronx, where federal funding has proved indispensable for revitalizing green spaces, protecting survivors of domestic violence, and preventing youth violence. Over 84% of the 342 nonprofits based in the Bronx rely on federal grants now at risk, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute. It's a significant increase from the 70% of groups vulnerable to government defunding statewide. In all but two of the country's 437 congressional districts, the typical nonprofit could not cover its expenses without government grants. Nonprofits have increasingly served as contractors for government services — like operating homeless shelters — since the 1960s. In the Bronx, if such grants were to disappear entirely, the borough's nonprofits could face a collective deficit of nearly 30% — cuts that have begun to force layoffs and austerity on dozens of groups connecting Bronxites to low-cost health care, food assistance, and preschool slots. 'When America sneezes, the Bronx gets the flu,' said U.S. Rep. Ritchie Torres, the Democrat who represents the district. 'I think we in the Bronx feel we have been and will continue to be the hardest hit by the impact of a Trump presidency.' From revival to reversal Nestled in a corner of parkland atop the site of an abandoned amusement park, the headquarters of the Bronx River Alliance is among the borough's greenest buildings, boasting nature classrooms, samples of the river's flora and fauna, and a storage space teeming with kayaks and canoes. In March, the group received formal notice that it would lose $1.5 million in federal grants promised under the Inflation Reduction Act last year for improving water quality and climate-resilience projects. After years of rising momentum, cubicles now sit empty. Leaders held off on hiring in anticipation of cuts, and now they don't know if they'll be able to fill those roles. 'I've met some of the folks who were pulling cars out of the river in the '70s and '80s,' said Daniel Ranells, the group's deputy director of programs. Back then, the area was a 'dumping ground' so inundated with industrial waste, tires, abandoned cars, ovens, and microwaves that 'folks didn't really understand there was a river there.' That has shifted dramatically in recent years thanks in part to decades of federal investment. Just south of its headquarters, the organization restored salt marshes along the riverbanks of a shuttered concrete plant. In 2007, the first beaver appeared on the Bronx River in over 200 years — named 'José the Beaver' in honor of former Congressman José E. Serrano, who helped direct millions in federal funds to groups dedicated to the river's restoration. 'The Bronx River is a shining light of environmental justice,' Ranells said, and millions in federal funding over the years has helped 'make it a destination' after years of neglect. Progress frozen Now staffers at the Bronx River Alliance describe a sense of 'whiplash' in seeing hard-fought funds dry up and grant language scrubbed of any allusions to racial or environmental justice. The Bronx River Alliance has joined other nonprofits in suing the Trump administration to unfreeze funds, but the uncertainty has already disrupted years of planning, a reality that has rippled across the neighborhood, leaving few organizations untouched. Up the street from the Alliance, the office of the Osborne Association, a group that has worked to prevent youth violence for nearly a century, has grown quieter. In April, an email from the Bureau of Justice Assistance stated the remaining $666,000 of a $2 million grant 'no longer effectuates department priorities.' The cut thrust the nonprofit into 'triage mode,' said Osborne president Jonathan Monsalve, who was forced to lay off three staffers and reduce the number of participants in a diversion program offering young adults facing gun charges an alternative to jail time. 'It's a lifeline for young people, and it's no longer there for 25 more of them,' Monsalve said. 'Without another alternative, it's 25 young people that will see prison or jail time, and that's incredibly frustrating.' Why the Bronx bears the brunt The Department of Justice has canceled over $810 million in similar grants to nonprofits working in violence prevention. The Environmental Protection Agency attempted to cancel $2 billion in grants for environmental justice work. Nonprofit leaders say the cuts hit hardest in the places that can afford them the least. In the Bronx, almost 30 percent of residents live in poverty, the vast majority of whom are Black or Latino, and nearly one in six schoolchildren experience homelessness every year. 'We've had decades of disinvestment in these communities, and we had been starting to see some meaningful investment and community-based solutions that were actually working,' said Monsalve. 'And then all of a sudden that support just gets yanked away.' The federal government, he said, is essentially telling these communities: 'You aren't a priority anymore. You don't fit the plan.' For decades, a million-dollar federal grant allowed the victim-service organization Safe Horizon to operate a program that stationed domestic violence advocates in the borough's criminal court. When the grant came up for renewal this year, it came with new restrictions that CEO Liz Roberts described as 'so extreme, so broad, so radical' that the organization chose to walk away rather than accept conditions which would have prohibited supporting transgender survivors or treating domestic violence as a systemic issue. It was an agonizing decision given the volume of domestic violence in the Bronx, Roberts said. It means that hundreds of survivors 'may not have the opportunity to talk to an advocate about their options, about their rights, or about their safety,' she said. Filling the void Roberts said she's bracing for more cuts — federal funds make up about 24% of the group's budget — that could force the closure of shelters or reductions to a citywide hotline. As nonprofits nationwide grapple with similar losses, Roberts said private philanthropy and local governments will need to 'make some smart and thoughtful and principled decisions about where they can help to fill those gaps.' In places like the Bronx, finding alternative funding is especially challenging. 'The not-for-profit sector is often fragile, and nowhere more so than the Bronx,' Torres said of the district he represents, where organizations tend to be more dependent on government funding than wealthier enclaves. 'Organizations spent hundreds of thousands of dollars simply to apply for a contract and hired staff and made all these plans only to see the written contract disappear,' Torres said. 'It's deeply destabilizing.' _____ Sara Herschander is a senior reporter at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where you can read the full article. This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as part of a partnership to cover philanthropy and nonprofits supported by the Lilly Endowment. The Chronicle is solely responsible for the content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The government was once a steady partner for nonprofits. That's changing
Dawn Price signs rent checks worth about $160,000 every month for 79 people that her nonprofit helps house in Laguna Beach, California. Usually, she logs into an online portal to withdraw enough from an account funded by a grant from the federal housing agency. But in February, she couldn't. Access had been temporarily cut off for many housing organizations as part of the Trump administration's cuts and funding freezes. 'That was just a sea change for us for those dollars to be so immediately at risk,' said Price, the executive director of Friendship Shelter, which started in 1987 as a community organization. Access was eventually restored but the episode took a toll. 'Government moves slowly usually, and I think what was so disorienting early on was government was moving really fast,' she said. In the early days of his second term, President Donald Trump froze, cut or threatened to cut a huge range of social services programs from public safety to early childhood education to food assistance and services for refugee resettlement. Staffing cuts to federal agencies have also contributed to delays and uncertainty around future grant funds. Altogether, his policies are poised to upend decades of partnerships the federal government has built with nonprofits to help people in their communities. This vast and interconnected set of programs funded by taxpayers has been significantly dismantled in just months, nonprofit leaders, researchers and funders say. And even deeper, permanent cuts are still possible. That uncertainty is also taking a toll on their staff and communities, the leaders said. In response to questions about the cuts to grant funding, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said, 'Instead of government largesse that's often riddled with corruption, waste, fraud, and abuse, the Trump administration is focused on unleashing America's economic resurgence to fuel Americans' individual generosity.' He pointed to a new deduction for charitable giving included in the recently passed tax and spending law that he said encourages Americans' 'innate altruism.' But experts say private donations will not be enough to meet the needs. In 2021, $267 billion was granted to nonprofits from all levels of government, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute published in February. While the data includes tax-exempt organizations like local food pantries as well as universities and nonprofit hospitals, it underestimates the total funding that nonprofits receive from the government. It includes grants, but not contracts for services nor reimbursements from programs like Medicare. It also excludes the smallest nonprofits, which file a different, abbreviated tax form. However, the figure does give a sense of the scale of the historic — and, until now, solid — relationship between the public sector and nonprofits over the last 50 years. Now, this system is at risk and leaders like Price say the cost of undoing it will be 'catastrophic.' Government funding to nonprofits reaches far and wide The Urban Institute's analysis shows more than half of nonprofits in every state received government grants in 2021. In the vast majority of the country, the typical nonprofit would run a deficit without government funding. Only in two Congressional districts — one including parts of Orange County, California, and another in the suburbs west of Atlanta — would a typical nonprofit not be in the red if they lost all of their public grant funding, the analysis found. But in Orange County, famous for its stunning beaches, mansions and extraordinary wealth, funders, nonprofits and researchers said that finding surprised them. In part, that's because of major economic inequalities in the county and its high cost of living. Taryn Palumbo, executive director of Orange County Grantmakers, said nonprofits are not as optimistic about their resiliency. 'They are seeing their budgets getting slashed by 50% or 40%,' she said. 'Or they're having to look to restructure programs that they are running or how they're serving or the number of people that they're serving.' Last year, the local Samueli Foundation commissioned a study of nonprofit needs in part because they were significantly increasing their grantmaking from $18.8 million in 2022 to an estimated $125 million in 2025. They found local nonprofits reported problems maintaining staff, a deep lack of investment in their operations and a dearth of flexible reserve funds. The foundation responded by opening applications for both unrestricted grants and to support investments in buildings or land. Against this $10 million in potential awards, they received 1,242 applications for more than $250 million, said Lindsey Spindle, the foundation's president. 'It tells a really stark picture of how unbelievably deep and broad the need is,' Spindle said. 'There is not a single part of the nonprofit sector that has not responded to these funds. Every topic you can think of: poverty, animal welfare, arts and culture, civil rights, domestic abuse... They're telling us loud and clear that they are struggling to stay alive.' Charitable organizations have held a special role in the U.S. One of the founding stories of the United States is the importance of the voluntary sector, of neighbors helping neighbors and of individuals solving social problems. While other liberal democracies built strong welfare states, the U.S. has preferred to look to the charitable sector to provide a substantial part of social services. Since the 1960s, the federal government has largely funded those social services by giving money to nonprofits, universities, hospitals and companies. Several new policies converged at that time to create this system, including the expansion of the federal income tax during World War II and the codification of tax-exempt charitable organizations in 1954. Then, the Kennedy and Johnson administrations started to fund nonprofits directly with federal money as part of urban renewal and Great Society programs. 'It was a key approach of midcentury liberalism of addressing issues of poverty, sort of making a reference to civil rights and racial inequality, but not growing the size of government,' said Claire Dunning, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. Conservatives also tended to support working through local, private, nonprofit organizations, though for different reasons than liberals, she said. With various expansions and cuts during different presidencies, the federal government has continued to fund nonprofits at significant levels, essentially hiding the government in plain sight, Dunning said. The size and importance of the nonprofit apparatus became suddenly visible in January when the Trump administration sought to freeze federal grants and loans. Dunning said the speed, hostility and scale of the proposed cuts broke with the long legacy of bipartisan support for nonprofits. 'People had no idea that the public health information or services they are receiving, their Meals on Wheels program, their afterschool tutoring program, the local park cleanup were actually enabled by public government dollars,' she said. A coalition of nonprofits challenged the freeze in court in a case that is ongoing, but in the six months since, the administration has cut, paused or discontinued a vast array of programs and grants. The impacts of some of those policy changes have been felt immediately, but many will not hit the ground until current grant funding runs out, which could be in months or years depending on the programs. Private donations can't replace scale of government support Friendship Shelter in Laguna Beach has an annual budget of about $15 million, $11.5 million of which comes from government sources. Price said the government funding is 'braided' in complex ways to house and support 330 people. They've already lost a rental reimbursement grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. But the Samueli Foundation stepped in to backfill those lost funds for three years. That kind of support is extremely unusual, she said. 'We don't know of any large-scale private philanthropy response to keeping people housed because it's a forever commitment,' Price said. 'That person is in housing and is going to need the subsidy for the rest of their lives. These are seriously disabled people with multiple issues that they're facing that they need help with.' She also believes that even in a wealthy place like Orange County, private donors are not prepared to give five, six or eight times as much as they do currently. Donors already subsidize their government grants, which she said pay for 69% of the actual program costs. 'We are providing this service to our government at a loss, at a business loss, and then making up that loss with these Medicaid dollars and also the private fundraising,' she said. She said her organization has discussed having to put people out of housing back on to the streets if the government funding is cut further. 'That would be, I think, a signal to me that something is deeply, deeply wrong with how we're looking at these issues,' said Price, adding, 'If I was placing a bet, I would bet that we have enough good still in government to prevent that.' ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit Solve the daily Crossword
