Latest news with #nonprofits
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
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
7 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
McDowell County, West Virginia, birthplace of food stamps, faces a disappearing safety net
For nonprofits in McDowell County, West Virginia, the federal cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act threaten a lifeline. Many of McDowell's 17,000 residents rely on federal programs and the nonprofits they fund to get by. The county's tax base and population have significantly declined since 1950, when McDowell was the top coal-producing county in the nation and had about 100,000 residents. Now, more than half the children in the county receive federal Children's Health Insurance Program benefits, and about one-third of seniors are on Medicaid, the federal health insurance program for the poor. Decades after the Kennedy administration made the county a first test of food stamps, nearly half the county's residents receive supplemental nutrition assistance, or SNAP, the Food Stamp Program's successor. The strains created by new eligibility restrictions on SNAP as a result of the passage of President Trump's domestic policy bill will be especially dire in places like McDowell County, where more than one-third of the population lives below the federal poverty line, said Rosemary Ketchum, executive director of the West Virginia Nonprofit Association. 'These federal cuts are starving people,' she said. Since the interruption in federal support tied to President Trump's January executive orders barring grants related to 'gender ideology'; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and environmental justice, Ketchum said many of the 9,000 or so nonprofits in her state have laid off staff. Others, she said, are dipping into whatever reserves they have to pay their employees. Those reserves are slim, if they exist at all. Taken together, the seven nonprofits that receive federal grants in McDowell County run on a 3 percent operating margin, according to data tabulated by the Urban Institute's National Center for Charitable Statistics. If all federal support disappeared, the center found, all the county's nonprofits would be at risk of going under unless other funding was provided. No Plan B In a poor state like West Virginia, which is already facing a budget deficit and lacks the legions of philanthropic donors who got rich on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley, nonprofits don't have a plan B, said Kathy Gentry, executive director of Safe Housing and Economic Development, or SHED, a McDowell nonprofit housing provider. The nonprofit's clients, many of whom are elderly or disabled, rely on U.S. Housing and Urban Development support to cover the rent at the 94 housing units SHED manages. Gentry's pay was temporarily cut for six weeks this spring because part of her salary comes from a HUD capacity-building grant that the administration deemed at cross-purposes with Trump's anti-DEI policy agenda. Her full paycheck resumed, but Gentry worries further cuts will force her to lay off staff. Already the nonprofit operates at a loss. In its 2023 tax filing, the most recent available, SHED's $663,000 in expenses outstripped its revenue by nearly $200,000. 'We're in a quandary here — all nonprofits are,' Gentry said. 'Are we going to exist? Will we have to dissolve?' Health care and internet access Since 2015, Heidi Binko and her team at the Just Transition Fund have worked with economic development agencies and nonprofits in areas where the coal industry once flourished. That can mean helping a local organization identify or write a grant or provide a matching grant. The fund was created by the Rockefeller Family Foundation and Appalachian Funders Network to help coal towns capture some of the dollars provided in the 2015 Clean Power Plan, or POWER Act, passed during the Obama administration. Since then, the fund says it has helped coal communities in West Virginia and throughout the nation secure more than $2 billion in federal grants. Binko hopes the fund can continue to attract federal resources to towns with high poverty rates. 'There are still federal dollars available,' she said. 'They haven't all been zeroed out.' The recently passed domestic policy bill, for instance, contains $50 billion in health care grants over 10 years for rural providers, though it is unclear whether that money will keep hospitals and clinics that rely on Medicaid dollars afloat. Two hallmarks of the Biden administration's infrastructure and stimulus acts — transitioning away from a carbon-based economy and providing federal resources among different populations equitably — are not a focus of the Trump plan. As a result, Binko fears recent progress will be dimmed. For instance, Generation West Virginia, a Just Transition Fund grantee worked with McDowell County to apply for funds from the Biden administration's Digital Equity Act to run an elementary and middle school digital literacy program. Programs under the act were terminated in May. The cancellation of the Digital Equity Act is a setback for McDowell, where 20 percent of households don't have a broadband internet connection, according to a Generation West Virginia report. Clean water Other, more basic infrastructure is lacking in the county. According to DigDeep, a nonprofit that assists with clean water access and wastewater systems and is primarily funded by private institutions, corporate partners and grassroots donations, there may be hundreds of people in the county without a dependable water supply. The exact number is unknown because information on whether existing water systems provide safe drinking water is not gathered by the U.S. Census. DigDeep works with the McDowell Public Service District utility provider to identify residents who need a water hookup and helps secure grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's rural development program to extend water trunk lines to hard-to-reach areas. In some cases, the nonprofit helps pay to connect the federally supported water lines directly to people's homes. It is also helping to install wastewater treatment facilities to more than 400 residents who either have inadequate systems or flush waste into nearby creeks. The water supply throughout the county is unreliable because of the area's close historical ties to the rise and fall of the coal economy, said George McGraw, DigDeep's chief executive. When coal operations came to McDowell, businesses operated in a 'closed loop' environment. Coal companies paid workers to build and work in the mines, they owned the houses where miners lived, and they built the water lines that served those houses, McGraw said. When the coal industry began to peter out, companies exited the county, leaving behind an aging system of pipes and drains. To secure water in the county today, hundreds of people fill plastic jugs from roadside springs or mine shafts, McGraw said. To get drinking water, they may use the bathroom in a store, a neighbor's house, or a school. DigDeep has several projects in the planning stages in McDowell. But the Trump USDA budget proposal would chop the rural water program by two-thirds, meaning some public works projects may never get completed. Someone else will have to foot the bill or the system will continue to crumble, leaving many people in McDowell County without a basic necessity. 'It's not like the burden goes away,' McGraw said. 'The burden just shifts, and utilities are forced to raise rates on customers, many of whom are below the poverty line.' ______ Alex Daniels 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 Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
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% 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 Solve the daily Crossword
