Blame the right people
Good Nonprofit Endings Part 4
Image description: A view of the US Capitol building. Congress has been complicit with the Trump administration in undermining nonprofits. Photo by David Knox on Unsplash.
As we hear about or personally face nonprofit dissolution, let’s be sure that we are laying the blame where it belongs. President Trump and the current Republican administration have launched a war on nonprofits. Withdrawal of funding, ideology-based targeting of certain types of nonprofits, defunding of safety net programs, defunding of nonprofit sector infrastructure like Americorps, politicizing qualifying employers for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, and changes to regulations, have created a difficult, unstable operating environment for nonprofits.
In The Great Nonprofit Purge, journalist Jackie Vickery puts it this way:
The administration’s campaign to defund and threaten nonprofits…is a coordinated effort to weaken nonprofit independence while expanding government power to target civil society organizations that benefit communities nationwide.
Since most nonprofits have never been particularly well-resourced and able to invest in organizational resilience, they are very vulnerable. Progressive organizations and those centering marginalized communities (described as “woke” by the Trump administration) are at higher risk of being harassed and defunded.
Cuts at the national level cause budget woes at the state and local level as well, across many fields of service. As just one example, this article describes a 25% cut to the Minnesota Department of Health’s federal funding, and states that “150 partners utilized the funding, including tribal governments, local health agencies, and community organizations.”
In Washington state, our state is facing daunting federal cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and other programs it administers. At the same time, our regressive tax structure leaves us with inadequate revenue to fund critical public services, much less fill the gaps left by federal cuts. Many of these public services are delivered by nonprofits with state funding contracts, making them easier to cut than state jobs with union protections.
We need to be sure that we understand the true causes of the nonprofit crisis for two reasons: 1) we need to fight back and advocate for nonprofits, the people they serve, and the worthwhile causes they champion, and 2) we must avoid blaming our leaders or concluding that they are inadequate.
Fight back
There are organizations that are committed to challenging attacks on nonprofits. The National Council of Nonprofits has been tirelessly advocating for nonprofits and filed a lawsuit immediately when the Trump administration began illegally freezing federal funding for nonprofit partners. Fund the People launched a campaign immediately after Trump took office to “Defend Nonprofits, Defend Democracy.”
At the state level, we can advocate for tax policy that asks the wealthy to pay their fair share through Balance our Tax Code. We can also speak to our elected officials about the importance of nonprofit services that receive state funding such as childcare and child welfare, affordable housing, food assistance, small business assistance, art and cultural programs, and much more.
We can all support and participate in the movement to defend our community organizations and affirm that the public values these services. We can also emphasize that we still care about addressing social inequities and expect our local, state, and federal budget to reflect our commitment to inclusion and opportunity for all.
Avoid scapegoating
As important as speaking up against attempts to gut the nonprofit sector is recognizing that we are facing a major outside threat and not blaming each other for nonprofit failures that may result from intense external pressures. However imperfect our leaders may be at times, they are not the enemy.
I am not suggesting that leaders closing an organization get a pass from being accountable to do it in the best way possible, or that they will not make mistakes. They will make many, in part because they are human, in part because they have no experience with this situation, and in part because they may have exhausted their personal reserves and lack the resources, time, and energy to create a plan that considers everyone and everything that deserves consideration.
I am suggesting that we come alongside them, work together, and increase the odds of a good ending.
Addendum: I wrote this series last weekend, and it’s been quite a week. The Trump Administration is using Charlie Kirk’s murder as an excuse to go after liberal groups such as the Ford Foundation, Soros Open Society Foundations, and many other nonprofits. The strategy they are hoping to use is to label nonprofits that they see as holding beliefs counter to theirs as “domestic terrorist organizations” and revoking their tax-exempt status. In response, foundations banding together under the banner “Unite in Advance” issued this Statement on Political Violence and the Fundamental Freedom of Speech. Let’s hope the rule of law and the courts can protect freedom of speech and association and block the latest efforts to undermine nonprofits and philanthropy.