U.S. nonprofits still reeling from federal funding freeze
U.S. nonprofits still reeling from federal funding freeze
It’s been challenging to stay on top of all the news coming out of Washington, especially when it comes to federal funding. Much of U.S. foreign aid is on hold.
Plus, there’s all the federal grants and funding streams frozen last week, blocked by two different courts, and then rolled back by the White House. All the back and forth has taken a toll on nonprofits across the nation.
Despite the court rulings, many groups were still scrambling to get promised funds for much of this week.
“People just think that the funding is a light switch, right? It’s on, and it’s off, and now it’s on again. But it’s more like turning around an ocean liner,” said Blake Hamilton, interim CEO at the International Institute of St. Louis.
Hamilton’s group relies on federal grants for “our job placement services, our English classes, our health and mental health services for new arrivals, and our after school program and youth mentoring, as well,” he said.
He furloughed about 90 staff because of the freeze. And even though some funds started coming through again on Wednesday, he’s still working on a plan to bring them back.
Jana Davis is president of the Chesapeake Bay Trust in Maryland, which provides grants mostly funded by the federal government for clean water projects and environmental education.
“We did have to let our grantees know that we couldn’t pay them and that they had to pause their projects,” she said.
One of those grantees was the Arundel Rivers Federation in Maryland, which helps clean up local rivers and streams.
“We had to make that decision earlier this week and notify the contractors that we could do this much work, but we couldn’t do work beyond that,” said Matt Johnston, the group’s executive director.
Federal funding started flowing again Wednesday morning, so those jobs are on again — at least for now.
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