February 28, 2025
I wrote my last email less than a week into our current wannabe dictator’s Term.
Now I can say: one month down, 47 to go. Sigh.
Last month, I noted that it felt wrong to put out an e-newsletter as if the world hadn’t changed fundamentally for nonprofits.
Of course, there are thousands of nonprofits right now struggling to survive as illegal and/or callous decisions seek to claw back their grants and contracts. This is especially true for those involved in US AID and those reliant on funds related to the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act’s climate spending If you’re among them, I feel your pain and hope you’ve found a way to get the legal and other support you need.
For those of you who have yet to have your own funds cut, how do you react?
Three bits of quick advice this month:
1. Reach out to your friends who’re struggling, either financially or emotionally. We are stronger together.
2. Speak out. Whether that’s calling your members of Congress (daily), writing letters to the editor, speaking out at town halls, or some other activity. Now’s not the time to cower.
3. Be realistic about your own nonprofit’s fundraising. I know a lot of groups whose annual budgets called for growth this year. I’m not saying it won’t happen, particularly if you had solid plans and had investments (of time in particular) in place to actually do more fundraising. Recognize there’s a very strong chance that increased inflation and massive layoffs, among with the business uncertainty engendered by chaos, will equal a recession.