Nonprofits in Hampton Roads are still assessing the impact of federal funding cuts on their ability to serve their communities.
WHRO sat down with United Way of the Virginia Peninsula CEO Charvalla West to discuss how her organization is finding ways for nonprofits and local funders to move forward.
This interview was edited for time and clarity.
Nick McNamara: As the federal government changes funding priorities and availability, what’s been the impact you’ve been seeing in the nonprofit world?
Charvalla West: In any given year, hundreds of millions of dollars flow from the federal government (and) at some point, reach the nonprofit community in the form of grants, usually. With the changes happening in federal agencies, we've begun already to see some of those funds be sunset for some organizations. Maybe they will finish out this grant cycle and it may not be available again. But mostly, right now, it is a place of uncertainty. The nonprofit sector generally relies on all of us to support this work. But in the last decade or more there's been a shift in which the government – local, state and federal – have relied on nonprofits to provide services that maybe they were not ever intended to provide, but now we need. And so this is not a one-way street. We rely on those federal funds to continue doing that work and our federal government relies on us to continue providing that care.
NM: How much can local donors and businesses fill the gap of decreased federal dollars? How are nonprofits taking stock of their new needs?
CW: Because of volatility in the market, uncertainty about our economic future, many have already started to decrease or have stated anticipated decreases in their philanthropic abilities. We're still collecting what that picture looks like. So we have a survey that we have invited human-serving organizations, whether they're government or nonprofit, to complete as well as local governments and funders, organizations that provide financial resources to do this work. Because I think while there are several national advocacy outlets, it's important to have a local focus. That's the work of each United Way is to be hyperlocal. And so we can paint a picture of what's happening right here on the Virginia Peninsula in the nonprofit community. And what we're finding is, right now, there's a lot of anticipation. We're still gathering that. And then we have a community conversation scheduled for April 15 for all of these organizations to come together to add some context and color. And, especially because everything is changing so rapidly, between the time we put the survey out and the time we have a conversation, some of those responses may look a little different.
NM: Do you expect counties and cities on the Peninsula can step in and help?
CW: We know that the extent of federal funding, should it be significantly depleted, cannot be made up by local resources. We've already seen our local governments come out with fairly conservative budgets, some talking tax increases already. And those are costs to the people that we serve. It's cyclical. The more that the cost of living increases from rent, which we've been talking about now for five or more years, the rapid increase in rent costs; food costs; as our federal workforce here on the Virginia Peninsula changes, that's going to impact our job market, salaries and things like that. And so we expect that we'll continue to see the increase in need, but we don't expect to see the increase in funding to support that. And so while these changes are, dare I say, unprecedented, our response also has to be.
NM: What are some early thoughts you have on how to respond to the funding challenges?
CW: Where we have to find our critical points of progress are in ways we can better align to avoid duplication and overlap. You know, we say united is the way to a thriving community and there's not a more urgent time to take that message and put it into action. Move nonprofits to working more closely together, to making our collaborative efforts more effective, so that the resources that we do raise go further and have a deeper impact in the community. As opposed to spreading them wider, we can really hone in on outcome-based efforts that change the lives of the people we serve. And that collaboration doesn't just happen for those frontline direct service organizations; it also happens in the philanthropic community. How do we work together so that we're promoting that kind of collaboration and not inadvertently creating an environment that intensifies competition?
