We have a very simple charge at the Human Service Chamber: Help the extraordinary helpers of this extraordinary community.

As we walk alongside our 230+ members through the unique challenges that 2025 is posing (as I write this, we’re amidst the longest federal government shutdowns in American history) that charge feels much harder than it once did. It’s why a clear majority of our nonprofit leaders rate the state of the sector as bad or very bad.

But that sentiment is not reflective of the enormous will to make things better, nor of the ambitious vision to make this community’s social safety infrastructure the model for America to follow. This is achievable, even in the most challenging of times, because as nonprofits know better than anyone: Every act of helping helps. So we are following our members’ lead, evolving to be as helpful as we can be, knowing that the tide will turn in the lives of people our members serve, just as it will turn in the health of nonprofits and the communities they serve.

However, change will not come without action. Across our membership, and across the sectors of our economy, and across the neighborhoods of the Columbus Region, we know so many people who are working diligently to make our sliver of the world better.

This is true across the country, too.

Change cannot come without understanding the realities of the moment we’re in either. This report endeavors to ensure we are all on the same page, so that we may ensure our community is one in which every resident may truly flourish.