Here and across the country, nonprofits have much to be proud of one year into the seismic shifts that the new Administration in Washington has forced upon the health and human services sector.

Rather than Trickle Down Economics, nonprofit leaders–and the city, county, and state funds that they have routed through for generations–have had to navigate a drought of sorts, with government funds drying up or being diverted away altogether. Coupled with similar changes to philanthropic giving, nonprofit leaders have had no choice but to “roll with the punches… but the punches are starting to hurt more and more,” as one of our leaders shared with us in an ongoing snapshot survey of the sector.

The challenges are perhaps most evident by a recurring challenge and an ominous one: The recurring challenge is that more and more people keep heading to nonprofits for help, while funding sources are either flat or declining. Even if a particular agency or subsector is not being directly affected by government funding (and policy) shifts, the broader pool of resources is being strained, which is affecting the entire sector. The newer challenge is related to workforce:

• Our members employ about 6% fewer full-time employees today than a year ago.
• From January to December 2025, our members have laid off at least 569 people;
• Since January 2026, our members have laid off at least another 35 people.

And yet, nonprofits are persevering.

A significant majority of our members anticipate increasing or maintaining their services. Only 21 agencies anticipate scaling services back.