With every executive transition in government–whether in mayoral, gubernatorial, or presidential administrations–comes a shift in priorities and challenges that requires nonprofits to adjust. At the Human Service Chamber, one of our responsibilities is to help our member nonprofits navigate that transition as smoothly as possible.

No matter shifting public policy priorities, nonprofits have always worked with Republicans and Democrats to ensure services are delivered to Republicans and Democrats–in our big cities, in our rural areas, and everywhere in between.

Regrettably, the change of Administrations in Washington has brought extraordinary change extraordinarily fast to the nonprofit community across the United States, as the White House has been tearing apart the federal government with the precision of a wrecking ball, and sowing confusion for the nonprofits that have worked with federal agencies in creating the social safety net for this country. Worse, the Administration has actively been sowing distrust and even antipathy toward the nonprofit community and the people it employs, while concurrently seeking to end anything and everything that addresses our differences and disparities, which are fundamental elements of why so many nonprofits–and public officials–do what they do.

We stand with nonprofits, and we urge you to do so as well. We have been grateful to the Republicans and Democrats who have stood with our members since January 20th, and urge them to continue doing so as we navigate an increasingly turbulent future as nonprofits persist in ensuring services are accessible to the residents of Central Ohio, and to people in need across America.

As we engage with elected officials and our community leaders, we have been sharing the below assessment of what nonprofits and communities have been navigating, and what they must brace for in the months ahead.

1) The Administration is trying to freeze federal grants to nonprofits to identify inconsistencies with the Administration’s Executive Orders. Nonprofits A) Serving immigrant and refugee communities, B) Working in civil liberties, C) Addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion, or D) Working in climate justice, have been uniquely targeted by these executive orders. The Administration has thus far been slowed or blocked in the federal courts–including with this specific targeting of refugee resettlement programming and other refugee supports–but it has continued its attempts to cease payments on active grants with nonprofits and other entities, including the cancellation of Fair Housing grants in February, and the cessation of $1 billion in school meals and $1 billion in affordable housing just in the last 24 hours. And it’s indicating that it would take months to restart refugee resettlement efforts. For nonprofits with very thin financial margins, delays alone can be devastating to operations.

2) Through the federal budget reconciliation process, Congress is attempting to implement enormous cuts to key programs (i.e., Medicaid, SNAP, school meals) that are essential for large swaths of the health and human services sector and the people it serves. The first step toward this passed the House the night of February 25th. At least $12 billion in school meals, $230 billion in SNAP, and $880 billion in Medicaid is in jeopardy. The ripple effect in Ohio could be enormous, as the federal Medicaid cuts could trigger a proposed provision ending Medicaid expansion in our state. If Medicaid expansion ended in Ohio, 115,000 Franklin County residents would lose access to healthcare, creating new stresses on the nonprofit and hospital systems at the same time that resources to help nonprofits and hospitals help people would be declining.

3) Federal agencies have already begun removing or ending longstanding grant opportunities. In other words, there won’t be as much money available for nonprofits to pursue through federal grants, as a White House memo from February calling for a review of all federal funding to nonprofits strongly suggests.

What does all this mean in the aggregate?

A substantial percentage of federal money is going to stop flowing to communities across the U.S. over the next 12-18 months, including to Columbus and Franklin County. That makes it imperative for every local community across the U.S. to start finding funds to stabilize the sector–for health and human services nonprofits and health system-nonprofits alike.

So what can you do? We urge you to contact the Senate Offices of Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno and urge them to protect Medicaid, SNAP, and school meals as the budget reconciliation process continues in the coming weeks.

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