Nonprofit organizations in Colorado and across the country are navigating unchartered waters amid the reality of executive orders, funding cuts, and economic uncertainty.
“It is a constant day in and day out struggle to try to figure out what are the resources, what are the solutions that we can help provide to nonprofits working across the state,” said Paul Lhevine, the president and CEO of the Colorado Nonprofit Association. “We don't yet have what I would consider to be a great handle, a great solution for what we're up against again, because these challenges are facing us, it feels like a daily constant barrage from this administration, from this White House.”
Lhevine said the organization is working with the National Council of Nonprofits to develop best practices moving forward.
“So many nonprofit leaders right now are thinking about what their budgets will look like in the next year. Will we have an economic downturn that will really dramatically affect our nonprofits? Will we have executive orders that will make our jobs more difficult and tougher?” Lhevine said. “It really is looking at, what's the A strategy, what's the B strategy, what's the C strategy? And thinking about how best can we be nimble to effectuate the change that we need to make.”
Compounded with the funding cuts is the fact that the state budget has been in a deficit. The shortfall amounts to $1.2 billion. According to Lhevine, nonprofits in Colorado have already faced numerous challenges, but nothing about these times are usual.
“Nothing about this is normal, and if anything is true, it's that we have no idea what to expect on any given day. From cuts to AmeriCorps to federal funding, freezes to the threats of executive orders, nonprofit professionals, nonprofit organizations across our state, across our country are living in uncertain times.”
Lhevine told CPR News that the magnitude of the administration's reach is affecting every part of the nonprofit sector.
“It's a gross overreach by our federal government into how we operate, how we work in communities, how we lift ourselves up, and how we serve those in need.”
But he also acknowledged the nonprofit environment has been changing before Trump was reelected.
“Even before this administration took over, we were finding that communities were in need more than ever before, that our homeless issues, that food pantries were all seeing an influx of people in need. We knew that costs were going up regardless. We knew that it was harder and harder to attract and retain talent within our nonprofit organizations,” said Lhevine. “And what we see are nonprofit organizations that are making very tough decisions on having to pull back from programs, pull back from operations, pull back from how they are delivering their services as they try to reorient themselves towards a new changing world.”
Lhevine also points to changes in philanthropic giving tied to the economy. “How does that affect the way companies give charitable dollars to nonprofits? How individuals make those decisions if they see their 401Ks, if they see their retirement savings dropping significantly; we fear a pullback from charitable giving that then has a domino effect with how nonprofits provide their services.”
The nonprofit sector generates an estimated $62 billion a year in Colorado.
“We have 12,000 nonprofits actively working in the state of Colorado supporting about 260,000 jobs directly and indirectly. So this is a sector that is both socially significant and economically significant.”
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