Survey finds streamlined federal funding support is impacting local nonprofits

Many nonprofit organizations across North Central Washington (NCW) are facing budget shortfalls, leading to reductions in staff and services as they respond to a streamlining of federal programs and taxpayer-funded grants, according to findings from two nonpartisan local surveys.

Our Valley Our Future (OVOF) and Thriving Together NCW launched a nonpartisan survey at the request of community leaders seeking a clearer understanding of how reductions in grants are affecting North Central Washington’s organizations, communities, and residents. Similarly, the Okanogan County Coalition for Health Improvement (CHI) conducted a survey of Okanogan County organizations.

A regional report titled, “Impacts to NCW from Federal Reductions,” was released Tuesday, and is available here.

Among the key findings in the report:

• 49 of 73 organizations report that they are planning budget cuts, 37 are non profits and 12 are public entities.

• Nonprofits and public sector organizations have laid off or plan to lay off employees. One government organization has had several employees take early retirement and not refilled those positions.

• Of the 49 organizations that indicated their budgets will need to be reduced, 31 detailed a combined $69.5 million in lost revenue. That equates to $2.2 million per organization. The amounts range from $13,000 to $20 million.

• Nonprofits are carrying the bulk of budget reductions as a result of the reduction in grants. Some organizations reported they will need to reduce their budgets by up to 75 percent.

• The nonprofit and public organizations facing budget reductions are planning to cut or modify services that include health care, mental health and addiction services, suicide prevention, food banks, education for fruit growers, wildfire preparedness, housing, communicable disease response, support services for students, and after-school programs.

• By subsector, the biggest losses are being felt in Social Services ($20.6 million); Healthcare ($10.5 million); Digital Literacy ($10.4 million); Climate and Environment ($9.4 million); Housing ($8.0 million); Education ($7.4 million); and Wildfire Preparedness ($4.0 million).

• An estimated one in three organizations dependent on taxpayer funded support responded to the OVOF survey (38% response rate).

  
  

OVOF and Thriving Together NCW reported that they are currently conducting a separate but similar survey on state government cutbacks and how those reductions are impacting NCW organizations.