CEP’s recently released report, “A Sector in Crisis,” revealed that nonprofits are responding to both increased demand and reduced funding. We asked four nonprofit leaders to briefly describe what this context has meant for them and how it has impacted their work. Here are their stories.
Reflections From a Year of Sustained Pressure
From Houston, the last year felt less like a turning point and more like a long season of adjustment. Demand for human services rose steadily as families navigated rising costs, shifting public benefits, and uncertainty shaped by federal and state policy changes. CEP’s national data reflects what many of us experienced locally: 81% of nonprofits reported increased demand for services, and 68% said the current context negatively affected their ability to carry out their work.
What made this year especially challenging was not any single disruption, but the accumulation of pressures. Funding volatility, staffing strain, and the need to continually adapt stretched organizational capacity.
Nearly half of nonprofit leaders nationally expressed concern about the risk of closure or merger. In Houston’s human services sector, that often meant leaders spending more time protecting core operations than imagining what might come next. At times, progress felt incremental at best.
And still, the work continued.
Across the city, nonprofits leaned into collaboration and coordination, echoing a national trend in which 60% of organizations increased partnerships in response to the current context.
Clients were served not because conditions improved, but because organizations chose to share responsibility rather than carry it alone.
Philanthropy played a meaningful role in sustaining that effort. The most helpful funder responses were grounded in trust: unrestricted, multi-year funding; streamlined processes; timely communication; and a willingness to listen. These approaches offered more than financial support; they provided steadiness in a year defined by uncertainty.
Looking back, the last year reminds us that resilience is not about heroic endurance. It is about alignment, trust, and shared commitment. In Houston, those qualities made it possible to keep showing up, and to keep showing up together.
As philanthropy considers how to respond to ongoing uncertainty, the question may be less about new strategies and more about how consistently we are willing to support the organizations closest to community needs.
– Cathy Moore Executive Director, Epiphany Community Health Outreach Services (ECHOS); Houston, Texas
When Federal Doors Close, Rural Organizations Lose Paths to Growth
CEP’s recent survey shows 81% of nonprofits are seeing increased demand while 68% say the current political climate is making their work harder. At Four Corners Rainbow Youth Center, we are part of those statistics.
Two years into leading this organization, I’m proud of what we’ve built together. We’ve grown from three to nine staff and now serve 350-400 2SLGBTQIA+ and BIPOC youth and families annually across five rural Colorado counties. Thanks to foundation support and community partnerships, currently, we’re stable. That’s not nothing — especially in this climate.
But here’s the reality: federal funding streams that could have helped us expand — extend our hours, reach more isolated youth, expand our services — are being systematically eliminated or redirected away from organizations serving 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. It’s that the federal government is actively closing doors on our ability to grow and serve more young people who desperately need support, especially now.
What’s actually helped: Funders who give us unrestricted, multi-year support. Who call to ask what we need instead of telling us what they’ll fund. Who trust us to know our community. That kind of partnership has kept us stable when everything else feels uncertain.
What we need now from funders: Keep doing that — sustained general operating support is everything. But also, be willing to fund the growth that federal dollars would have covered. Program expansion, advocacy work, capacity building — these aren’t luxuries when government support disappears. For rural organizations, foundation willingness to step in makes the difference between treading water and actually growing our impact.
Our youth shouldn’t have to wait for better political weather to get the support they need.
– Xander Hughes, Executive Director, Four Corners Rainbow Youth Center; Durango, CO
Navigating Extraordinary Volatility
The year 2025 brought extraordinary volatility for Community Action Lehigh Valley. We are an anti-poverty organization that prides itself on giving people the tools to lift themselves out of poverty. However, shifting federal decisions began to directly affect critical programs our community depends on. Throughout these rapid changes, our team worked tirelessly to protect vulnerable families, adapt our services, and advocate for stability across the Lehigh Valley.
Housing programs experienced some of the most immediate disruptions. Unpredictable tariff changes caused construction and renovation costs to soar with little warning. A project we were working on to redevelop a blighted hotel — once a promising homeownership opportunity — became financially unworkable when material and service costs spiked by almost $800,000, making the project impossible to offer to income‑qualifying buyers.
Food assistance also faced major setbacks. Cuts to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program strained support for low‑income seniors, while reductions in The Emergency Food Assistance Program resulted in the loss of nearly half a million pounds of food previously distributed to Pennsylvania pantries. The conclusion of Local Food Purchase Assistance funding further affected both families and the local farmers who had relied on those partnerships.
In the face of these challenges, our organization took an assertive and coordinated advocacy approach. We authored multiple articles and op‑eds for our local newspaper to highlight the real‑time community impacts and ensure local leaders, residents, and policymakers understood the stakes. Our team met with legislators, briefed community partners, and used every available platform to push for consistent funding, reliable food distribution, and solutions to mounting housing pressures.
This work demanded constant vigilance. Decisions at the federal level often shifted faster than programs could adjust, requiring us to communicate quickly, recalibrate budgets, and prepare contingency plans across housing, food security, and community development initiatives.
Threatened and real funding cuts caused us to have to furlough or lay off a quarter of our staff in order to stabilize. However, despite the uncertainty, the year’s challenges have reaffirmed our mission: to stand firmly with the individuals and families who rely on us. Through advocacy, collaboration, and unwavering commitment, we continued moving forward — together.
– Dawn Godshall, Executive Director, Community Action Committee of Lehigh County; Bethlehem, PA
Meeting a Surge in Need With Urgency and Care
During the government shutdown [in 2025], Tarrant Area Food Bank doubled its operations to meet a sharp surge in need among our neighbors, including federal workers, children, families, and older adults. We extended operating hours, added distribution shifts, and accelerated throughput at our distribution center so households could access food when they needed it most. At the same time, our partner agencies increased distributions across the region, and we deployed mobile markets to reach communities with limited transportation or pantry access.
Local strain was compounded by federal reductions and delays in food assistance and commodity support. Temporary pauses and processing delays affecting SNAP and related federal programs pushed more households to seek emergency food while benefits were delayed or uncertain. Demand remained high and sustained throughout the shutdown, requiring an elevated response so families could weather missed paychecks and the cascading financial impacts that followed.
To meet this need, Tarrant Area Food Bank spent 50% of our annual food-purchase budget in the first quarter alone. We are deeply grateful that foundations and the broader community responded swiftly and generously to our call for support, enabling us to sustain doubled operations during a period of extraordinary demand.
The most impactful support included flexible general operating funds; rapid-response grants with streamlined reporting; multi-month commitments; corporate volunteer teams; large-scale food donations from retailers, manufacturers, and producers; and in-kind logistics support such as trucking and warehouse supplies.
We remain focused on supporting neighbors and families still experiencing financial instability — every dollar, food donation, and volunteer shift makes an immediate difference. Because of the community’s generosity and partnership, Tarrant Area Food Bank has met the moment with urgency and care — and strengthened the regional safety net that will serve our neighbors long after the crisis passed.
– Julie Butner, President and CEO, Tarrant Area Food Bank, Fort Worth, Texas
