Over the past year, I’ve had more conversations than I can count that start with the same sentence: “We don’t know what’s going to happen next.”
That uncertainty isn’t new to nonprofits — we’ve always built plans while juggling unpredictability. But what feels different right now is the scale and the simultaneity of the disruption. As our fractional development lead said recently, “This is the first time I am seeing all social issues and all levels and industries of funding impacted at the same time.”
That statement has stayed with me because it captures what so many nonprofit leaders are feeling: there’s no “safe” corner of the sector right now. No issue area that’s untouched. No funding stream that feels guaranteed. No easy assumptions we can make about what the next quarter — or even next month — will look like. CEP’s recently released report affirms this.
And yet, even in the middle of the chaos, I’m also witnessing something else: a sector that is still showing up. Still creating. Still finding ways to protect communities, even as the ground shifts beneath us.
A Climate of Uncertainty — and What It’s Doing to the Work
Like many organizations working at the intersection of racial equity and gender justice, we’ve felt the ripple effects of the current political and cultural climate in very direct ways. In some spaces, commitments that once felt clear and public have become quiet, cautious, or conditional.
For organizations like mine, which supports Black girls and young Black women with culturally responsive mental health education and community-based wellness, that shift has real implications. It raises difficult questions that leaders are navigating in real time:
- How do we stay fully committed to our mission and our communities while also staying compliant in a rapidly changing environment?
- What does “risk” mean now — and who gets labeled as risky?
- What happens when equity work becomes politically controversial instead of morally obvious?
These aren’t abstract questions. They affect staffing decisions, programming decisions, and partnership decisions. They affect how much time we spend planning for growth versus planning for survival.
The Funding Squeeze Is Real — and it’s Intensifying
We’ve seen cuts in corporate funding, and now, at the start of 2026, we’re also seeing signs of cuts on the foundation side. That combination is hitting nonprofits hard, especially those who rely on a mix of philanthropic sources to sustain community-facing work.
At the same time, funding has become dramatically more competitive. Grants that used to draw a few hundred applications are now seeing double or triple that number. That doesn’t just mean more competition — it means more time spent chasing fewer dollars, and more strain on teams that are already stretched thin.
Even more challenging is that new relationships feel harder to build. Many funders are prioritizing organizations they already know — which makes sense from a risk-management perspective, but it creates a real barrier for newer organizations, smaller organizations, and organizations without proximity to traditional philanthropic networks.
For nonprofits, that can feel like trying to run a race in which the starting line keeps moving farther away.
Rough Seas Mean Watching Others Sink
One of the hardest parts of this moment isn’t just what’s happening to our own organizations, but what we’re watching happen to our peers.
There is a unique heartbreak that comes from seeing other nonprofits struggle to stay afloat — especially organizations doing critical, community-rooted work — and knowing you can’t always help the way you want to.
Nonprofit leaders are wired to support, to collaborate, to show up. But right now, many of us are in a position where we’re trying to keep our own ship from sinking while the waters get rougher around everyone.
That reality creates emotional weight that doesn’t show up on budgets or dashboards: the weight of responsibility, the weight of triage, and the weight of knowing that if one organization goes down, an entire community loses a lifeline.
What Gives Me Hope: Creativity, Collaboration, and Courage
Despite everything, I’m not only seeing fear. I’m also seeing forward motion.
I’m seeing nonprofits get more creative and more strategic about how we sustain impact. I’m seeing more partnerships — not just symbolic partnerships, but real ones rooted in shared resources, shared learning, and shared outcomes.
I’m also seeing funders get more creative about how they engage. In addition to grantmaking, some are leaning into technical assistance, volunteering, and making connections between nonprofits and other funders. That matters because in moments like this, relationships and infrastructure can be as valuable as dollars.
And I’m seeing something else that feels rare and important: some funders are deepening their work and standing their ground, even while others waver. They are choosing consistency over convenience. They are continuing to invest in equity and community wellbeing, even when it would be easier to step back or shift away quietly.
That kind of steadiness sends a message nonprofits can feel: We see you. We believe in this work. We’re not leaving.
Most encouraging of all is watching nonprofit leaders continue to show up for their communities in deeper and more meaningful ways — even while being asked to do more with less. People are still running programs, building trust, responding to crisis, and trying to create stability for others in the middle of instability.
That deserves to be recognized.
What Nonprofits Need From Funders Right Now
This moment requires more than encouragement. It requires action — and it requires funders to meet the reality of what nonprofits are facing.
Here are a few shifts that would make a meaningful difference right now:
1. More flexible funding, and fewer unnecessary restrictions
When uncertainty is high, flexibility isn’t a luxury — it’s what allows nonprofits to adapt quickly without compromising core commitments. Multiyear general operating support is one of the clearest ways funders can help stabilize organizations in this environment.
2. Clear communication, even when the news isn’t great
Nonprofits can plan around almost anything — but we can’t plan around silence. If priorities are shifting, if budgets are tightening, if timelines are changing, transparency helps us make responsible decisions for our teams and communities.
3. A commitment to equity that doesn’t disappear when it gets complicated
Many nonprofits are doing work that has become politicized — not because it is partisan, but because the communities we serve are often at the center of public debate. Funders have an opportunity right now to be consistent and values-aligned, not just when it’s easy, but when it is especially impactful.
4. Support beyond dollars — especially for capacity
Technical assistance, peer learning, evaluation support, and funder-to-funder connections can be powerful tools when done thoughtfully. But they work best when they are aligned to what nonprofits actually need, not what looks good on paper.
5. A willingness to fund the “in-between”
The work of building partnerships, strengthening infrastructure, retaining staff, and improving systems is often what makes direct service sustainable. If funders want impact, they also have to invest in what holds impact up.
We’re All Trying To Find Balance in Choppy Waters
If I could leave funders with one message, it would be this: nonprofits are not hesitating to show up for our communities — even in uncertainty, even in chaos, even when the work is harder than it’s ever been.
We are doing our best to stay steady in choppy waters.
And we don’t need funders to have all the answers. But we do need partnership that is real, courageous, and consistent. We need funders who are willing to stay close to the work, stay committed to communities, and stay grounded in the values that brought them into philanthropy in the first place.
Because in this moment, we truly are all in this together.
Lauren Carson is the founder and executive director of Black Girls Smile Inc. Find her on LinkedIn.
