Philanthropy Must Act Now — Vulnerable Communities Can’t Afford to “Wait and See”
By: Mark Foggin, Interim Executive Director, and Kerry Sesil, Vice President For Resource Development, the Arab American Family Support Center
Like all of our nonprofit colleagues—especially those supporting immigrants—the Arab American Family Support Center has been rattled by the xenophobic policies of the Trump administration. But, frankly, we expected that. Also like our colleagues, we shifted gears immediately after the election to develop fundraising strategies that could replace the money we had been anticipating from the Federal government next fiscal year. But what no one expected was that we might find ourselves without the Federal funds that were already appropriated this year—including $1.2 million for the communities we serve in New York City. Now, we and thousands of other nonprofits are scrambling to plug this budget gap without reducing critical social safety net services this week to the communities that rely on them.
In beginning to look for immediate solutions, naturally, we turned to our trusted partners in philanthropy. After all, they already know the impactful work we do and have seen us shift into emergency response mode before, including during Covid or the so-called Muslim ban during the first Trump administration. “Please,” we asked, “can you help us to keep our programs going this year while we continue to work out our plans to try to replace this funding for the next fiscal year?”
Almost without exception, the response we’ve heard from our funders is, “I'm sorry, but we’re waiting to see what happens.”
To which we are increasingly responding with, “What, exactly, are you waiting to see?” The damage is happening now. The potential that our organization will have to furlough two dozen Federally-funded staff is now. The mental health counseling and the domestic violence survivor support that we will have to stop providing is about to stop now.
The vulnerable communities we serve cannot afford to wait and see for philanthropy to wait and see.
We know that philanthropy cannot replace government funding, certainly not over the long term. And nor should it. But until civil society settles on, and begins implementing, a plan for how to respond to this dark period robustly and effectively, vulnerable communities need philanthropy to step up in an outsize way.
One straightforward approach would be for every funder to look at their current grantee portfolios—filled, presumably, with organizations whose work they already believe in because they’re already funding them—and identify those who have unexpectedly lost Federal funding this year and help make up that shortfall. Even better would be for funders in one area (geographically or topically) to band together and collect this information centrally to coordinate contributions that make organizations, like ours, whole so that we don’t have to interrupt our services to vulnerable communities, yet.
Encouragingly, a few brave funders of the Arab American Family Support Center have stepped up without our even prompting it. The representative of one family foundation called us up last month and asked us, “How big is the hit you’re taking with the Federal funding cut?” And then she asked something that showed us just how well she understands what we are up against: “What other expenses are you incurring now, as result?” Within days we had a commitment that made up almost 20 percent of our $1.2 million Federal funding shortfall, allowing us to keep case managers and therapists on a bit longer and to keep making more phone calls to funders, hoping others would be as empathetic and helpful.
We understand that this is an exhausting moment, including for funders. But this is no time for donor fatigue. We need our partners who are privileged to have the capacity to step up now. This is a reminder that every single dollar counts in this fight to protect basic human rights and dignity today. Funders must find a way to muster the same sense of urgency they demonstrated in prior crises and be an essential partner in our work of lifting up those who are struggling. And to do it now, before we have to dismantle critical structures and services.
Mark Foggin and Kerry Sesil are, respectively, the interim executive director and vice president for resource development of the Arab American Family Support Center, which serves 20,000 people each year in New York City.