This Moment In History

This moment in history, in our industry, is unique. Things are changing fast.

It’s a problem when nonprofits and consultants treat grant writing as business as usual. I get it. There’s comfort in the processes and systems that have allowed us to do the work we want to do. I’ve valued that comfort too. When you know that if you give your best effort, meet with program officers, facilitate conversations, and fill out the application with 100 percent of what you’ve got, there’s a decent chance you’ll get funding. That’s been reassuring.

But right now is different. And if we don’t let this moment influence our actions, then in the next year or two, your business, the organizations you represent, and your nonprofits could be in a bad spot. I’m not saying that to scare you. I’m saying it because it’s the reality in front of us.

Here’s what I’m noticing. People are doing a good job of highlighting the problems. They’re pointing out issues at the federal level, calling out bad practices, showing where laws are being ignored. That’s part of the equation. But what often happens next? Many grant writers, nonprofits, and even some foundations go back to doing the exact same things they did before. Maybe they have one or two conversations. Maybe they attend a webinar. Maybe they collect some statistics. Then it’s back to filling out the same grant applications and hoping for the best.

For some of my clients, we still haven’t heard decisions on grants we applied for months ago, which gives us pause. That’s why this is the time to bring your people together. I’m talking about your teams, your most loyal funders, and those within a five-mile radius who care deeply about your community. We’re not at a full “situation room” level yet, but we’re getting close.

If you’re not gathering people to talk about how you’re going to ride these waves, that’s a problem. It’s a problem when you’re not persuading funders by speaking to the urgency of this moment in history. And by that, I don’t mean just pointing at what’s wrong. I mean saying to funders, “In the next five years, things will get rocky. We’re resilient and strong, and we’re going to be that light and calm in the storm. But to do that, we’ll have to make tough decisions. If it comes down to you funding one organization over another, we want you to see us as the best stewards of your dollars.”

It’s also a problem when you assume your organization won’t be impacted by federal cuts. If you work in services at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you already know you will be. About 80 percent of those nonprofits get some form of federal funding. By the end of this year, much of that funding will be gone. Private philanthropy will not fill the gap. I’ve heard directly from foundation directors who say they typically receive 200 to 300 applications. This year they got 2,000. They can’t fund everyone.

Even if you don’t feel the impact now, you will eventually. When nonprofits that rely on federal dollars lose that funding, the ripple will hit private philanthropy, and that will affect you.

So the question is, how are we adapting our actions to this moment? For nonprofits, this might mean facilitating conversations with your closest allies and giving people some space to think creatively about how to leverage your network for stability in the coming years. For funders, it’s about meeting nonprofits in a way that builds trust, long-term alignment, and readiness for the shifts ahead.

We believe there will be organizations that ride these waves well. They will be a source of hope, peace, and calm for others. And that is why I am sharing this. I want a handful of organizations to be shining examples of what to hang on to. This moment will pass, but that does not mean we can avoid going through it.

So what do we do? Our recommendation is to follow the 60/40 approach. Sixty percent of our grant writing and fundraising strategy should stay the same. These are the current processes, relationships, and practices that still yield some results. Forty percent must shift. That forty percent is where we facilitate the tough conversations, engage funders more deeply, and prepare them for the realities ahead. It is the space for surfacing truths, testing assumptions, and aligning around the decisions that will bring long term security.

This balance keeps us steady where steadiness serves us and adaptable where change is unavoidable.