- Brie Franklin leads a non -profit organization which receives 90% of its income from federal subsidies.
- Earlier this month, a judge blocked the White House order to freeze any federal funding.
- Franklin takes steps to make sure that she does not support the weight of what is happening alone.
This characteristic test is based on a conversation with Brie Franklin, a non -profit executive director based in Denver. It was published for duration and clarity.
The non -profit space is experiencing a level of trauma similar to the pandemic – which I do not think we have never completely recovered.
I am executive director of the Colorado coalition against sexual assault. Since the White House sent the Federal Funding Freeze gel note, my non -profit organization is uncertain about the future of our organization.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked frost, but we still do not know what is the next step, and it is incredibly stressful for the staff.
As a small non -profit organization, we are very dependent on federal funding
My non -profit organization supports survivors of sexual violence through a hotline of crisis. Our members work with survivors thanks to everything, rape crisis centers to government defenders’ programs. We also provide training, resources and support, and we do political work at the level of the state. Federal subsidies represent more than 90% of our income.
We are funded on a reimbursement basis, which means that we ask the federal money after being spent. Since the freezing of temporary financing, we have been able to be reimbursed, but the future of our funding is uncertain.
On February 6, the Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) at the United States Ministry of Justice withdrew all financing notices and asked organizations not to complete current requests. This is particularly devastating for us. We do not know if and when they will republish the opinions.
We don’t know how to plan for the future
We should be able to trust our government to honor its commitments, but at the moment, we are still waiting to see what is going on with most of our funding.
We suspended our annual conference. We would generally confirm presenters and workshop subjects now, including workshops on how to work with specific populations, such as deaf or hard of hearing survivors. With new dei restrictions, we do not know if we are even allowed to do so.
We also do not know if our members and partners will be able to use their grant funds to attend the conference.
We are hanging on with a hotel contract, and if we annul, it will cost us about $ 22,500.
I worry what it means for our staff and the survivors that we support
It is very difficult to support a survivor who is in crisis or to sail in very complex systems when you are yourself in crisis and worried about your work.
On February 11, we received a communication from the CDC that he canceled his memos to stop the DEI activities on all the prizes financed by the CDC and stop all the activities to promote gender ideology. If we continue to receive a similar communication, we will resume all activities and normal and hope to continue to be reimbursed for our current grant agreements.
As a leader, I make sure that I cannot bear the weight of what is going on alone by pulling informed staff, asking for their contribution and having conversations with other leaders for support and ideas. Being in a community with our organization, our members and our partners helps me to face.
If your business or organization is based on federal funding and you want to share your story, please send an email to Manseen Logan to mlogan@businessinsider.com.
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