Alaska nonprofits face immense uncertainty due to the Trump administration’s pause on federal grants and loans. That’s the message state lawmakers heard during a House Judiciary meeting Monday afternoon.
Laurie Wolf is executive director of the Foraker Group, a state nonprofit association that advocates for the sector. She said nonprofits in the state receive about $1.2 billion from the federal government yearly, and that funding impacts every Alaskan.
“Every Alaskan is a nonprofit beneficiary, because nonprofits are woven into the fabric of our communities,” Wolf said.
Wolf said if taken as its own job sector, nonprofits would be the second largest in the state, behind resource extraction and ahead of fishing. She said services provided by the roughly 35,000 nonprofit employees in Alaska range widely from medical care and housing to fire safety and child care.
In the week since the Trump administration's partial freeze of federal funds, Wolf said Foraker heard concerns from over 150 nonprofits across the state. She said nonprofits reported that they rely on the federal government for anywhere from 22% to 100% of their funding.
“At 10-40% of the workforce across Alaska, this would upend entire local economies,” Wolf said. “Private philanthropy in Alaska also cannot make up for the difference in the loss of government investment. They are a leveraging tool, not a sole source option.”
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Jasmine Boyle is chief development officer for RurAL CAP, a nonprofit community action program that primarily serves low-income residents in rural communities. She said many nonprofits rely on the federal government to reimburse them for services they provide, and the funding freeze has put many in a tough financial position
“We've already spent the money because we signed a legal agreement that we would spend the money on certain things,” Boyle said. “And if we can't recoup what has already been spent in a good faith business relationship, that, in turn, causes institutional problems for every nonprofit.”
Committee chair Andrew Gray, a Democratic representative from Anchorage, said lawmakers expect to hear from state agencies about potential impacts from the federal funding freeze at a future date.
