A move by President Donald Trump this week to freeze federal funding caused chaos among First State nonprofits.
The memo from the Office of Management and Budget was pulled back by the White House after being blocked by a federal judge, but administration officials say a drastic review of federal funding will continue.
Sheila Bravo, President and CEO of the Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement, says the announcement and its fallout caused havoc among Delaware nonprofits.
“One organization indicated that they do a crisis hotline," she said. "The people they hire to do that work are all paid for by different federal grants, so they would have to shut down the crisis hotline.”
Bravo says many nonprofits in the state remain worried that their funding is in jeopardy, and are taking steps to prepare for potential cuts.
“A lot of it is to sit down and say, ‘well, what are the scenarios?’ Knowing what the administration's priorities are or what they're not, how could that impact your organization and what contingencies can the organization put in place?," she said.
Bravo says there is also a lot of concern about both federal funding cuts and how other executive orders signed by the president seem to target particular, often underserved, groups.
“Those are the populations that a lot of nonprofits serve," she said. "And so there's definitely concern about how some of the executive orders are targeting populations and implying that they're bad people.”
Bravo says there are also worries about two budget actions moving through Congress as well, which could include dramatic funding cuts.