Our Response to Current Nonprofit Sector Challenges
These are hard times in the nonprofit sector given the shifts and uncertainty around federal funding. As a result, we want to communicate our response:
- To understand these changes and their impact, we’ve actively engaged with the sector by conducting an Executive Order Survey and coordinating and participating in funder convenings.
- In response, we have provided capacity-building opportunities such as learning sessions on scenario planning and mergers/non-mergers and select access to one-on-one sessions with expert consultants.
- Our funding focus areas haven’t changed, and our annual payout remains at its maximum level.
Let us know if you have questions, and we welcome your ideas for other ways that we can support you.
Welcome to CSHF’s New City Council Liaisons
A warm welcome to our newly appointed City Council Board Liaisons: CMs Kimberly Gold and Dave Leinweber. We’re thrilled to have them join us and look forward to their insights.
Councilmember Kimberly Gold, District 4
Councilmember David Leinweber, At Large Representative
Results from the Executive Order Survey
Four local grantmaking organizations (Colorado Springs Health Foundation, Dakota Foundation, The H.A. & Mary K. Chapman Foundation and Windy Pines Foundation) sent a short survey on executive order impact to 178 grantee organizations in March 2025 to better understand the initial impact, if any, of the executive orders.
Forty-four grantees responded (25%). Of the respondents, 68% reported they received some level of federal funding. Of these, 67% reported they have been directly affected by the executive orders. Almost all respondents (97%) expected their funding and/or clients will be affected by the executive orders if they haven’t already.
Interesting Information Resources
- ALICE report: The Colorado ALICE report was released earlier this year. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed and helps the community understand just how much money is required to survive economically. Unlike the federal poverty level indicator, it takes a realistic look at the basic costs of a household budget – housing, food, child care, phone, transportation, healthcare, technology (home internet) and taxes to calculate the real cost of surviving in our region.
- CHI Federal Funding Tool: Colorado Health Institute created a new interactive tool that shows what parts of the state budget are most at risk from possible federal funding cuts. This graphic lets you look at the big picture and see just how big federal Medicaid funding is. You can also zoom in to areas such as public health or education to see what specific programs that depend most on federal funds.
What We Are Reading About or Listening to Now
- An article, What Is Impact Measurement and How Can Organizations Use It?, by The Bridgespan Group that dives into impact measurement and how it can unlock new pathways to organizational improvement and resilience.
- Rethinking Suicide by Craig Bryan, PhD. A thought-provoking book that teases out the connection between mental health and suicide and provides associated suicide prevention recommendations.
- An Immense World by Ed Yong. This wonder-filled book helps humans understand the vast and remarkable sensory diversity of other animals. It will blow your mind!
- And, in honor of Father’s Day, the New York Times published “The Subtle Art of the Dad Text.” It will make you laugh and cry.
- “The Quilters,” a powerful documentary by Jenifer McShane, follows a men’s quilting group within a Missouri maximum-security prison as they create quilts for foster children.