The Trump administration’s recent edict to freeze all federal grants and loans to states — followed almost immediately by rescinding the edict — has created fear, confusion and despair. This reprieve is not relief; the efforts behind it are far from over. We should use this time to become properly situated, rather than waiting for the other shoe to drop as people have done for the past several months.
This week’s actions are not simply a little house cleaning and reorganizing: They created fear and confusion. Shutting down government websites is not meant to be helpful, but to stoke fear. Preventing organizations from drawing down funds to pay employees and to execute programs with no warning is not meant to be a logical process, it is meant to be cruel. It is also clear that none of these moves are identifying effective strategies to increase the impact of federal funding on people in this country, these moves are simply to feed red meat to the mob, redistribute resources to loyalists and hide the weakness of the individuals at the top by showing false bravado and illusions of strength.
Whether it is the freeze on federal funding, the ICE raids, or attacks on DEI, these moves are all part of a shock doctrine meant to create fear and chaos in order to keep people on uncertain ground so that it is easier to control the situation and it is more difficult for the opposition to organize.
This strategy is working. People are fearful. I can speak for myself in saying that on a good day I barely sleep due to my responsibilities to dozens of employees and hundreds of thousands of residents that I serve with limited resources. How do you think I’ve been sleeping the past couple nights standing on even more uncertain ground? The fear is real — and I’m not even speaking of the fear of someone who may be wondering if these cuts will prevent them from eating or receiving medical care.
These moves are meant to traumatize people so that they will be more complicit and adversarial with each other moving forward. The more traumatized we are, the more we shift into a scarcity mindset, placing us into the trauma triangle of victim, perpetrator, and savior, and which tells us there is not enough for everyone, and that we cannot solve more than one problem at a time. When the federal government turns the faucet of funding back on, they will encourage you to get yours at the expense of someone else, all while playing the role of rescuer.
I understand that many people are looking and saying: How can this really impact me? I write to you from Philadelphia, the poorest big city in America, and from Kensington, a community that will be deeply impacted by any potential changes and cuts. The organization I work for, New Kensington Community Development Corporation (NKCDC), is a nonprofit that serves a large geographic area made up of more than 100,000 residents with a diverse set of needs.
NKCDC has an approximately $6 million budget and nearly two-thirds of all of our resources come either directly or indirectly from federal sources, and are therefore at risk. In the area of the city with the highest rate of gun violence, our evidence-based Cure Violence program is at risk; in an area facing incredible challenges due to gentrification, all of our mortgage and home ownership-related supports are at risk; in an area with some of the poorest health outcomes in the city, our Community Health Workers program is at risk; and in a community with significant food security challenges, our SNAP Education programs are at risk.
These are just a few examples of what we are looking at and how it might touch you. While many assume that the City of Philadelphia is who performs all functions to support residents, the City is only a partner with hundreds, if not thousands, of organizations that will be deeply impacted if hundreds of millions of dollars are at risk. All of which make up the basic functions of Philadelphia. There isn’t a resident of Philly that won’t be impacted.
A path forward in uncertain times
It is critical that we work with our residents and all stakeholders to make people feel safe, have trust, and be informed so that they can make choices, and co-create collaborative processes so that we are empowered as we move forward together. The following are just a few suggestions that can immediately be acted on:
Our executive and legislative branches need to lead by following the communities they serve, and by committing to support existing expertise. We need to be proactive versus reactive; a good example of that was last week’s hearings held by Councilmember Rue Landau on the upcoming threats due to incoming Trump administration. City Council needs to continue these efforts in a number of additional areas, including a focus on immigration reform and ICE enforcement, threats to LGBTQ+ community, impact of freeze on federal funds as well as changes to federal DEI policies.
I currently serve on the board of four nonprofits, two of which are membership organizations of critical service providers, and two of which have proven to be organizers around their core issues. The Health Federation of Philadelphia has over 50 community members, many of which are federally qualified (and funded) health centers providing critical healthcare to 300,000 Philadelphians each year. The Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations has over 50 members serving every corner of Philadelphia with hundreds of millions of dollars of programming and in housing development for our most vulnerable populations.
GALAEI (the Gay and Lesbian AIDS Education Initiative) provides and facilitates queer educational services, community wellness, is committed to healing historical harm and has been critical in organizing the LGBTQ+ community throughout the region. Fab Youth Philly, a youth workforce development-focused nonprofit, has also been a key convener of out-of-school time efforts and activities throughout the city.
These are just four examples of organizations that are uniquely positioned to immediately assess and organize their targeted constituency in a way our city government is not equipped to do.
Mayor Parker and City Council President Kenyatta Johnson should be reaching out to the leadership of these organizations, as well as to other similar groups saying, We recognize and respect your unique ability to organize and mobilize within your area of expertise. We are requesting that you reach out to your partners to assess the scale of potential impact, to request for people to convene to discuss potential solutions and to mobilize in action. We are committing whatever resources and support necessary to support your leadership. Thank you.
Philanthropy cannot sit on the sidelines; it must decide if its goal is to achieve its mission or to protect its corpus and maintain in good standing with the new administration. Over the past couple of years Philadelphia has seen the loss of a significant number of critical nonprofits — and we will see more without direct intervention.
Philanthropy cannot solve problems alone, but it can absolutely be part of the solution. All philanthropy needs to be more nimble and more responsive in their grantmaking to ensure that we don’t lose good organizations that may already be struggling with payment from federal funds but will now simply get wiped out. Philanthropy can also lead by convening nonprofits to help them better understand whether their funding originates at the federal level, as many organizations are not aware of these connections.
Nonprofits need to do the hard work of making sure their finances are in order and that they know the potential impact of what is coming. They need to develop not just one, but several, contingency plans so that they do not operate from a place of confusion and chaos. With this information in hand, they need to be transparent with staff and co-create solutions with them. Nonprofits have unique relationships with the community they serve, which will allow them to be the key communicators of information as it comes to light, as well as the collectors of on-the-ground information about the impact of changes, all of which is critical in co-creating solutions. It is also critical at this time to recognize the strengths of our organizations and the strengths of others, so that we can expand partnerships and support other organizations which may better be able to meet certain needs of our community.
As for individuals, people need to decide if they are really ready to push back, not wishy-washy or virtue signaling, but to decide if you are willing to sacrifice and struggle for not only yourself but for our most vulnerable.
At the end of the day, whether we are individuals or organizations, we need to take care of each other and ourselves. We all need to: Breathe, Center, Assess, Accept, Adjust, Act.
This is an opportunity for Philadelphia as a city to proactively function at 100 percent with no pretense or politics, just solutions for our city.
Dr. Bill McKinney is a Kensington resident and the executive director of New Kensington Community Development Corporation.
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