Nonprofit leaders across Spokane are bracing for the fallout of federal budget freezes, delayed grants, and potential funding cuts that could weaken essential services for thousands of residents in the region. 

Over the past several weeks, at least a dozen nonprofit organizations have reached out to Ryan Oelrich, executive director of Priority Spokane, with concerns about frozen grants or clawed back. The uncertainty is making it difficult to plan operations or make hiring decisions, Oelrich says. 

“That huge uncertainty is also highly damaging to nonprofits that are often operating on shoestring budgets,” he says. 

While few organizations have seen their core funding eliminated outright, many are feeling the pressure of a slow-moving crisis. The greatest concern among organizations like Family Promise of Spokane, YWCA of Spokane, and Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners is not the loss of a single grant, but what happens when entire systems—from housing to health care to early childcare education—start to falter in tandem. 

“My fear, and it started here already, is that really the safety net literally has holes starting to be poked in it,” says Julie Honekamp, SNAP CEO, describing the moment as a rollercoaster unlike any crisis she’s weathered in her 26 years with the nonprofit.

Constant changes to program funding happen every day, changing by the hour in some cases, and create more instability and confusion, Honekampt says.

To track this uncertainty, SNAP built a color-coded dashboard to keep track of programs. Yellow programs have either reduced services or pending changes, and red programs have been fully paused. Green programs are operating as usual. 

SNAP is nearly 60 years old and serves about 40,000 people annually. It operates about 30 programs, many of which rely on braided funding, where multiple streams are woven together to support a single service. It has a staff of about 150 and an annual operating budget of $37 million, with 62% of that coming from governmental sources, and 34% of that government share coming from federal funds, Honekamp says. 

SNAP operates on a fiscal budget from July through June. State budgets are also on a July-to-June cycle, while the federal government’s fiscal year runs from October to September, Honekamp says. 

Currently, the organization is waiting for July 1 contract renewals. It has asked its public funding partners—including the city of Spokane and Spokane County—to provide at least an intent to contract, yet those entities are also in limbo awaiting their own contract renewals. One bottleneck, Honekamp notes, is at the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, which has yet to receive U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds from 2022. Without those federal funds flowing downstream, state and local agencies can’t distribute funds to local nonprofits like SNAP, she explains. 

Thus far, SNAP has had to lay off three people who provide medical and food transportation, and by July 1, its four-person team of HUD-certified counselors will be reduced to just one, she says. These HUD-certified positions require time-intensive certification and can’t be easily replaced once they are gone, she adds. 

More cuts are also expected. Though not law yet, a pending federal reconciliation package known as “One Big Beautiful Bill” has passed in the U.S. House of Representatives and is currently before the Senate. A resolution on the bill is expected by July 4.  

Honekamp says the bill includes potential cuts to several key funding sources, including the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program and the Community Block Grant, which many organizations receive and use to help the public with housing, home repairs, and infrastructure. Also, portions of HUD that provide funding to services like rental assistance, housing development, and homelessness programs could be cut.  

Honekamp says she's also worried about smaller, culturally specific nonprofits that don't have the same financial buffers and may be among the first to close. Northwest Fair Housing Alliance has already sent out a press release stressing it might need to shutter in the near future, she says.

According to a press release from the organization, unless additional funding is received, Northwest Fair Housing Alliance will reduce its six employees' hours to 50%, with full layoffs to follow within months.

A representative of the organization couldn't be immediately reached by the Journal. 

Ninety percent of NFHA's annual budget comes from HUD grants, which have allowed the organization to offer free services to the public for 30 years, the letter states. The organization's two HUD grants will expire on June 14, and HUD has indefinitely delayed entering into agreements for already awarded grants or acting on pending grant applications. 

The Washington state budget is also having an impact on nonprofits. As reported by the Journal, College Success Foundation plans to close its Spokane regional office this summer due to proposed cuts in Washington's state budget. The decision to close the regional office came as a surprise to the Spokane Regional Advisory Board, which had recently raised $135,000 at its College Success Foundation's Empowering Youth Spokane Fundraising event. 

Impacts on families

Joe Ader, CEO of Family Promise of Spokane, an organization that helps families that are at risk of or are currently experiencing homelessness through housing assistance, support services, and other resources, says Family Promise receives only one federal grant through the county’s Continuum of Care program. 

The Continuum of Care program is funded by HUD and administered locally. It allocates resources to organizations that address homelessness. Countywide, the program received $6 million for its 2024-2025 budget. 

While Family Promise’s portion of that funding isn’t critical to its day-to-day operations, Ader says the ripple effects to broader cuts to partner programs such as refugee resettlement assistance, free and reduced lunches for children, and cuts to Medicaid would have a massive financial impact on individuals and send more families to his doorstep.  

“Homelessness is at the intersection of many of the different issues within our community,” Ader says. “So really, cuts to just about anything, particularly when you’re dealing with family homelessness, impact the families we serve.” 

Last year, Family Promise of Spokane served 2,993 people and rehoused 805 people, including 441 children, nearly double from 2023, according to Ader. The organization has 64 staff and an annual budget of about $7 million. It is currently budgeting for its new fiscal year and is in a relatively better position because of a $2.5 million grant from the Bezos Day One Family Fund it received in 2024, Ader says. It has set aside 90 days of reserves to weather immediate disruptions, but after those 90 days, they would need to make organizational adjustments, he adds. 

The YWCA of Spokane is also concerned about the ripple effects of shrinking support systems like childcare, as well as pressure from changing compliance regulations on federal grant applications that could put their core mission, eliminating racism and empowering women, at odds with evolving federal requirements. 

Jeannette Hauck, CEO of YWCA Spokane, says that although the organization hasn't experienced direct cuts to its core funding, it is facing shifting language in federal guidance in re-applying for certain federal grants. For one of the organization's key grants, which comes from the Justice Department and provides legal services for survivors of intimate partner violence, YWCA of Spokane is required to certify that it will not use federal funds in any way that is in opposition to any of President Trump's executive orders. 

"What we do is we look at our certifications and we look at what our program specifically does for our community," Hauck says. "And in any way where we believe that it would be in violation of one of those executive orders, even if it were really broadly interpreted, we would try to use different funds. We are not going to change the scope of the work we do to be in compliance with those executive orders." 

Like other nonprofits, the YWCA is watching closely as programs it depends on, especially those serving low-income families and children, face reductions that will increase demand for its own services. One federally funded program that is facing cuts is Head Start, which offers free childcare to three and four-year-olds. The YWCA provides free preschool education for three and four-year-olds through ECEAP—Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program—which is funded by Washington state. If Head Start is cut, those parents are then going to try the ECAEP program, which has also been reduced and limited, she says. 

"We don't have capacity, the state doesn't have the capacity to take on those kids," Hauck says. "It's incredibly discouraging that those in our community who are the most vulnerable will be impacted by some of these federal freezes and cuts." 

Spokane's nonprofit leaders have spent decades weaving together a patchwork of services meant to catch people in crisis, says Honekamp. But as federal delays and policy shifts continue, that patchwork is beginning to fray. 

"You can pull a few threads and hold things together," Honekamp says. "But how many threads can you pull until it all falls apart? At what point do we hit critical failure?"