By: Maryela Gallardo, Follow South Jersey Intern
SOUTH JERSEY – In late January, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that directed a temporary suspension of federal financial assistance programs. The Office of Management and Budget established an order that instructed federal agencies to “temporarily pause all activities related to…disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities.”
The Trump Administration’s goal was to evaluate if the financial assistance given to multiple organizations, nonprofits, companies, and more was aligning with the administration’s policy objectives. However, since the order was passed, various judges have since issued temporary restraining orders against the funding pauses. Less than two days after the order, the administration rescinded it, but it is still leaving people in confusion about programs they use.
This funding freeze impacts the way organizations, companies, and nonprofits get access to funds, which allow them to continue their daily operations. The Center for American Progress said that the federal funds can make up to 18 to 50 percent of state budgets, and when it froze it paused funding to Medicaid, CHIP, SNAP, other financial aid programs, and even nonprofits. Which doesn’t just impact daily operations, but also people who rely on those programs, employees who work at federally funded nonprofits, and the stability of those companies.
Here in New Jersey, the state receives around $30.8 billion in federal funds, which means one-third of the state was impacted when the funding was paused. It halted access to health care, education, and infrastructure programs in the state. Nonprofits funded federally are assessing what their future finances look like. They are looking for ways to ensure there is no justifications as to why federal agencies would remove their funds.
The nonprofit, From We Can’t To We Can, is an organization started by Trinity Jagdeo and her best friend Alexus Dick. The two have been friends since kindergarten, and Dick has Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a degenerative disease that decreases basic movements like walking and talking. Jagdeo has been looking for more representation of characters in TV and film with disabilities. However, since she has heard no response back from corporations like Disney, she found a way to create that representation at her nonprofit.
This nonprofit based in Vineland, Cumberland County, has since provided families with support, creating programs that include and raise awareness of disabilities.
“It doesn’t just affect federal funding, but it might also affect the way that donors and individuals who want to support these efforts realize what big of an issue it is,” says Jagdeo. “May no longer think that there’s either a rush or that big of an importance, and you know that mindset can stop someone from donating, you know, $5 or donating $5,000.”
While the nonprofit is not federally funded, they are also impacted by other orders from the current administration, like the removal of DEI. Larger corporations that fund From We Can’t To We Can who are stepping away from their DEI programs, could stop funding nonprofits that still incorporate it in their goals, something that Jagdeo fears.
Jagdeo also expresses that the nonprofit is trying to grow; they have been around for almost seven years, and are looking to one day be federally funded. With the Trump administration’s federal funding pause, it stopped the nonprofit from getting closer to that goal.
Other nonprofit organizations in South Jersey who are federally funded have had to forfeit some funding to meet the new standards. Michele Francesconi is the Co-Chair of the Non Profit Development Center of Southern New Jersey Board of Trustees, representing the Volunteer Center of South Jersey, and Jersey Cares. While the center is not fully federally funded, it did have to forfeit money used for its Martin Luther King Jr. events.
“That puts people in nonprofits in a bad spot, because now you have people that are supporting those you know, that’s what we do,” says Francesconi. “We’re all about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, like that’s what nonprofits do. We help everyone, so to make us change it just so we can get the money. I don’t know how that’s going to go.”
In other states, such as South Carolina, nonprofit organizations are filing lawsuits to stop the Trump administration’s freeze on federal funding, which is forcing them to make difficult decisions about jobs, operations, and where to find more funding. The New Jersey Center for Nonprofits has held events informing others on how to prepare for the challenges nonprofits face as cuts are made due to this executive order.
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