And finally, a federal funding freeze at the start of the year and the longest government shutdown in U.S.

history this fall have shaken nonprofits nationwide and right here in Nevada.

The state's nonprofit sector was already underfunded, undersized and understaffed.

That's according to Nevada Grant lab, which held its first Southern Nevada nonprofit summit this week at the Wynn.

Its theme was Meet the Moment and here to share how his nonprofit is trying to do just that is Samuel Rudd, president and CEO of United Way of Southern Nevada.

Welcome to Nevada Week.

Thank you.

So you were at that summit and tell me this moment in time for your nonprofit.

What is it like?

You know, it's such an interesting time for all nonprofits, but specifically for United Way of Southern Nevada.

It's really been a time to rise and identify how we can come together as a sector and respond to this crisis, because it's a moment like this when we realize what's really important, what we need to focus on and how we need to do that in a united way.

Can you give me some examples of what has happened to your organization this year that led you to come to that conclusion?

Yeah.

First and foremost, one of the roles that United Way of Southern Nevada plays is to be a collaborator and convener of the nonprofit sector.

We offer a once a month call where we all gather together.

And when the when the freeze happened in January, we had over 300 leaders join that call the very next day to talk about what are we going to do and how are we going to respond as a sector?

Specifically, United Way of Southern Nevada was impacted by, funds that were frozen.

Right at that same time where we had to decide what we were going to do with those changes.

One of those was the emergency.

Excuse me, emergency Food and Shelter Program, or FSP, that has been in operation since the Carter administration.

And for example, in Clark County, it helps over 120,000 Clark County residents every every year.

So that funding was frozen, funding that you have received ever since the Carter administration, did it ever come back online?

It has not, and it is still paused.

So what do you do for the Southern Nevadans who rely on that money or that funding for for food and support?

Yeah.

So we do that in partnership with several organizations across the Valley.

And so much of that was still being given out with with resources that were available.

But as those resources dried up, basically those needs can't be met.

And we immediately in the back invigorated our emergency assistance and community needs fund, to help fill the gap.

And we've been calling upon individuals, corporations, foundations to support that, as well as talking to state, officials on how do we fill that need in the midst of this pause?

How long have you had that separate fund?

We started that fund during Covid.

And so, we utilize that fully through that, that crisis and then felt that it was time to reinvigorate that when this pause occurred.

So the federal funding freezes impacted you in that you decided you're going to pull a program that you implemented during Covid to respond to not no longer having that federal funding.

Was were there any other, grants that you had received that were paused?

We did.

We had another grant that focused on, literacy that was paused.

With very short notice.

And we had to make a decision, of changing how we did that program.

We ended up shrinking that program down to be a little bit more of a pilot program.

And although that funding did come back online, we had to make a very difficult decision of, are we are we willing to continue to do that in light of the fact that the programs keep changing, whether they fund or not, even throughout the year?

I mean, someone might think, if the funding is available, take it.

What would you say?

Yeah, I think it's important.

I mean, it takes all, all various resources.

We really need federal funds.

We need state funds.

We need local funds.

We need private philanthropy.

All of it is needed for us to make a difference.

But in light of that challenge and the up and down, reaction of the administration, we we made a decision not to go forward with that funding when it came back online.

However, we're still open to that.

We're we want to work with all of the agencies that provide resources so that we can get those needs out to the community.

Am I hearing this correctly that it's because those funds may not be available in the future?

There's so much uncertainty surrounding this that it's not a good choice to commit to something like that again, and then have it be taken away.

So it's a combination and this is a little bit detailed, but the way that nonprofits work is that they receive funds from these government organizations, but they have to upfront those costs and then wait to be reimbursed.

And in some cases, some nonprofits are waiting three to 4 to 5 months for reimbursement.

And so if you don't have a good business model to be able to handle that cash flow crunch, then you have to really decide, can I continue with this, even though the funding may or may not come through and even, for example, the FSP, fund that I was mentioning, there were nonprofits that were committing those dollars and knowing they were going to get reimbursed in April.

But then when that pause happened, they then had to go without that reimbursement.

And so you have to make those hard decisions, even though the funding may be indicated as coming through in light of this, the decisions that were made, it wasn't a guarantee.

And so you have to be wise in those decisions.

What is your attitude towards federal funding right now?

Because even applying for it has changed.

At the beginning of the year, organizations were told to remove, diversity, equity and inclusion language from their grants, whereas the prior administration promoted that.

What do you what do you do.

Yeah.

It's a it's an interesting challenge.

I think the important thing that nonprofits need to focus on, and what we're focusing on is that the community needs are still present and we want to help all individuals.

And so whatever we need to do to make that happen is our goal.

And we need to make good business decisions to ensure that the funding that we have is sustainable.

And so I'm very open to federal funding.

But we are going to be wise with those those decisions as we look at each opportunity and ensure that we can sustain those resources for the people in need.

We got to speak at that nonprofit summit, and you told me about an eye opening experience during the government shutdown involving Snap benefits.

What did you learn?

And what we learned were so thankful for the governor and the, legislative body here in the state of Nevada to provide the $30 million in resources that replace those Snap benefits for that period of time.

That went directly to food Bank.

It went directly to the two food banks in each of our the north and south.

And what we found is that was a very helpful and generous, but it didn't always get to the people that needed it most.

For example, someone who struggled with, being unhoused may have received, a food product that they couldn't actually eat because they didn't have the ability to cook that, or perhaps they didn't have a vehicle to get to the location where the food drives were happening.

Even in in addition, being able to get that information, or get that resource out through the use of the National Guard, it was a wonderful resource.

But it also caused some individuals to be afraid to to come and get that food.

So it's really looking at how do we get those resources into the right hands.

And most effective use of funds?

Samuel Wright, United Way of Southern Nevada, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

Thank you.

thank you for joining Nevada Week.

Thank you.