Name: Preparing for Imminent Federal Funding Challenges: Immediate First Steps for Nonprofit CFOs
Uploaded: 2025-02-13T20:30:50.244Z
Duration: 47 min 40 s
Description: Preparing for Imminent Federal Funding Challenges: Immediate First Steps for Nonprofit CFOs

Transcript for "Preparing for Imminent Federal Funding Challenges: Immediate First Steps for Nonprofit CFOs": I'm gonna be your host today. I'll run through a couple of housekeeping items in the platform as we give everyone a couple of minutes to get logged in. So this is an interactive platform. Please feel free to ask questions throughout the presentation via the q and a function. We'll answer those questions both via chat as we're able and we also have some time carved out at the end of the presentation for Q and A. A couple of reminders about the platform, the audio for this webinar is being broadcast through your computer speakers. If If you have any technical issues, just try refreshing your browser, that typically does the trick. And if not, you can always try exiting and reentering the session. We're also gonna send out a link to the webinar recording afterwards to the email that you used to register. There's a cogwheel on your screen to adjust any settings as we go along, and we've also got some additional resources for you to reference under the docs tab on your screen. Alright. So with all of that in mind, I'm going to invite my colleague Heather up on stage to get us started. All right. Well, thank you, Marybeth. And thank you all for joining us today. We do appreciate your time and we recognize that current events in our country are impacting many of you directly. We also recognize that the resources coming into your organizations are hard earned and they're vital to your mission and community work. They also support the overhead and the personnel requirements to keep your organization running. Blackbaud's platform ensures these resources are properly accounted for and utilized to their fullest potential to do good. We are here, all of us here at Blackbaud, to support the impact that you create with high accountability and solid stewardship. And, we just again want to thank you for the work that you are all are doing in your communities and around the world. Do you want to just introduce our panelists today so they also would like to join us on stage? Just a couple quick items for each of them. So we have Rachel Werner on the phone with us today and she has over twenty years of experience in grants and public sector management and consulting, working with federal, nonprofit, and corporate clients. She is the principal at MyFedTrainer.com, which is a leading provider of online grant and management training. She's also the owner and CEO of RBW Strategy LLC. This is a consulting firm that offers a full suite of services that support the grant life cycle. So Rachel, thank you for joining us today. We also have Paul Preziotti. Paul is a CPA, partner for the multi office CPA firm Johnson Lambert LLP. He is responsible for providing audit and consulting services to not for profit entities and employee benefit plans. He has significant experience serving as an advisor for organizations on a variety of issues, including risk assessment, governance, compliance, and internal control considerations. Very important work. Thank you, Paul, for joining us. I also have my colleague, Elizabeth. We call her Liz, though. She has worked with nonprofit CFOs and other finance professionals for more than twenty years. Her focus has always been about the use of technology to drive better results and insights. She has a master's degree in accountancy and undergraduate from Georgetown School of Foreign Service. And I'll be your moderator today. I'm Heather LeVan. I've also worked at the nonprofit space for more than twenty years. I have a master's degree in nonprofit management and leadership, and prior to joining Blackbaud, I was a customer with both Raiser's Edge NXT and Financial Edge NXT. So, again, thank you all for joining us today. I'm gonna ask Rachel just to to do her best to try to kinda recap what's happened thus far and and what we're thinking it's going to mean. But, obviously, we're gonna keep this at a high level because it's it's changing really quickly. But, Rachel, if you wouldn't mind doing that, that'd be great. Sure. So thank you for having me. Welcome, everybody. Nice to meet everybody virtually. So it's hard to believe that it's been under a month because it feels like we've all lived about a year, with all the changes and how fast things are moving. So I'm just gonna share a little bit of overview of what's happening at the federal executive level and the administration that has come in, and what has happened since January 20. So on January 20, we had inauguration of president Trump. He came in and signed off on an unprecedented number of executive orders. I'm gonna talk about these executive orders because they impact the future of how the federal funding situation has transpired. So some of these, executive orders I'm going to highlight in particular. So they are protecting the American people against invasion, so that is a focus on immigration, reevaluating and realigning United States foreign aid, which we know has been a focus with USAID closure and also foreign aid that's been used to support different entities around the world. Putting America First in international environmental agreements, unleashing American energy. We know that there's been a focus on green technology and and climate change and how that has been reprioritized with this new administration, Ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing. I know there's been a lot of focus on DEIA programming and how that has been this administration feels is detrimental to the country's future, and defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government. So that has been a focus on transgender population. So the reason I'm bringing these up is that these executive orders have been sort of the linchpin for how things have transpired. So then cut to January 27, the OMB memo that everybody knows about, the famous funding freeze memo, which is OMB memo 25 dash 13, which really started to dig into how these executive orders were going to then relate to the grant making priorities. So basically, that was the executive or the, memo that was issued by the Office of Management and Budget or OMB that basically said that all federal funds were frozen. And of course, that caused quite an outcry. There was another memo that came after that clarifying which funds were not frozen. There were a couple of lawsuits, and so there was a temporary restraining order of that. And then, it was rescinded the next day, so January 29. So then you think, okay. So the funds are not frozen, but there continue to be funds that are frozen even though there was a judge's order on February 3 that said there should be a continued review because that's what Office of Management and Budget issued some guidance to all the federal agencies that said the 2,600 federal grant program should go under review to ensure alignment with these priorities that I mentioned before. And there were some questions and I'm sure people might have seen the spreadsheet and the various different instructions for what agency should be doing to review. And so there has been some I know that some payments I see in the chat, some people can't issue payments, some funds have been stopped. So there's been some challenges to even though there is a legal order and, to state that you that there should be continued flow of funding that is clearly not seen with all of these different programs. At this point where we are not now, there's more things that are coming up. They're the NIH research grants. There's been a 15% cap on indirect cost rates. Some of them have much higher indirect cost rates, and they have negotiated agreements with the federal government. There's also been much more intensive look through at some of the different agencies, Department of Education, NOAA, obviously, USAID, Consumer Federal Protection Bureau. So there's been a lot more intense focus on that, and some of the agencies have also issued more guidance on what they are seeing as their new realigned notice of funding opportunity, framework for what they're going to be using to evaluate different grants coming in. So that's sort of where we are. There's still a lot of questions. There are some things that we don't know at this time, but we're sort of getting a sense of how things are starting to look within the different agencies. Alright. Well, thank you for that, Rachel. That was very helpful. I actually, we're all watching the chat, so it's definitely it's good to see that that some people are not impacted or not yet impacted, but just on here for, to get a lot of information. So thank you for that. So I'm gonna get us started. We just have some really good questions that the panel is gonna kinda work through and share their thoughts. So to get us kick off, the first question is is how can nonprofit organizations prepare to navigate the compliance requirements and potential funding gaps resulting from a potential pause? Sure. So this is this there's there's a couple things. So I'm gonna talk about the compliance requirements first because I think compliance is really key because there's going to be much more scrutiny with regard to federal funding. So it's really important to keep your funds within your account to make sure that you are not causing any means for them to flag it or to make any decisions that could impact your funding that you currently receive. So I see it as a couple things. You know, one is to take a look at your current notices of grant award to ensure that you understand all the terms and conditions that are in there. There are certain things that you need to do to be communicating with your subrecipients and your contractors to ensure that you have an understanding of how those agreements work and what you are on the hook for in terms of funding obligations and how those payments and reimbursements need to look and also your organization if you are a pass through entity, which means that you're the middle entity between giving funds out to another entity and the federal agency. Or if you are direct recipient or even a subrecipient, you are still required to go through similar types of things. You're gonna be beholden to the same rules of two CFR 200, which are the uniform grant uniform grant guidance requirements. So it's important to review those terms and conditions to understand the termination clauses, to understand the drawdowns, and to review your grant funds to see what you still have left to draw down and how you are going to ensure that you are communicating with those subrecipients and contractors to if you can get cash advance payments, how you can perhaps, you know, think about looking at your awards and and to obtain as much funding as you can if you're concerned about potential funding losses. And from internal controls perspective, it's looking at your policies and procedures. Now your internal controls are required for all federal grants and it's a combination of things. Segregation of duties to ensure accountability at different levels and development of written policies and effective processes to ensure that those policies are implemented. So these cover a broad range of things, financial stewardship, ethical behavior, and programmatic and operational oversight. So ensuring those different levels, is really critical to maximizing your funding and setting a good precedent for this for if you have one or you have multiple federal grant awards. Thank you for that. Paul, I know you had some thoughts on this one as well. Thanks. Nope. Paul is going to be right back for just one second. We'll get him back up on the stage. There he is. Thank you, Paul. Welcome back. Sorry about that. Technical difficulties. We're we're we're not immune to it. So when I think about this, I think you have to analyze what type of situation you're in and and go from there. So if you're in the unfortunate situation where your funds have been completely stopped and they're they're we we don't know what the timeline is. Take, for example, USAID, and my my heart goes out to everyone that's impacted in a in a situation like that. I I would suspect you're already deep in contingency planning and taking a look at a multiple different scenarios in terms of, you know, number one, the near term, how are we gonna manage cash flows so that our employees get paid? And then thinking more longer terms in terms of sustainability And also, how are we going to continue operations? What does that mean? Does it involve furloughs? Does it involve expense management? There's there's a lot to unpack, but I I would expect that you're you're deep in that contingency planning. And, you know, your your board, your audit committee, your finance committee, there are people you should be in constant communication with in terms of showing these different scenarios and and making those those hard decisions. And then if you're in a little better situation, but there's still uncertainty, maybe you have a a pause in in funding, maybe it it's just delayed a little bit, then it's, again, going back to the cash flow management and analyzing, here's what it used to be. Here's what we think our new normal is. What does that impact throughout the organization? So, you know, said another way more concisely, it's no matter which situation it's in, it's likely something has changed and analyzing those scenarios and going from there. That's wonderful. Thank you, Paul. Well, next question. And I know, Paul, this is definitely an area for you to to start with, but how can we use risk assessment to appropriately plan for these different scenarios? Great question. So just going a little bit further on what I was just speaking to, I think when you're developing these scenarios, you can create different categories for what potentially could happen. So you could have something at at the most severe level saying, we do not expect to receive funding from this agency ever again. You could have something in the middle that says, we expect to receive 50% of the funding or 25 to 50%. Then you could have another scenario where you get up to 75%. And I think modeling out those different scenarios and showing what's impacted by those scenarios can go a long way. For example, if if you're not getting any funding and you're a cost reimbursement organization, meaning most of your contracts with USAID or another agency are cost reimbursable, that's gonna change a lot in your organization in terms of contractors you're paying, employees you're paying, other variable costs. And and just taking a look at that and and assessing based on what we know. And and as Rachel never would have spoke to, there's a lot we don't know. And I I think that speaks to the importance of developing these scenarios, then sharing those with your board. And and then, like many things, you have to make a decision based on your risk tolerance and and the facts we know. And, that may change, but I I think knowing the impacts of the different scenarios, especially too if if something turns out well and and you get money from one of these lawsuits or an agency that isn't paying you starts paying you in the future, that way you're armed with that information to say, okay. We were in this scenario. Now it's changed, but we know what the potential impacts are. Thank you for that. Rachel, Liz, any thoughts on that? I don't wanna overlook anything you're thinking about. No. I mean, I think that what Paul shared is spot on. And I think in terms of risk assessment, one of the tools that I love is a good risk matrix. So you can probably Google them and find them. So I'm a project management professional, and we had a whole, session is that's a that's a whole component of the PMP certification is on risk management, risk mitigation because I think it's important to assess the risk that you have, and there's different types of risks. There's strategic risks, there's financial risks, there's operational risks, there's reputational risks, and so look at them from different advantages and also try to get as many people from within the organization to assess because what you see as a risk might be different from someone who's more of a frontline staff or someone who's in finance. So it's important to try to bring together people who can really speak to those differently, and provide more perspectives. I love that. That's great. The look for the risk assessment matrix. It's a really great idea. Yeah. Absolutely. Alright. Next question is, you know, what strategies could organizations implement to navigate the potential funding gaps and ensure the continuity of their services? Paul, would you like to start us off on this one? Sure. So when I think about this, the first thing you have to answer is being honest, and this goes back to contingency planning and and doing our modeling is, can we continue to deliver services? Unfortunately, I suspect there are some organizations based on the timing of the lack of funding that are gonna have to contemplate those those hard questions. It's not easy to do, but I think it's something you you have to do because the worst thing you can do is is attempt to operate and not pay employees and and all the other fallout that comes along with that. Now if you can continue to deliver services, maybe you're in a situation where you're delayed or there's less funding. It's it's understanding from a qualitative and a quantitative perspective, what does that look like? You know, one thing I think about is can we leverage other organizations or other other groups in the community to help us in multiple ways? That could be through delivery of service. Is there someone who receives funding from an alternative model but provides similar services to your organization? Is there a potential with for a relationship there? Thinking about leaders in the community, or other organizations you do business with, you know, making sure we're communicating with leaders to understand what they know and if there's any help that they can provide. Just reaching out to the community and and seeing what's out there. Yeah. Thank you for that. Rachel, any thoughts on this one too? Yeah. Definitely. Because we're talking to our clients about this on a regular basis now. And so, just to piggyback on what Paul shared, I think collaboration is absolutely critical. I know that sometimes there can be turf wars with different nonprofits, and I think now is the time for people to really come together and also leverage the collective voice of your associations. Like, the National Council of Nonprofits has been doing an excellent job in advocating on behalf of nonprofit organizations. If you're a local government, there's the National Association of County Organizations, and then there's also, International Association of City Managers. So there's a lot of different associations, and if you're sector specific, there's probably universities, health care. It's that time to really come together and get that voice heard through collective, communication and also with your state or local government agencies. From an organizational vantage, though, I think it's really critical to do that funding portfolio analysis to look at how much grants do you receive from the federal government, how many are state, how many are local, what about your other funding sources, and to really assess. And it's kind of piggybacking on that risk management and kind of looking at each funding source and say, how much of it is safe? How much of it is at risk? And assessing and doing that review for each one and seeing, okay, what is the financial impact of that going to be? And in addition to that, you know, thinking about the broader strategy, what are the priorities? Let's get to the bare bones. What are the priorities you want to accomplish this year regardless of funding? What is it you want to do? You know, obviously, you might serve less people if you have less funding. You know, if there's going to be a change in staff or a change in the amount of resources, that's gonna impact the delivery of services. But let's get back to that. What is it that you want to accomplish, And what is it that you need to do to achieve that and to meet those goals? And then communicating the gaps that you have and also, you know, what is it that you want to accomplish with your key donors, with those in your board? Because they need to be your advocates. This is the time to get your board involved, to get them engaged, to reach out to funders, to reach out to different donors and to to really help be the support your advocates, you know, within the organization that can promote what your work is. And so I think it's really highlighting that. You know, I know that we're working with clients who maybe have started some of that individual donor outreach, and they're like, that's now is the time to really build that up. So I think it's assessing to see where your low hanging fruit, where is it that you can start to engage in other areas if you know that your government grants might not be at the level that they were previously. Well, and I wanna call out too, just watching the chat, two of my favorite words were shared in the chat, and that's collective impact. So that's definitely a lot of what you were just speaking about, Rachel, is just working with other organizations and partners and leaders. So definitely collective impact with that. Alright. I'm gonna start with you, Rachel, on this next one as well because I know we talked about this at length, but and you've touched on it, but let's dig a little bit deeper. But why is it critical that organizations understand the terms of their awards? So the the terms and conditions, it's your contract. It's what you're beholden to the government to do. It's what allows you to for them to hold you accountable for the work that you're doing. So there's a lot of things in those terms and conditions. It's the legislative statutes that you need to adhere to. It's the grant guidance. So let's say that you are receiving funds through a state entity and they receive funding from a federal agencies. You might have this is two CFR 200, the Uniform Grant Guidance, plus you have the state requirements that you must adhere to. So it's understanding those rules, and that includes things like, you know, certain, expenses and how you can spend and draw down your funds. It's also things like your reporting requirements. So there's various different things in there that you want people who are administering the grant to be aware of. So not just the finance team, but operations program. So anyone who administers the grant really needs to understand that, and your termination clauses. Because this is important because I know I have received a lot of questions that can the government just terminate my grant award. And you really need to see if there's, you know, what is in there that could potentially lead to is it allowable for them to just terminate an award? What are what is the conditions for that? So I think it's important to really read through it. You know, something I do wanna, speak to is that in the uniform grant guidance, there is, something in the terminations section, which is section 200.34, by the federal agency or pass through entity pursuant to the terms and conditions of the federal award, including to the extent authorized by law if an award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities. So there's that clause in there. And so it's easier for, the grant making agencies to state, well, you know, you're no longer adhering to our agency priorities and our programs anymore. So it's understanding that, and that's when you really wanna get in touch with an attorney to have them review them because that's an important part of the conversation. What are they allowed to do? What, you know, what is it that you, are able to to capture for yourself? But but it's really important to just just to learn all the components in there because that's your contract, that's your agreement with the government and how you can be aware that you have followed everything to a t and that you're not leaving anything on the table. Hey, Rachel. One of the questions in the chat is could you repeat that clause number that you referred to? Yeah. Okay. So if you look at two CFR 200, I'm sorry. I have to find it in my notes here. We have a few pages here. They keep growing since things have started two weeks ago. It's in section two CFR 200.34, the termination language. So there's four different sections. This is the last bullet point which was added, by the federal agency or pass through entity pursuant to the terms and conditions of the federal award, including to the extent authorized by law if an award no longer effectuates the program goals or agency priorities. So you can see how that language so let's say that you have DEI training or that you support immigrant population or transgender, you can see because those don't align with the agency or the executive order priorities, which are then transferred to agency priorities, how they could try to terminate or rescind some of the funding from your grant award. So that's just something to keep in mind. And, again, this is for an attorney. I am not an attorney, so I don't wanna speak to those kinds of situations. But if you are concerned, I suggest you consult one. There was one other question that I thought might be beneficial for everyone is, what if our state funding source is federal? How do they figure out how much of state money might actually be federal money? Well, in the notice of grant award, it should say if they are a pass through entity, you know, and the federal funding source. So it should state in there. I mean, I would suggest communicating with the the state agency if there's any questions. And I I mean, they can tell you something like that, but state agencies are also trying to figure things out as well because they're learning things in real time like we are. So they're still trying to figure out how to share information, with their recipients and subrecipients, but it should be in the notice of grant award. Well, and, Paul, I know you had some thoughts on this too as well, kind of also from the the legal counsel side, your view on that, if you'd like to share that. Yeah. And I I just wanna say, Rachel's is a great resource, and she while I while I think I know the uniform guidance, she has a lot better recall than me because I couldn't remember that clause. And I I think that speaks to to the importance of utilizing legal counsel. Right? Because we can we can talk about the word effectuate, but and we can look it up in the dictionary. But what does that mean from a legal standpoint? I don't know. And and I think that's why it's important to engage legal counsel to understand the terms of your agreement. And I know legal counsel costs money, but, you know, that could be money that that's very well spent in terms of specifically understanding the compliance requirements and knowing what options you have moving forward because, you know, there may be scenarios where we have to weigh lawsuits and we have to weigh other legal action, based on the terms of our compliance agreements and and what's listed in there. But, you know, legal counsel, that that information is gonna be powerful. So I just wanna echo what Rachel said there. Thank you for that. And, Rachel, you mentioned I'm gonna move us to the next question. You mentioned the importance of being a strong compliant organization. Can you speak to that and what internal controls should organizations have during this time? Yeah. Absolutely. I think that robust policies and procedures is the first step. So as I said, the internal controls, it is included into CFR 200 and is what organizations, if you are a recipient or subrecipient, should have because it is it showcase is your, effectiveness and ability to be a good steward of government funding. And this is something that actually federal agencies are requesting. And if you are in receipt of a single audit, which means that you have expended more than $1,000,000 in federal grant funding as a recipient or subrecipient within your fiscal year, then you are subject to a single audit, which is more intensive than a financial audit, and that requires a more program intensive review. So if you don't wanna get any audit findings or any corrective actions, it's important to have these internal controls. So there's written policies which outline from a financial, operations, ethics, and general oversight perspective. And it covers things such as cash management policy, travel policy, allowable cost policy, and whistleblower conflict of interest or standards of conduct policy. So a lot of different things that go under what these internal controls are. So from there, then you create the processes. The processes have to be organized in such a way that there are systems that can ensure the effective accountability because segregation of duties is an important and critical part of internal controls because if there's no accountability, so for let's say that you spend a great deal of money, from your federal grant on salaries and people have to do time and effort reporting to account for their time, and the person who's signing off on it is the same person that's doing the time and effort, that is not going to look well for your organization. So you wanna have that appropriate accountability and having a different supervisor affirm those hours. So it's those kinds of things that you want to ensure within your organization. I would just say that some are probably going to rise to the top. I'd say definitely having your financial policies in order would be very critical and other things like conflict of interest, especially if you do a lot of procurement. So I'd say start with your notice of grant award and how you spend your funds, and that should dictate how you build out your policies and the repository of information that needs to be accounted for. Because once it's, you know, written down, it's codified, and it's approved by your board, then you can move forward in actually implementation and, ensuring that it's and then their their team is trained on how they can appropriately, implement those policies. And if I could layer on to what Rachel said there too, I I fully agree on having strong internal controls and having those documented. But a wise person once told me, if you didn't document it, it didn't happen. And that comes to mind in this time of change because as we talk about revised funding models, loss of funding, there's gonna be changes for organizations, both to the number of employees, what employees do, and then potentially the shape of internal controls. And just making sure that however we have our internal controls documented, that those are a living and breathing document. And you make sure you have the updates for when those changes are, what those changes are. Because when your auditors come in or if you get a department or program specific audit, they're gonna ask about those changes. And just making sure you have formal documentation of what was changed, why it was changed, and when it changed can go a long way. And I I bring that up because, it's easy to overlook it, especially when and and while it's important, right, you're you're trying to keep the the lights on and and continue to receive funding. So I I just bring that up as a friendly reminder in this time of change. Yes. Thank you for that. Well, also, I I went I mean, this is another area we've we've high level touched on, but this is a really good one that I'd like to dig a little bit deeper on. But how can nonprofits effectively communicate with stakeholders? Let's dig a little bit deeper on that one. Paul, do you wanna kick us off with this one? Sure. That's a loaded one. I think you have to think about both the qualitative and the quantitative aspects of what's happening and thinking about the mode of communication and who you communicate with. You know, some of that communication could involve social media and other platforms. At the same time, you have to consider other factors that are present and who might be watching. So, again, that that speaks to the importance of utilizing, professionals to help you craft those communications and also to think about who could potentially be watching and and how you're communicating, what you're communicating, and what terms you're using during that communication. But again, also going back to what I was speaking to through the community and thinking about partnerships with other organizations and also thinking about utilizing elected officials who may support causes for individuals and organizations that are are on this webinar. So, you know, there's there's a lot to consider here, but just thinking about all the tools you have at hand and not just focusing on the quantitative or financial side of things, but also focusing on the qualitative impact your organization has and can continue to have and, you know, what this disruption is doing to it. Absolutely. Rachel, any thoughts on this one? Sure. And I I think, I'm gonna piggyback on this and, say that authentic communication is what's needed right now and to just really be able to articulate your needs and reach out for help. And I think it's important to, you know, as Paul said, to really leverage those collective voices around you either with your colleagues, with your partners, because I know that there's gonna be a lot of impact, within your sector, within your space, and it's going to impact everyone a little bit differently. And, of course, there's and it's not just federal grants, but is also federal contracts as well because there's a number of different ways that the funding is dispersed. And so it's important to to see how that's, you know, impacting you and your fellow colleagues differently and leveraging those elected officials. And I'm gonna keep preaching about the associations and membership organizations because they can really serve as a strong voice. You know, I I know that, you know, the, the NCI know, why am I blanking on them right now? They they were part of the lawsuit that was able to, you know, provide temporary relief on the funding freeze. So, so it's really important to just be a part of that community and to just have your voice heard, and they're collecting information that can really assist in navigating, you know, how to move forward and how the executive orders are impacting the nonprofit sector. So, the National Council for Nonprofits. Sorry. Had a brain freeze for a second. And and I also think that in terms of the communication, I'm gonna bring in another tool that I think could be helpful. This is another PMP tool called a RACI chart. If you're not familiar with it, it kind of piggybacks on what Paul was saying about the communication. So it's basically a chart of, like, how do you kind of view your different stakeholders in internally and externally. So it's responsible, accountable, consulting, informed. So how were you going to kind of take the different types of stakeholders and how would you communicate with them? Is it going to be an email? Is it gonna be part of a newsletter? Is it gonna be a phone call? So if you look at the different stakeholders and they could be, you know, donors, it could be partners, it could be the general public. You know, that's something that you could do to try to, provide information and you could assign people various different roles on how they're going to put together that communication and maybe putting together scripts. So that's a a real tangible way for your board and other staff to be involved in the communication. And it's called RACI, r a c I. So you can Google it, RACI, and you should be able to find something very quickly. I love that. Well and this is another area too, just leveraging partnerships and collaborations as as as all of these all of the organizations are really you're delivering such essential services to our communities. How can any additional advice on how we can kind of mitigate that impact by leveraging partnerships and collaborations? Yeah. You know, from the standpoint of we we've already talked about quite a bit how what this potentially could be. I guess the additional piece of advice I can offer here is taking a step back and doing an inventory organization wide of what you have available to you. And that's thinking about connections we have through boards, connections we have through employees, other community connections, doing an inventory of that, then risk assessing what is the potential of success and then prioritizing who you're gonna reach out to. So I think we we've already talked about this quite a bit, but my my first recommendation is is taking a step back and seeing what is our inventory of potential health out there. Absolutely. Well, I'm gonna move us forward just a little bit because I think this next one, we've touched on components of this as well, but, what role can private sector funding and philanthropy play in addressing some of the gaps left by the federal funding pause? And how can nonprofits effectively engage with these sources of support, especially if maybe this isn't a big area for you traditionally? Rachel, do you wanna start with this one? I know you kinda had a couple of thoughts on this one. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, I think we're still trying to see the the full impact of the philanthropic response to all that's happening. So, you know, just like with COVID, there were more opportunities that opened up. They opened up more funding opportunities for general operating support. So we did see a response to that. We have seen them, provide more opportunities in response to various different, trends and initiatives that are happening all across the country. So I think we are still waiting to see the full impact of what they're going to do. So I would say to keep watching because there are probably gonna be more opportunities that are on the horizon. But I think it is important to think about the collective impact because there is gonna be more competition for funding. So how are you going to make yourself stand out? How can you, again, work with a different partner if, you know, you're working towards the same mission, the same goal? How can you sort of maximize your, priorities together and the work that you're doing? So I think it's a good idea to kind of leverage your shared partnerships. And I think that the private sector, people are gonna be relying on it quite a bit. So corporate funding, there's gonna be private foundation funding, family foundations, as well as donor advised funds. Those are all going to be leveraged a little bit more heavily. So I think it's important to know that with some of these entities, there's going to be more availability perhaps to support those initiatives that may not be supported with federal funding. So if you have DIA training, DIA training, you know, that might be a source of funding for you. So it's looking to see, you know, how you can maximize that. And also, I'm gonna keep bringing up the individual donors. You know, I think people will wanna help. You just have to give them an opportunity. You have to tell them the story of how their impact can lead to some positive outcomes in their community. And so I think it's really, trying to see, you know, where you can find the most low hanging fruit and leverage your board for that relationship building with, the different funders. I agree a % with what Rachel said there. Even while showing empathy to everyone involved, this situation unfortunately, does speak to the importance of diversification of revenue. And and I fully understand that that's not easy and that takes time. And the same thing goes along with fundraising. Right? If if there was a fundraising button, we could just push and and get donations from thousands of individual donors. Every organization would do it. But, unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. So, you know, this I I suspect, as Rachel said, this may be the onus for organizations to invest in fundraising and to look more heavily into diversification of funds. And what I would just say is is that's a process that that takes time, but I've seen organizations successfully implement it. So it's it's definitely worth looking into. Yeah. And I mean, definitely. And you said it earlier, Paul, leaning into more of the qualitative data. I know there was a time in my own career where we really had to kind of pivot. We had to really dig into the storytelling of our mission to to really connect with a different audience when our funding had to be diversified. So that's that's what comes to mind for me on that one. Liz, any thoughts on this one for you? I think you all have covered it. Yes. It keeps coming what keeps coming to mind is is what is the story you're gonna tell and how are you gonna tell that story? And and making sure that the audience that you're speaking to you're you're personalizing it to the audience that you're speaking to. Yeah. Yeah. I always think of it just kinda putting a face to your mission beyond the statistics, whatever that mission Right. Might be, to connect with people at a different level. So, all really great thoughts on that. Paul, Rachel, any final thoughts as we as we start to close out our time together? Pay attention to the guidance every day. It keeps changing, and that's not gonna stop. Absolutely. Yeah. I just say stay informed. Try to get on newsletters. Try to attend webinars like this to ensure that you are as informed as possible because as I said before, this is a point in time. So what we say today might change next week depending on new guidance that's administered. So, just try to be as, aware as possible of what's happening. We have two two questions. One is, do you have a certain source you would recommend that they follow? I have sources. So I can share fine. Yeah. So, definitely, so for big stories, I always start well, I'm in DC, so Washington Post is how I find out sometimes about big stories. And from there, I also look at associations like National Grant Management Association, kind of distills some really useful intel about what's happening from a grants perspective. Because again, I'm looking at it from compliance and how it impacts the federal funding community. Also, the National Council of Nonprofits, they have a lot of great information and resources on their website, so I absolutely recommend them. And, you know, I also have read just different blog posts. Some of them have been posted by attorneys who are really distilling more information about the impacts of particular components of, you know, what's happening with the different memos. So, you know, I I sometimes just get from different resources and other things like, different associations that are speaking to their communities. Like, somebody asked me, is tribal part of DEIA? And they're not. But I had to look up and see, you know, the Association for Tribal Entities, you know, that that was, you know, clarity on that topic. So it it really varies in LinkedIn. LinkedIn has been a really valuable source of information sharing. Yeah. And I would add on to that too. I I I echo everything, but especially the attorneys. In addition to newsletters, a lot of the law large law firms, offer webinars and will continue to do so. And, you know, legal advice costs money. So when you can get it for free, why turn it down? And I I think the other group that we're gonna hear from at some point, it may be a little bit, but it'll be important from the compliance standpoint, is the AICPA's Government Audit Quality Center. I suspect a lot of you, your organizations are members or you have auditors that you utilize that are members, and, their interpretation of what's happening is gonna be important at the right time. Awesome. Thank you. Any specific newsletters that that come to mind too kind of in addition to that that top of mind maybe for you, Rachel? That was also a a comment. A plug for, well, MyFED trainer, we are putting out, weekly newsletter, that we really distill a lot of what's happening into just understanding how that impacts your organization. So we've been in including that in our newsletter. You know, and the others that I mentioned are the ones that I read and I follow. So Yeah. I'm glad you mentioned yours there too. So alright. Well, I wanna thank everyone for joining us today. And it's been really fun to watch the chat just as each of you have engaged with each other. But, I'm gonna hand it over to Marybeth to start closing us out. Rachel, Paul, Liz, thank you so much for your thoughts today. Thank you. Thanks, Heather. And yes. Thank you Thank you. To all our wonderful presenters. Thanks, everyone, for the comments and the questions. Before we close out, I wanna draw your attention one last time to the resources and the docs tab that we hope you're gonna find helpful. You can run through a list of a couple of things that we've compiled there. Also, just a reminder that you're going to receive a link to the recording of today's session. Just a little quirk about that link, it is unique to your registration. So if you have colleagues who weren't able to make it today but would like to go back and watch, I'd suggest having them go ahead and register and then they'll receive their own link. So thank you so much. Thank you for your time today and hope this was helpful.