Sequester Takes Toll on Social Safety Net Nonprofits

By Rick Cohen 
Nonprofit Quarterly

Interesting, isn’t it, how sequestration has faded from public debate? It may be that the sequester was overplayed by the White House and its Republican opponents in Congress, with the White House hinting at dire consequences for the nation’s fragile economic recovery and the Republicans suggesting that cutting government funding would actually boost economic activity.

We know where the sequester has had its impact: on services to the poor and people in need, of the kind typically delivered by nonprofits acting solo or in partnership with governmental agencies. No one, it seems, is keeping tabs on the impact. Perhaps that’s because the sequester cuts across the board of discretionary federal spending with what appears to be mostly a single-digit percentage cut, which may be seen as too small to be all that devastating to nonprofit programs. The sequester hits too many budget lines, so think-tankers assume that the consequences are just too diffuse to be worth counting.

For nonprofits with services to deliver, it’s a different story. Maybe it’s considered trite to say so, but the toll can be measured in terms of people who don’t get services they need in this lackluster, inconsistent economic recovery that has left tens of millions of Americans on the sidelines without jobs, with unaffordable mortgage payments, and with mounting healthcare expenses.

   
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