“The deep partnerships are the ones who work in collaboration,” Moe said. “It’s dollars that people give to the greatest needs. And those are deployed by volunteers for the Plan for Community Well-Being. That has four strategies and then plans under each. One is Youth Opportunity. That’s really looking at early childhood through literacy and graduation rates. The other is Financial Security. That’s homelessness reduction, reentry and workforce development. There is Healthy Community. It’s about infant and maternal health, behavioral and mental health and access to health care. And Community Resilience is all of the other things like non-profit capacity building, disaster response, volunteer mobilization and 211 information and referral.”

Many of the nonprofits were founded and operated by people who were passionate about a mission and the money they were paid was secondary to making progress on that mission. Especially with the ebbing of the Baby Boom generation, the nonprofits have matured and those who operated them look to long-term stability.

“I still think there is still a lot of passion,” Moe said about today’s nonprofit leaders. “There are a lot of people who could absolutely make higher wages if they went to the private sector. But from a mission perspective, I think people still care about the mission. I do think generationally, people do have expectations for balance and different moments. I think that is a factor. There is the sense of nonprofits are demanding and people want to have more space in their lives to live their lives as well as the passion of changing the world. I do think one of the most significant changes has been the way that public funding has flowed. Nonprofits have become low-cost service providers of government. That has been going on for decades. That’s going to shift a lot with some of the changes now. But what I think that means is it is more about contract and execution of this program that has been designed by policy than the innovation on the ground to respond to community needs. I think that is actually inside more of the DNA now. People are kind of rolling up their sleeves and figuring out what do we do, in Dane County in particular, with the population growth that we are experiencing and the expansion we are seeing between the cost of living and what average wages are. There is a lot more that needs to be done to make sure that you have a quality of life that lifts everyone.”

With the budget cuts, both threatened and implemented, the impact is being felt by government and the nonprofit community. With its community partners, United Way is trying to determine the actual impact.

“We’ve been having really intentional conversations with our nonprofit partners all year long,” Moe said. “The way I’ve been framing it up for people to understand what we are doing is number one, United Way has the pulse of the nonprofit community, especially those providing health and human services. Number two, we are working in collaboration with funders and policy makers to respond in a coordinated way. And number three — most important — are the families and individuals who utilize services to work towards successful lives. In everything that we’ve been doing, we’re trying to understand, ‘Okay, what are the actual funding cuts? What is fear and what is real? And what are the impacts to programs?’ We’ve seen already very significant changes to programs like AmeriCorps, SNAP, WIC, HUD and FEMA, changes in housing and healthcare. Right now the big debate is all around healthcare and tax credits. That will have a big impact on people’s ability to get healthcare. That’s still part of the work in determining what actually happening in the changes.”

United Way is also conducting a communitgy survey to get more accurate data on how the cuts are impacting Dane County’s safety net.

“We are doing a survey this fall to really understand what are the actual consequences for nonprofit partners,” Moe said. “And then we plan to take that evaluation of what the actual cuts are with what nonprofits need and bring that to the business community in the first quarter of next year to say, ‘Hey, how are we going to respond to this in a more coordinated way?’ It’s going to have big changes. The exact whats, wheres and hows are still a little bit ethereal. But can you see cuts in food and childcare and healthcare? Yes. We can already see those. Things are changing every day.”

While there hasn’t been this significant of a challenge to Dane County’s safety net and the ability of many families to meet their basic needs  in over 50 years, United Way is ready to meet the challenge.

“We’re used to pressure,” Moe said. “We’re used to need. And I think that figuring out what to do about it is kind of our skill set. And so in terms of doing that in coordination and partnership with everyone who wants to help is the aim. Yes it’s cloudy and swirly and feels terrible and that’s the work. And so figuring that out, listening to everyone who calls into 211, helping us understand what is going on, talking to our nonprofit partners, listening to advocates in the community for what is actually happening in apartments, in neighborhoods, in schools, those are the things that we do to inform that larger response that the community helps and takes action to do.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a considerable uptick in giving — especially from individuals — as people gave from their hearts to be involved in helping Dane County’s vulnerable children and families. With the threat — real and imagined — of budget cuts and what seems like a never-ending federal government shutdown, there has been a rise once again in giving.

“I think there are a lot of people who are making bigger gifts and who are contributing because they see the needs that are increasing,” Moe said. “Or they are worried about what the impacts are going to be. I also think that with some of the tax changes, there’s an incentive to give more this year maybe because it will cause people to double up this year and not give next year based on how some of the tax laws have changed. That might partially be in the mix. This is a very caring community. There are also a lot of people asking for help and asking for money right now. I do think that what we could be doing to help people give where they are passionate, make a difference in their caring, but also make sure that we can stretch every one of those dollars as far as we can to help the most people. That’s going to be very important. My sense is that we are not going to be able to save every nonprofit mission with philanthropy. What we have to do is focus on our families and individuals who need help and coordinate and organize ourselves in ways that lifts up the most people. And I do think that donors and others not only through compassion, but also through strategic investment will hopefully help in making sure that we can stretch that help as far as it can go.”

Next Issue: The 2025 Campaign