Tygart Valley United Way CEO expresses concerns of potential federal funding freeze

”Everybody is on high alert now. We can take a breath at the moment, but we have to be ready if this happens again in the future,” he said Wednesday after the order was rescinded. “This has been an eye-opening experience for everybody to start making contingency plans in case something like this would happen. We’ll treat it like a trial run, I guess, and figure out a plan for if it does happen.”

Before the order’s cancellation, White reported a general feeling of unease and concern about how these organizations would fund staff and social programs in a 90-day freeze.

“The thing that makes it so difficult to understand is that it was a very sweeping order with no other directive or guidance,” White said. “There’s no guidance on what to do with employees who might need to be furloughed or can’t be paid. For nonprofits, trying to float payroll for three months for programs that are sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars would be detrimental to their budget with no guarantee that the money will pick up in 90 days.

“What if they decide to do away with these programs or grants? It would be devastating to a nonprofit. It would bankrupt a nonprofit if they spent three months floating bills and then are told they can’t submit them. We’re trying to be optimistic and find ways to work around it, but for a lot of small nonprofits, there’s no way to do that. They don’t have the money to cover three months of federal payroll and program funding.”

White fears that if a freeze takes place, the area will see programs and services shut down, including housing vouchers, child nutrition, daycare and tax help.

He added that the Tygart Valley United Way itself isn’t immune to the pitfalls of a federal freeze, especially when it comes to keeping AmeriCorps members on board as they staff the organization’s after school Flipside program and its VITA tax assistance program, which just began helping residents file taxes for free.

“It would have a major effect on us for all of our major programs,” White said. “Everybody is trying to come up with a plan. We don’t want it to affect our programs because we know how critical they are and we want them to be here, but I think every agency is going to have to look internally to see if they’re able to cover the cost and take the risk.”

While the freeze ordered Monday won’t be happening, White said there are still tough questions for local nonprofits to answer, and he hopes the United Way and other vital community organizations are able to create a solid game plan in case of a future freeze.

“We can’t ask our AmeriCorps members, who are already serving at the minimum pay, to go three months without being paid,” White said. “That’s not realistic, but what do you do? The chaos in the nonprofit sector is there because nobody knows what to do with it. Do we shut the programs down? Do we stop doing taxes? Do we stop having after school programs for an entire semester? These are big questions that have no answers or guidance.”