Lower Manhattan-Based Nonprofits Fear Losing Federal Funds
A recent analysis from the Center for an Urban Future (CUF), a public policy think tank, examines the status of New York City nonprofit organizations in the wake of massive funding cuts from the federal government. Among the representative sample of 21 New York nonprofits examined in the report, “New York City’s Safety Net on the Brink,” one third are based in Lower Manhattan. These seven organizations, (which, although headquartered locally, serve more than 100,000 beneficiaries throughout the five boroughs) have combined budgets of approximately $1.1 billion. Of this amount, roughly $439 million (or some 40 percent) comes from the federal government, and much of that funding is now in doubt.
The report’s authors, Theresa Agovino and Dorian Block, find that “the barrage of federal actions taken over the past 11 months – from massive cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed [last] July to an array of executive orders – presents the biggest threat in a generation to the financial solvency of the City’s social services organizations and the millions of New Yorkers in need who rely on them.”
A case in point is the Food Bank for New York City, based at 39 Broadway, which relies on approximately $100 million in funds and food from the federal government for 50 percent of its total budget. In 2025, this organization received 10 million fewer pounds of food (the equivalent of about 8.3 million meals) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, even as it attempts to cope with a 90-percent increase in the number of New Yorkers visiting pantries since 2019.
“Far worse impacts lie ahead,” the report states, noting that the most severe budget cuts will take effect in 2027, after this year’s midterm elections. “Left unaddressed, this will result in billions in cuts to human services organizations across the City.” In the meantime, the report notes, “an estimated 450,000 New Yorkers are expected to lose their Medicaid coverage by January, while 300,000 New York City residents will no longer receive [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] benefits.”
The Chinese-American Planning Council, based at 150 Elizabeth Street, relies on federal outlays for 82 percent of its overall budget of $273 million. So far, it has been affected by the loss of a $300,000 grant, but with deep cuts to Medicaid scheduled for this year and next, it may have to shrink services dramatically.
Another Lower Manhattan-based example is Public Health Solutions, headquartered at 22 Cortland Street, which anticipates losing part of the $1.5 million in federal funding it receives. This group was handicapped in another way last April, when the Department of Government Efficiency began to dismantle AmeriCorps (the independent federal agency that funded the salaries of people working in community service across the United States). Public Health Solutions lost several staff members whose salaries had been paid by AmeriCorps. The group’s chief executive Lisa David also noted that the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is in danger, saying “I have the largest WIC program in the state.”
In some cases, rhetoric from the Trump Administration has caused New York-based nonprofits to not apply for grants that they had received in the past because they would be forced to agree to rules that contradict their guiding principles. At Safe Horizon, based at Two Lafayette Street, chief executive officer Liz Roberts said she chose not to seek a federal grant to help victims of domestic violence, “because grant recipients would be required to pledge not to obstruct immigration enforcement in any way, and would have to agree to treat domestic violence only as a crime and not a systemic social justice issue.”
The CUF report concludes with a series of recommendations, among them establishing a New York City Nonprofit Stabilization Fund with funds from City Hall; helping nonprofits save millions of dollars in expenses by simplifying the contracting process with local government agencies; and paying nonprofits in a timelier manner. As the report notes, City government often delays such payments by a year or more, and “currently owes human services providers more than $1 billion, forcing hundreds of nonprofits to take out bridge loans and absorb substantial interest costs just to stay afloat.”