9 in 10 Mass. nonprofit leaders believe Mass. will be ‘worse off’ under Trump, poll finds

President Donald Trump’s federal policies and cutbacks are widely worrying nonprofits in Massachusetts, a new survey shows — especially when it comes to funding. As funding dries up, many nonprofit leaders and staff told MassINC Polling Group they worry demand for their services will go up, too.

Over 90% of the respondents believe Massachusetts will be worse off under Trump, including 77% who said they feel it will be “much worse off.” Only 2% of respondents said the state will be better off with Trump in office.

MassINC Polling Group surveyed more than 500 Massachusetts nonprofit leaders for the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network and the Boston Foundation.

With the loss — or potential loss — of federal funding, nonprofit leaders hammered the importance of donations. Fundraising was the top need for the 500 survey respondents, as 86% cited it as a priority.

Mary Skelton Roberts, CEO of Philanthropy Massachusetts, spoke on a panel about the survey’s findings Monday and said that philanthropy alone can’t fill the void left by billions of dollars in federal funding cuts.

“But the good news is, particularly here in Massachusetts, is philanthropy has stepped up,” she said.

Several survey respondents worried, too, about potential downstream impacts on philanthropy amid federal funding cuts.

“If philanthropic dollars shift to fill the gaps of government funding, that would make the philanthropic landscape that we rely on more competitive,” one respondent wrote.

Another respondent feared that money from philanthropists would dry up as they try to minimize risk and respond to federal executive orders, some of which target particular sectors or initiatives.

Roberts said that Massachusetts should look for opportunities to flex its political muscle and consider how nonprofits, philanthropic organizations and other stakeholders can take risks and push back.

“Because otherwise we’re going to be responsive in a way that’s not going to be helpful to us,” Roberts said.

Fifty-eight percent of the respondents said they received federal funding.

“We do not have reserves,” one respondent said. “Our organization may no longer be viable as a result of current and future actions by the Trump administration.”

Despite the new policies and funding cuts, about two-thirds of respondents expected the demand for their nonprofit’s services to increase. About the same share, though, said that the Trump administration will make it much harder to do their work.

“Our current clients are already afraid to meet their volunteer tutors in public,” one respondent is quoted as saying in the survey’s results. “They are canceling sessions more frequently due to fear. We fear our numbers of new clients will decline.”

The sectors that expect the most demand are nonprofits that work with current/former incarcerated people, seniors and transit riders.

Nearly three-quarters of nonprofits that support immigrants expect a surge in demand for their services, too. Several refugee resettlement agencies throughout New England have made staffing cuts after the Trump administration suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program at the start of the year, GBH News reported in March.

Jim Klocke, Massachusetts Nonprofit Network’s CEO, said that there’s a long road ahead for nonprofits. However, there are strengths that nonprofits can leverage, he said.

One is the size of the nonprofit community in Massachusetts with 500,000 employees throughout the state. Along with this, one million residents made a charitable donation to a nonprofit organization last year, Klocke said. This doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands more who serve as volunteers, board members or advisors.

“So what does that mean?” Klocke asked. “It means our sector in Massachusetts is over two million people strong. That matters. … It means that we have allies everywhere in this room and across the state. So remember that when the days get tough and the nights are long.”