Wilmington-area nonprofits and other local groups that rely on federal funding are feeling the impacts of recent actions from the new presidential administration.

Executive actions and memos issued by President Donald Trump’s administration have created uncertainty for many local groups, forcing them to pivot and, in some cases, scale back services.

The Alliance for Cape Fear Trees (ACFT), a group that preserves, protects and plants trees in the Lower Cape Fear region, received an email stating that a three-year $100,000 grant from the Arbor Day Foundation, which was funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and the U.S. Forest Service, was being withdrawn.

ACFT board president Margee Herring said the group learned in October that it had been selected to receive the grant. The group planned to use the money to hire a community outreach coordinator in areas with inequitable tree canopy coverage.

“Essentially, this was getting us into the field of environmental justice, so we were trying to reach underserved, disadvantaged communities,” said Isabelle Shepherd, ACFT’s director. “We were going to really expand our impact and our reach. We were about to hire someone, and we got the news that the funding was frozen.”

“I think that’s really what we’re having to pull back on is that community outreach,” Shepherd added. “That person was going to be out in the community, knocking on doors, figuring out who wanted trees and where, trying to rally a neighborhood around this.”
The new federal funding landscape has pushed ACFT to diversify its funding sources. Herring said the group is looking to local businesses and the private sector.

“We’re going to try to go for some sponsorships,” she said. “We haven’t really done that, but we know that there are businesses that care about trees.”

At Church World Service’s Wilmington office, normal operations have been upended by recent federal action, said office director Wes Magruder. The nonprofit works to resettle and provide services to refugees coming to the U.S. The group had helped administer the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, Magruder said, until an executive order suspended the program on the first day of the new administration.

“That immediately affected the number of clients we were expecting to serve because it just basically froze the process,” he said.
On Feb. 25, a federal judge in Seattle blocked Trump’s executive order that had paused the program. Church World Services was one of the plaintiffs in the suit, but Magruder said it’s unclear exactly what the injunction means for the local office in the near term.

As of Feb. 26, the nonprofit hadn’t received reimbursements due by the federal contract, and the resettlement program hadn’t been restarted, according to Magruder.

In the administration’s first few weeks, a series of other executive orders and memos created confusion for Magruder and others working with CWS, which operates dozens of offices nationwide, including the one in Wilmington.

“What became obvious, though, to CWS is that the reimbursements for services already provided had also been frozen,” Magruder said, “and that caused a cash flow problem for CWS International.”

That resulted in a 60-day, unpaid furlough of roughly two-thirds of CWS staff, including 20 of the 25 people employed in the Wilmington office, Magruder said.

The office continues providing support services to approximately 40 refugees who have arrived in the area within the past 90 days. The group also provides employment services to another 70 to 80 clients.

With staff stretched thin, the office has turned to volunteers to support the area’s refugees. The group is considering pivoting operations away from refugee resettlement services toward services that help refugees integrate into the community. They’re exploring expanding the office’s legal and employment services along with youth offerings and English as a second language.

The biggest challenge, Magruder said, has been planning for the future.

“I think that’s what paralyzes a lot of nonprofits is just the fact that there’s no clarity about what the landscape is going to be like,” he said, “what social services are going to be completely removed from the equation and which ones aren’t.”

However, he said the office plans to diversify its funding sources and, like many nonprofits, plans to look to the New Hanover Community Endowment to apply for future grant funding.

In a statement to the Business Journal, the endowment’s CEO and president Dan Winslow wrote that the organization is “unaffected by any changes in federal grant funding.”

“Every application is considered on its merits in view of our strategic mission,” he added. “If there is any increase in the number of grant applications submitted, we will be prepared to consider each of them.”

Dave Glenn, director of Wilmington’s StarBase program, said the program will likely close by the end of March. StarBase offers local elementary students a 25-hour, STEM-focused interactive curriculum. The Department of Defense funds the StarBase program.

“We can give a very intensive experience over the course of a week,” Glenn said. “We can introduce them to engineer and science career pathways, we put them (through) hands-on, minds-on learning in physics and chemistry and computer-aided design, building model rockets, all those things.”

At the end of January, the Department of Defense notified the Wilmington office that the program’s funding wasn’t likely to be approved for the coming fiscal year in its full amount. Glenn said the announcement was unexpected, and he believes the end of the program could have broader impacts for the area’s future workforce.

“The program going away would mean that 1,400-1,500 students a year wouldn’t have access to a program that’s been in the community for 20 years,” he said.

“It’s hard … to put a data point on what a program like this does, not only for the kids that come through here, but their potential in the workforce and the economy later down the line,” Glenn added. “I know it’s hard to measure what will be missing, but I’m a firm believer it’s a significant impact in that space.”