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WilmingtonBiz Magazine

OPINION: Minding The Widening Gap

By Meade Van Pelt, posted Jun 16, 2025
Meade Van Pelt
The current administration’s zeal to diminish or eliminate federal grants has left nonprofits, universities, public service organizations and their employees scrambling to consider the status of previously funded studies, services and programming.

From scientific research to refugee resettlement, the breadth of the impact has been breathtaking. Though various orders have been either reversed by the administration or held up in courts, the intent is clear: Communities must wean themselves off long-assumed federal funding.

Priorities may shift, but social needs do not evaporate or diminish merely because the government is focused elsewhere. This is nothing new. Nonprofits have always operated in the gap between government and business, or more to the point: filling the gap between what government can’t do and business won’t do.

Of course, the business sector exists to make money, and issues like poverty, homelessness or systemic injustice don’t fit into a profit-driven model. While some corporations embrace corporate social responsibility (CSR), their core priority is financial return, and when there’s no return on investment, there’s no business incentive.

Meanwhile, the public sector, even before this moment, has often lacked the political will to tackle long-term challenges, instead leaning on grants to nonprofits, universities and NGOs. Governments may have resources and reach, but they are frequently hampered by bureaucracy, partisanship and short-term negotiations. Such practices, true on the right and left, have and will leave vital programs underfunded or nonexistent.

Today, with the federal government clearly stepping aside, the burden of society’s neglected needs becomes the messy, unprofitable, politically inconvenient work of nonprofits. Nonprofit leaders who step into the breach are driven toward public service and problem-solving. They are big thinkers committed to impacting and improving their communities.

They are asked to be nimble, responsive and transformative. And they are up to the challenge. By working collaboratively, they engage in the real work of community building, creating integrated networks and innovative solutions that are measurable and by which they are held accountable.

Whether it’s access to food, housing, health care, education or legal support, nonprofits become the front line. When crises strike – from hurricanes to public health emergencies – nonprofits mobilize faster than most institutions. They are embedded in the fabric of the communities they serve, trusted by residents and uniquely positioned to respond with empathy, efficiency and relevance. Yet they are rarely funded or staffed at levels that match the scope of the responsibilities they shoulder.
 
Could the work of nonprofits be better accomplished by the private or public sector?

Should our public school systems deliver what Communities in Schools does with after-school and summer, teen parenting and teen court programming? Is StepUp Wilmington’s work to provide job training for under- and unemployed people, a mission more reasonably met through our community college or for-profit learning institutions? Or LINC, which addresses the unmet needs of our recently incarcerated residents, assuring they have skills and resources to remain productive members of our community – and avoid recidivism. Should we leave that to local parole boards and state corrections departments? And, if the Alliance for Cape Fear Trees stopped giving away or planting trees, would those planted by our local governments be sufficient?

Neither public funds, nor private business models will address these challenges. But nonprofits are not the backup plan – they are the plan.

Often first-in and last-out responders, nonprofits provide communities with informed, mission-driven leadership to tackle society’s toughest challenges. Yet they operate within a persistent imbalance of power – constrained by the outdated expectation that they should do more with less. Burdened by restrictive funding, short-term grants and unrealistic expectations, these organizations are often denied the resources and influence they need to lead systemic change.
Marginalized communities, endangered ecosystems and long-term societal inequities don’t attract investors or voters. Nonprofits step into these voids without the luxuries of market incentives or political consensus. They act on the collective will of a community of concerned citizens, embark on addressing pressing issues with limited resources and get to work, motivated instead by a community’s moral imperative to care for its own.

They aren’t just about charity – they’re about change.

Unencumbered by profit margins or partisan pressures, nonprofits advocate for bold ideas and challenge the status quo.

Nonprofits are not a convenient safety net; they are the dam holding back a flood of societal neglect. As governments and businesses sidestep social responsibility, we expect nonprofits to fill the gap.

This is no time to withdraw support for the work of nonprofits. Indeed, they are innovative problem solvers, economic drivers, employers and change agents, building resourceful, safe and equitable communities for all.

As we continue to see government – local, state and federal – shift its spending and priorities, we must realize that our communities will bear new challenges. Nonprofits will be called upon to fill this breach, but nonprofits are only a reflection of their communities. Volunteers, donors, advocates and neighbors-all, we must lean in.

Meade Van Pelt is executive director of the Jo Ann Carter Harrelson Center, a nonprofit corporation 501(c)3 that supports and partners with other nonprofit organizations in the Wilmington community.
 
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