The Crisis No One Is Talking About … Except Valley Nonprofits

There is a crisis quietly unfolding across the Central Valley. It is not making national headlines, but its impact will be felt by thousands of families, children, seniors, and individuals facing hardship.

If shelters closed their doors, after-school programs disappeared, food assistance was reduced, and foster youth lost advocates, most people would recognize the seriousness of the situation immediately. Yet that is the reality many nonprofit organizations in our region are confronting today.

We are a husband-and-wife team who, in addition to raising five children, serve as the CEOs of two of the largest nonprofit organizations in the Central Valley: the Fresno Mission and Central California Food Bank. Both of our organizations serve people in crisis and support dozens of other nonprofits that provide life-changing services throughout our region.

As we confront an increasingly difficult financial reality within our own organizations, we also recognize that many of our nonprofit co-laborers are in even more precarious positions. The current fiscal climate is placing extraordinary strain on nonprofits, especially smaller organizations that are already operating with limited resources. Funding restrictions are not abstract challenges.

They are forcing real and immediate cutes to essential services. The result is fewer supports, fewer programs and fewer lifelines for people who are already vulnerable.

We write this article on behalf of nonprofits across the Valley to explain what is happening, why it is happening, and why the community’s help is urgently needed.

Services Reduced, Futures in Doubt

If you know a nonprofit in the Central Valley, there is a strong likelihood it will be reducing services in some way during the next year and many are concerned if they will even be able to operate into the future.

Recently, Christa Sharpe took over as director of CASA Fresno & Madera, an incredible organization that provides advocates for children in foster care who often have no one else in the world fighting for them. When Sharpe took her role, she knew her organization was facing an incredible challenge. Because of cuts to state, local, and federal funding, CASA was losing almost 70% of its traditional funding sources.

The funding decrease CASA is facing has nothing to do with local leadership nor the effectiveness of their work.  It is the result of rapid changes to political priorities, a struggling economy, and the de-prioritization of support for the most vulnerable that has left us all struggling to serve the growing need with fewer available resources. The fact that Sharpe was willing to take on this role, knowing the challenges ahead, reflects that type of selfless leader that CASA hired.

Jason Hannold, the new CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Fresno County, faced a similar reality after he recently took the helm of his organization last year.   A community pilar that helps over 3,500 kids a year continues to seek funding for support of its operation. Through Hannold’s leadership, he has stabilized the organization and is fighting to ensure that the Boys & Girls Clubs of Fresno County can help the next 3,500 kids but it’s not easy.

He recently shared an internal question many nonprofit leaders understand all too well: “When will we be able to sleep peacefully at night knowing the people we serve in our communities have the resources they need to succeed?”

As a non-profit executive, you lose sleep not because you lose funding. You lose sleep because you know the face of the person that you will not be able to help because you lost funding. It’s painful.

At Some Point, You Can No Longer Do More With Less

Today, dozens of nonprofits that serve people during times of crisis are at risk of reducing services or closing programs. Over the past several months, hardly a week has passed without a nonprofit leader sharing concerns about funding shortages, reimbursement delays, staffing challenges, or program cuts.

Organizations such as Breaking the Chains, Poverello House, the Resiliency Center, Centro La Familia, Children’s EPU, Every Neighborhood Partnership, Bethany Christian Services, Neighborhood Industries, and many others have already or will reduce services, close facilities, or delay expansion because of financial pressures despite providing life-saving services every day. 

The reality is simple: many nonprofits can no longer afford to keep doing more with less.

Why Are Non-Profits Struggling?

The combined haymakers of California business climate, inflation, tax policy changes, government funding reductions, and rising operating costs are bringing many local nonprofits to the brink of knockout.

As is true for all businesses, California does not make operating a non-profit easy. Nonprofits face rising expenses. Wages increase. Insurance costs increase. Utilities increase. Fuel increases. Healthcare costs increase. The ever-increasing costs can sometimes feel endless.

The difference is that our customers pay nothing. There is no way to offset costs by charging more.

To give you an example, at the Fresno Mission, we spend roughly $800,000 annually on utilities. Those utilities allow us to provide showers, laundry services and temperature-controlled shelter. Donors rarely get excited about paying a PG&E bill, but those services matter deeply to the homeless mother trying to care for her children.

As a food logistics organization, Central California Food Bank is significantly impacted by rising fuel costs. This pressure, combined with state regulatory and environmental compliance requirements, drives substantial annual equipment replacement expenses. Every $1 spent on replacing equipment, removed 4 meals from vulnerable households.

Inflation and Reduced Giving Create Big Challenges

Unquestionably, Biden-era inflation drove up employment costs and the cost of essential goods, significantly increasing nonprofit operating expenses. At the same time, it reduced charitable giving as many households faced declining disposable income. The result is a growing strain on nonprofits, with rising costs and fewer resources to meet expanding need. In too many cases, donors have become clients.

Similarly, Trump’s tax cuts in 2017 and 2024 reduced tax incentives for many lower- and middle-income households, weakening charitable giving. At the same time, California’s regulatory environment and global conflicts have driven up fuel and goods prices, further increasing operating costs. The result is the same growing strain on nonprofits, with fewer donors even as demand for services continues to rise.

As you may have perceived, we are trying to delicately suggest that no single party is more or less to blame but very much want to indelicately state, they are both to blame. What is worse, is that neither is doing much to help.

Local government reimbursement systems create additional challenges. Many nonprofits wait months to receive payments for services already provided. Some organizations are owed hundreds of thousands—or even millions—of dollars by local governments.

In several instances, the Fresno Mission has provided bridge loans to other nonprofits simply to help them make payroll while waiting for government reimbursements.

When nonprofits become banks for government agencies, something is broken.

Charitable Giving Is Approaching a Crisis Point

In 2014, more than two-thirds of American households donated to charity. Today, fewer than half do. That trend should concern every person who cares about their community.

If you asked the IRS, they would report that the total amount of giving to charity has been increasing even though the number of people giving has dropped significantly. But this is fool’s gold – a very shiny stat that has little value.

What is happening is that the smaller but very important donors giving between $10 and $100 have dropped off significantly because of tax code changes and the price of things like gas. In the last 5 years, it is estimated by the Fundraising Effectiveness Project that  roughly one-third of smaller donors have stopped giving. No industry, nonprofit or otherwise, can survive losing one-third of its income base.

At the same time, many larger donors are increasing their giving to charitable tax funds called donor advised funds or “DAFs.” Once a dollar is invested into a DAF, it is tax deductible. The problem is the invested dollar doesn’t have to be paid to charity. As a result, hundreds of billions of dollars that received a tax deduction sit in investment accounts instead of making a community impact.

To provide some perspective, in 2023 and 2024 donors contributed $60 billion and $90 billion, respectively, to DAFs across the United States. That increase sounds terrific until you look at how much DAFs actually paid out to organizations. In 2023, DAFs gave $54 billion to charity but in 2024 they only contributed a modest increase to $60 billion.

This is alarming because the amount of tax-deducted funds sitting in DAFs is staggering. In 2019, $142 billion was being held by DAFs. As of 2024, that number had ballooned to $328 billion.  So while it looks like more money is being donated to the IRS, what is actually happening is a much different story.

In 2019, $142 billion in tax-deducted funds were being held by DAFs. As of 2024, that number had ballooned to $328 billion, meaning that a substantial amount of tax-deducted money sits invested but unused.

The Importance of Small Donors

Why this is important locally is our giving economy has largely been supported with smaller very important givers who donate between $10 to $100 but who are also the most impacted by the economy and changes in the tax code. These are the donors that are dropping off faster than U-Hauls crossing the California border.

Contrary to popular belief, the Central Valley does not have an abundance of large donors in comparison to other cities of our population size.  Even our foundations pale in comparison to those available in bigger metropolitan areas. While it is true that we have pockets of wealth, much of it is tied up in ag-land or other assets that are illiquid. And, despite the abundance of crops produced, California is trying its best to run farmers out of the state just as fast as it is Chevron. Year after year, the ag-profit margin decreases (if there even is a profit), also thereby decreasing their ability to give.

Nonprofits cannot survive if smaller donors stop giving, DAFs retain an increasing percentage of charitable contributions, and inflation goes up by another 20% as it did in California the last five years.

Losing Nonprofits Means More Than Just Fewer Golf Tournaments

The closure of many nonprofits will mean more than just fewer golf tournaments and banquet tables to sponsor. It will also mean that the most effective social safety net we have, will be non-existent. This is a social safety net that our community and country has relied on for decades. As a community that has extremely high needs, it is far more important than High-Speed Rail or a downtown soccer stadium.

For years both our federal and state government were solely focused on fighting homelessness by just building housing. But while so many were waiting for their $700,000 affordable units to be built, people were dying on the street. It was the 400+ rescue missions and private shelters across the country funded by little-old ladies writing $10 dollar checks that kept and has continued to keep shelters across the country afloat.

When Washington D.C. couldn’t agree on a budget in recent months and millions of people across the United States didn’t get a paycheck or access to food stamps, it was food banks like the Central California Food Bank that stepped up and bridged the gap to help families meet their nutritional needs.

When our local police department arrest human traffickers and need a place to take young exploited girls who need safety and healing, they take them to a safe house operated by Breaking the Chains funded by private donors.

When Fresno didn’t have any safe parks downtown where kids could safely go to play, it was an ex-gang member named Oscar Rodriguez who created a series of parks privately funded to keep the gang members out and where kids could get access to food, after-school tutoring, and most importantly safety. Oscar did what the government could not do through his organization, Martin Park.

Many Valley Nonprofits Are Irreplaceable

When a sandwich shop closes, it is sad. But there are other sandwich shops. When an organization that helps abused children in the foster system cannot operate, it literally impacts kids’ lives.

Undoubtedly some will read this article and point to fraud or financial mismanagement. You are correct, there is fraud sometimes. There is a homeless industrial complex. There is financial mismanagement. There are organizations that we would like to see closed. But those organizations, especially in our community, are in the extreme minority.

What is not in the minority are the dozens of people willing to wait outside for 22 hours just to receive access to Central California Food Bank’s First Fruits Market at City Center, or the number of foster youth with no parents who need an advocate. Or the number of exploited children who need protection, or honest-hard working people who need a place for their kids to go after school so they can get some help.

The No. 1 reason nonprofits get into financial trouble is not because the leader is pocketing cash. It is because they cannot bring themselves to say “no” to helping someone even when they don’t have the money.

Here is Our Plea

The solution to this challenge is not one donor, one foundation, or one government program. The solution is us.

The Fresno Mission, Central California Food Bank, Fresno Pacific University, Hume Lake Christian Camp, Breaking the Chains, Hope Now for Youth, the Poverello House, Martin Park, the Lighthouse Recovery Center, the Evangel Home and so many others were not started by the government. They were started by a community of faithful people donating, some large and some small.

For generations, the Central Valley has been built by people who help their neighbors. We believe that spirit still exists. That is why we are asking people throughout the Valley to help.

The future of the Central Valley will not be determined in Sacramento or Washington. It will be determined right here by the people who live here, work here, raise families here, and care about what happens here.

Give where you live.

Invest where you live.

Help build the future of the Valley we all share.

About the Authors

Matthew Dildine, a local attorney, is CEO of Fresno Mission, which rescues, restores, and empowers homeless individuals and families. Contact: mdildine@fresnomission.org. Kym Dildine is co-CEO of the Central California Food Bank. Contact: kdildine@ccfoodbank.org

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