At the end of last year, nonprofits were facing a wave of program cuts, layoffs, and closures as inflation, declining donations, and other forces hit budgets. Now the Trump administration is aggressively cutting federal funding that many organizations rely on.
What is the toll on the sector as a whole?
The next federal tally of nonprofit jobs — the most accurate measure — won’t be released until 2028, so the Chronicle of Philanthropy today is launching a layoff tracker to offer a snapshot of the field’s financial health.
In our first estimate, we find that from January 20 to March 31, the nonprofit sector lost at least 10,000 full-time jobs — largely in the IRS categories of international, foreign affairs & national security (3,502 positions), health care (3,194 positions), and human service organizations (1,989).
Experts say the impact of federal grant cuts to nonprofits will likely have cascading effects. A recent report by the Urban Institute found that in more than 95 percent of U.S. counties, public charities receive government grants — and without those grants, totaling $267 billion in 2021, most nonprofits would be unable to cover their expenses. In 2022, the last year for which national statistics were available, those nonprofits accounted for 12.8 million jobs, or 9.9 percent of private-sector employment.
-
Special Report
Nonprofits and the Trump Agenda
The dollar amount of the Trump administration’s post-January 20 defunding of the nonprofit sector is unknown. There is also currently no way to use federal data to understand — in real time — the scope or magnitude of nonprofit layoffs. That is because the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes employment data on the nonprofit sector only every five years — unlike for-profit sectors, for which the BLS reports quarterly data.
There are, however, WARN databases (short for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) — maintained by individual states. Large nonprofits and other employers (those with at least 100 full-time employees) are required to submit to the databases 60 days’ advance written notice of a layoff affecting 50 or more employees and/or one-third of the total work force. But the WARN databases have significantly different update patterns, reporting requirements, and enforcement mechanisms. Some states provide public updates monthly; others only every three months; and two — Arkansas and Wyoming — do not publish WARN data at all.
Our estimate of nonprofit layoffs is culled from WARN databases in 48 states and news reports. The latter include, for example, the Boston Globe’s February 16 story about JSI Research & Training Institute’s 1,100-person layoff, comprising half of the global development nonprofit’s staff.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s estimate is a significant undercount, as many layoffs are not reported by news media, and small nonprofits (those with fewer than 100 full-time employees) are not required to submit their reduced staff numbers to the WARN databases.
Note the following about the data visualized in the charts above:
- These are rough estimates of layoffs and furloughs announced from January 20 to March 31. In some cases, where an exact number is unknown, entries reflect a conservative estimate of layoffs.
- The months listed reflect when an organization made a WARN filing or when the layoffs became public in news reports. Since layoffs often occur in waves, some layoffs in a given entry may have taken place before or after the month reported.
- WARN notices report anticipated layoffs, which may not happen in the time frame or to the extent planned and do not reflect buyouts, furloughs, or voluntary departures.
- Organizations are sorted based on their purpose in accordance with the Internal Revenue Service’s activity codes. Human service organizations, for example, provide a range of social services and include nonprofits like Catholic Charities. International, foreign affairs, and national security organizations refer to a broad array of organizations dedicated to global issues and development. The latter layoffs have been highly affected by the closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
- Detailed information about which nonprofits have been affected are in the following sheets: 1) layoffs reported through WARN databases; 2) layoffs reported through news articles; and 3) combined layoffs.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy will update this tracker on a monthly basis, issuing its next estimate in early May for April layoffs.
If you would like to report a past or future layoff at your nonprofit — or correct the details of a layoff listed here — please complete this form.
