Taking Financial Precautions, Nonprofit-Style
These articles are chosen from the headlines to help drive home examples of good practices by nonprofits under stress.
Brianna Sosa of the Mountain View Voice, a nonprofit news outlet, reports that local nonprofit Community Services Agency (CSA) has opted not to apply for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) this year. New federally imposed restrictions on that money include the requirement to verify whether a person being served is undocumented and to steer clear of anything that smacks of “gender ideology.” Mandates like these have created ethical issues for many nonprofits, but in December 2025 CSA’s board voted (reportedly unanimously) that it would not accept money that was so encumbered, making the choice not to comply the fallout of a decision that was already made.
CSA provides safety-net services to residents of Mountain View, Los Altos, and Los Altos Hills, California. Executive director Tom Myers calls the compliance demands “egregious.” Though the money is not inconsequential, this is clearly an organization that recognizes the conflicts that may arise from overdependence. Myers says CSA has been working on its revenue diversity and reserves to make it less likely to be painted into a corner where revenue was concerned.
Sosa’s article states that the 70-year-old nonprofit is not overwhelmingly vulnerable, since its annual expense budget is $6 million, and only 12% of that comes from the federal budget. CSA’s primary source of funds is private donations, which is unusual for a safety net organization of this size. Private donations are generally unrestricted, but they are also locally sourced; accordingly, CSA must consider local sentiment before it does anything that might violate that local social contract and values proposition which underlies that local support. Thus, CSA by design faces greater economic consequences for betraying its value set than there would be for holding to them. This is, granted, not always possible and takes time and forethought. This article is interesting in that it reflects the design thinking that many nonprofit leaders and boards have put into their revenue streams, each of which carries risks and other characteristics that must be addressed by the organization’s financial stewards. NFC commends CSA for its prescience.
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