Message From the President & CEO
Two years ago, our team at Resurgens read Humble Consulting: How to Provide Real Help Faster for our staff book club. It was the perfect selection for our team of expert grant consultants who work every day to help nonprofits raise the grant funding they deserve to help people and change the systems that harm them.
One key takeaway from Humble Consulting is that consultants can accomplish more and do more meaningful work when they center service. Since reading this book, I have started and ended most of my meetings with a simple but powerful question: How can I help you?
The last year has been difficult for the nonprofit sector. We’re facing uncertainty, big changes, and funding upheaval at the same time that demand for help is surging. It’s tough to get through the day, let alone plan ahead for an unpredictable future. If we are going to survive and come out stronger — and I believe that we will — we will have to evolve. And that can be painful, even if the results are powerful.
We have always believed that nonprofits are a force for good. So we want to know: What do you need? How can we help you? Let us know. Email me at betty@resurgensimpact.com and tell me what’s keeping you up at night.
In solidarity,
Betty BarnardTrend Watch
Here’s what you need to know about the grant landscape changes, updates, and trends:
The federal budget for FY 2026, which began October 1, 2025, has been passed, except for the Department of Homeland Security. On the whole, funding remains level despite threats of severe cuts. The upheaval due to Executive Orders, sudden grant cancellations and terminations, and administration priority shifts remains, but we are thankful to see that funding has remained fairly stable. As shown in the chart below from The New York Times, the most severe cuts were made to the Department of the Treasury and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), whereas the largest increases were made to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Transportation (DOT).
The Georgia Center for Nonprofits released Navigating 2026: Trends for Georgia Nonprofits and Steps to Take Now. Among the highlights:
- Trend: Uncertainty and shifts in federal funding and philanthropic approaches.
- Actions your nonprofit can take: Invest in revenue diversification, contingency planning, and donor outreach.
- Trend: Increased scrutiny in how dollars are allocated.
- Actions your nonprofit can take: Analyze and describe financial strategies that connect to results.
- Trend: Boards of directors are tasked with strategic foresight and direction over mere performance (think how will we maneuver instead of how are we doing).
- Actions your nonprofit can take: Educate and equip boards with the skills and resources they need to rise to the challenge.
- Trend: Increased demand for services and competition for resources are pushing nonprofits to collaborate.
- Actions your nonprofit can take: Form meaningful partnerships with the right stakeholders and pare back where it makes more sense to collaborate rather than do it in-house.
- Trend: An aging nonprofit workforce will struggle to keep up with the expectations of a new generation.
- Actions your nonprofit can take: Create succession plans and assess HR to be ready for a new pipeline of future nonprofit leaders and doers.
Need help making sense of these trends and how your nonprofit can adapt? Contact us to learn how our expert grant consultants can help your nonprofit become more resilient and attract grant funding in this new environment.
Recommended Reading
Are you feeling fatigued and discouraged about your grant-seeking strategy? You’re not alone. Check out this Candid blog post Why do some nonprofits give up on applying for foundation grants?
Nonprofits are feeling the squeeze, and philanthropy is responding, but there’s a huge disconnect between their perceptions of how things are going. Read this illuminating Center for Effective Philanthropy report MOUNTING PRESSURE: Foundations and Nonprofits on the Current Context for more data and analysis.
- Complete the Georgia Nonprofit Forecast survey from the Georgia Center for Nonprofits to help shape our understanding of what nonprofit leaders are facing and what we’re expecting to happen.
Case Study Spotlight: RIC + Women’s Resource Center to End Domestic Violence
Case Study
Domestic violence service providers considering the Office on Violence Against Women Transitional Housing Assistance Grant: this is what readiness really requires.
If you are supporting survivors who cannot secure housing because of eviction history, rental debt, or damaged credit, this funding may feel urgent.
But here is the risk:
If you pursue this grant without structural readiness, the funding will expose every operational gap.
In Spring 2025, the Women’s Resource Center to End Domestic Violence partnered with Resurgens Impact Consulting to pursue the Office on Violence Against Women Transitional Housing Assistance Grant through the U.S. Department of Justice.
They were serving survivors facing:
- An average of $5,000 in housing debt
- Credit scores near 500
- Limited affordable housing inventory
- Significant safety and stabilization barriers
We did not begin with writing.
We began with readiness.
Before a single narrative draft, we:
- Converted anecdotal staff experience into data-informed evidence, including 20,800 family violence incidents across three years
- Designed a scattered-site apartment model with up to 12 months of rental subsidy
- Integrated certified financial advising, mental health supports, and Community Resiliency Model programming
- Formalized memoranda of understanding, including a private landlord guaranteeing safe units
- Stress-tested internal grant management systems for federal compliance
It was hard work, but it paid off. In September 2025, the organization was awarded $500,000 in federal funding.
This first-time transitional housing grant will support 15 families over three years, with projected outcomes that include:
- Elimination of approximately $5,000 in housing debt per participant
- Credit score increases to at least 600
- Stabilized employment
- Long-term emotional healing through survivor-centered programming
If your program model, landlord relationships, financial controls, data systems, and grant management capacity are not aligned before grant submission, the grant review process will identify every weakness.
You have options:
- Delay and build grant-funded program readiness intentionally
- Adjust your strategy to match your current infrastructure
- Or pursue the grant with a structured readiness plan in place
Leadership is not chasing every grant opportunity.
It is protecting your staff, your survivors, and your long-term grant health.
If this grant funding stream is on your radar, start with readiness, not narrative.
🔎 Read the full case study here: Case Study
Strategic grant work protects mission. And when done well, it builds stability that lasts.
$500 Credit Per Referral
We have space to help new nonprofit clients! We love helping nonprofits that work in health, human services, and movement building, with operating budgets of $2M or more. To refer a client and earn a $500 credit if they sign a contract, make an email introduction to betty@resurgensimpact.com
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