‘The people being punished are the people that need help the most’: Washington joins lawsuit against cuts to AmeriCorps

The Phoenix Conservancy, a Pullman-based nonprofit organization that restores endangered ecosystems on the Palouse, the Great Plains and in Madagascar, stands to lose a $220,000 federal grant after the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency Service slashed $400 million in funding for AmeriCorps.

The cuts, Executive Director Chris Duke said Wednesday, have left the small organization scrambling to fill a quarter of its budget.

“I just don’t understand, just the numbers don’t seem like it would make that much of a difference,” Duke said. “It’s $220,000 for us, which means the world to us, but $220,000 is just a drop in the bucket to some of the things that they’re choosing to spend money on now.”

For the conservancy, the grant was seen as a milestone, as it was the first time since it was founded in 2016 that it had received AmeriCorps funds. The program, Duke said, was rigorous, with “enormous” fiscal oversight to ensure efficiency.

In Washington, the group is focused on restoring the Palouse prairie by combating weeds and working to restore a habitat for pollinators. The Phoenix Conservancy also works with local schools to teach students how to plant seeds and grow native plants.

Over the past nine years, it has restored more than 700 sites across 117,000 acres of land.

“The people being punished are the people that need help the most,” Duke said.

In late January, nonprofit organizations became anxious, Duke said, as the Trump administration began to gut grants and service programs across the country.

“We always kind of suspected that this was going to happen,” Duke said. “But it is nonetheless extremely jarring and disappointing, to say the least.”

Last week, organizations across the country received the news they had long feared: They would lose their grant funding. AmeriCorps has cut approximately 41% of its grant funding and placed 85% of its paid staff on leave.

The cuts to AmeriCorps programs sparked a lawsuit Tuesday from 25 states, including Washington, which allege they violate the Administrative Procedures Act and the separation of powers under the U.S. Constitution.

“AmeriCorps provides hope and belonging in American communities nationwide. It gives inspiration and purpose to the young people who join its ranks annually,” Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement Tuesday. “But the president thinks public programs and public dollars are his to do with what he will, snatching them up through the same scheming that federal courts have already said is likely illegal.”

AmeriCorps notified Washington on Friday that it would immediately cancel all but one program supported under AmeriCorps. The cuts, Gov. Bob Ferguson said in a statement, would “dismantle” around 800 service sites in the state administered through Serve Washington with approximately 1,300 volunteers, “touching virtually every corner of our state.”

According to Ferguson, the state stands to lose $21.6 million in funding for programs, which will “impact critical services that benefit all Washingtonians, but especially our most underserved residents.”

Ferguson said the program aids various efforts on wildfire prevention, staffing food banks, veteran and senior services, college preparation and reading programs.

Affected organizations in Spokane County include the United Way, which lost a $50,000 grant, and NorthEast Washington Educational Service District 101, which lost $370,000, and the MLK Day of Service, which lost $200,000.

CJ Peterson, VISTA director for the United Way of Spokane County, said the organization received word on Friday that it would lose the grant they’ve had for 10 years. According to Peterson, the grant allows the agency to be an intermediary with the Volunteers in Service to America program.

As of Tuesday, the five VISTA members were placed on administrative hold, with a termination day set for May 20.

For the Phoenix Conservancy, the grant required “kind of a leap,” Duke said, as it largely reimburses costs already accrued, with the organization only receiving a “very small portion” of the funds.

Since receiving the grant, the organization has brought on seven AmeriCorps members and is working to add several others. Under the program, participants receive a small stipend to help pay for living expenses. The rest of the funds are used for equipment.

“The big issue, I think for a lot of nonprofits, is the way that it was already structured required nonprofits and anybody with AmeriCorps, to basically take the plunge first and front the costs, under the promise of being reimbursed,” Duke said.

“So we have a pretty substantial chunk of costs that we’ve invested. So not only did we lose a fair portion of the funding, we’ve incurred a bunch of costs that we may or may not be reimbursed for.”

For the conservancy, the hope is that donors help close the funding gap.

“At the end of the day, pulling weeds and planting seeds, they can’t really stop us from planting seeds,” Duke said. “At least in our case, we can carry on, but the funding hole is a scary problem for a lot of groups.”