Sydney Diavua

Good afternoon and welcome to Connecting Communities. Thank you for joining us for today’s webinar, Economic Insights from Lower Income Communities, Findings from the 2025 Community Perspective Survey. I’m Sydney Diavua, assistant vice president of community development at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and I will serve as your moderator for today’s session.

We’ve got an interesting webinar with just-released data and dialogue today on community conditions. I would now like to take the time to introduce our speakers on slide three. Steven Howland, senior researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In his role, Steven tracks and reports on economic conditions affecting low- and moderate-income populations and conducts research to better understand how economic changes affect LMI populations.

Dr. Kelvin Adams, president and CEO at the St. Louis Community Foundation. The St. Louis Community Foundation inspires purposeful philanthropy that connects community and donors to build and preserve a more equitable and vibrant region. In his role, Dr. Adams provides guidance on the Foundation’s vision, strategy, and operations. Michael E. Collins Jr., vice president of housing and financial capability at the National Urban League. In his role, Michael drives the development and implementation of interventions that foster increased home ownership, economic opportunity, and digital inclusion. And Denise Harlow, chief executive officer at the National Community Action Partnership. Denise leads this national hub that links over 1,000 of the nation’s community action agencies to each other, and to federal, state, and local leaders looking to connect Americans to greater opportunity.

Now before we get started, let’s move to slide four, where we can take care of a few housekeeping items. The views expressed during this session are those of the speakers and are intended for informational purposes. They do not necessarily represent the views of Fed Communities or the Federal Reserve System. Microphones have been muted. Please use the Q&A feature throughout the session to submit questions. We promise to get to as many of them as possible during the Q&A portion of the session.

Let’s keep the conversation going. Engage with us on social media using the hashtag #connectingcommunities and visit FedCommunities.org for a variety of community development articles, resources and data across the Federal Reserve system. And finally, this session will be recorded and the presentation, video, and podcast will be available on FedCommunities.org within two weeks of this event.

I would now like to turn the presentation over to my Kansas City Fed colleague, Steven Howland. Steven, the floor is yours.

Steven Howland

Thank you, Sydney. Good afternoon everyone, and thank you for joining us today. I’m happy to announce that the reports are now live. The links will be shared in the chat shortly. So I encourage you all to go check out the reports as they’ll have much more detail than I’ll be able to share here. I’ll be going over some of the high-level findings from the Community Perspective Survey to give a baseline of where community conditions are before our panelists give their perspectives on what they’re seeing in their communities and in their work.

For background, the Community Perspective Survey is a survey from the Federal Reserve, which asks nonprofits, government, and private entities who help low- and moderate-income populations to provide their perspectives on economic conditions in the communities they serve. We also asked them about their own organization’s health through their ability to serve and financial conditions.

This year’s survey ran from April 14th to May 23rd, 2025. The community portion of the survey asked organizations a series of questions on economic mobility, employment, housing, personal finance, small business, health, education, human services, and technology. These sectors were chosen to capture a fuller picture of the factors research has shown to impact the economic conditions of LMI populations. Respondents only answered questions within their self-selected area of work, and we asked them to report on conditions currently, how they’ve changed over the last year, and how they expect conditions to change over the coming year. They’re also asked to rank the top three positive and negative factors affecting their expectations in that sector over the coming year. Analysis of the survey included those responses in addition to open-ended responses that provide additional nuance and understanding to what organizations are seeing in their communities.

So let’s start with the first slide here. While not shown here, over half the respondents reported conditions for economic mobility favored downward mobility. Additionally, 67% reported expecting conditions for economic mobility to worsen over the coming year. As economic mobility in our survey is intended to capture kind of the entirety of the economic ecosystem and its ability to provide prosperity for LMI populations, you can see respondents’ perspectives on conditions for economic mobility reflected in the responses on this first slide.

Respondents in all sectors reported conditions as generally poor. Housing and personal finance conditions had the largest share reporting conditions were poor. And on housing, respondents noted a continued challenge in availability of housing and on prices. Something that’s always in the news is something that we expect in these kinds of surveys. But on the personal finance side of things, we’re seeing more reports of wages just not keeping up with inflation. Inflation is really eating away at people’s budgets and they’re not able to kind of make ends meet. So we’re seeing a lot more reports from our respondents in regards to that side of personal finance and why there’s increasing struggle on that side of things.

There were some reports of good conditions, particularly in employment and education. These were driven primarily by people’s ability to find work and uptake of adult education programs. Expectations for conditions were also expected to generally worsen in all sectors, but human services respondents in particular reported the highest share expecting conditions to worsen substantially. Respondents attributed their expectations in human services to growing uncertainty around funding for services they provide and the changes to public assistance programs that are expected to start occurring next year.

Let’s go to the next slide. So while employment had one of the highest share of respondents reporting good conditions, it was also very clear from respondents that there were different experiences in the labor market. Respondents reporting poor conditions reported seeing increasing layoffs and difficulties in getting work once losing a job. Those reporting good conditions, so they were seeing clients easily able to find new jobs, but unlike in past years, job seekers were not able to find better paying jobs. So there’s kind of a dichotomy there of like you could either find jobs or you couldn’t, and even where you could find jobs, it was still very difficult to find something that could actually provide you a living wage. Expectations for finding work over the next year showed a relatively large share expecting conditions to worsen substantially. Comments around those expectations were generally attributed to increased uncertainty in the economy and how easily available jobs would be in the coming year. Let’s go to the next slide.

Amid the expectations of worsening economic conditions among LMI populations, entities reported that they were generally able to serve the needs of the communities at the time of the survey. However, over a third expect worsening ability to serve over the coming year. Most of that concern was attributed to funding concerns and trying to adapt uncertainty in both the economy and policy spaces. Let’s go to the next slide.

Their ability to serve did not seem to be affected by significantly increasing demand for services over the last year. You can see in this slide here, that a great preponderance of the respondents said that they were seeing increasing demand for their services, as about 80% overall reported at least some increase in demand for services over the last year. And over the coming year, nearly half of entities reported their top challenge for being able to continue to meet demand for their services was related to funding. Funding was also creating challenges for them in growing staff and covering an increase in expenses particularly from wages. So we see this convergence of issues, from the worsening conditions in the human services sector and what organizations are reporting, and their demand for services and their ability to continue meeting that demand, mostly related to funding and changes that they’re encountering in this space. Let’s go to the next slide.

At the time of the survey, entities were about evenly split on their self-reported financial health. About half were experiencing financial stress while the other half were not. That is similar to the breakdown that we see of those who saw funding declines versus those who saw increases in funding over the last year, as shown on the chart on the right. However, those reporting funding decreases were most likely to report significantly decreased funding. So there’s an extreme there that you have to pay attention to when thinking about, it’s not just decreases and increases, it’s about the extremity of that decrease that is particularly worrisome.

And when asked about changes to their top three sources of funding, most organizations reported relatively mixed experiences with funding. 73% of organizations relying on government funding reported at least moderate decreases in funding. This was the most extreme category of funding that we saw a change in this year. Meanwhile, for organizations who said credit and loans were a top source of funding, 41% reported an increase in funding through those sources. This was the source that we saw that most respondents reported an increase in that funding source. The survey captures mostly nonprofits, these nonprofits relying on credit and loans, and that becomes a concerning situation of how are they making up that difference and being able to pay on these credit and loans. So there’s some concerns that are coming up over what is the sustainability of the funding and what’s happening in that space.

But to recap, overall, the survey results were mixed on the conditions of LMI communities and organizations that serve them. Certainly there was generally reporting on poor conditions, but organizations seem to be able to meet that need in the time right now. But there’s response reporting and expressing concern around funding and their ability to adapt to uncertainty and how that would affect the conditions in the communities that they serve.

As organizations reported concerns about their ability to serve the communities over the coming year and expectations of growing demand from an expectation of worsening economic conditions, organizations reported considerable concern about the conditions over the next year. Because it’s not just about their ability to serve. They’re also looking at these economic conditions that they’re expecting to worsen. So they’re having to plan for funding cuts, they’re planning for changes in policy, they’re planning for increased demand on their services. They’re expecting economic conditions to worsen that will then further increase demand for their services probably beyond what they were reporting in this year’s survey. And just in recap, I just wanted to highlight those pieces, and I encourage you all to turn back to the reports to find more details and more information about the survey. And with that, I’ll turn it back over to Sydney to introduce our panelists to get their perspectives.

Sydney Diavua

Thanks so much, Steven. And as Steven mentioned, the survey results are live on fedcommunities.org under our Data section. So now I’d like to invite our panelists back onto screen. And as you’re joining us on to screen, we like to take this time to get to know about you, our audience, and bring you into this conversation. So we’ve got a few polling questions. You’re going to see three polling questions come onto the screen to help us learn a little bit more about you and what drew you to this webinar.

So the first question, just tell us what best describes the type of organization you represent, government, financial institution, nonprofit, private industry, or a public-private partnership, or other? Our second question, from your perspective, which sector currently poses the most concern for low- to moderate-income communities, housing, employment, credit access, personal finance, health, education, or other? And then lastly, how would you categorize the financial health of organizations serving low- to moderate-income communities, very healthy, steady, some stress, a lot of stress, or unsure?

So just take a moment to let us know a little bit about how you’re entering into this webinar and thank you to our panelists who have just joined me on screen. So glad to have you all here today for this really timely conversation, as well as to really hear perspectives from you all on what’s happening on the ground. And so I really won’t belabor this. I really want to get into what are your thoughts. Those results were just released, Denise, Kelvin, Michael, how do these findings compare to what you’ve seen? Was there anything that surprised you? Michael, I’ll start with you.

Michael E. Collins, Jr.

Here we are. Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for having me. I really don’t see a surprise here. When I kind of looked at the findings, it really is a reflection of conditions that we see across our National Urban League housing network. As you know, housing instability and fragile personal finances are really the cornerstone of economic stress that many LMI communities face, particularly in Black and African-American communities.

What was striking to me is the consistency of those patterns across geographies and circumstance. It seems that even in regions where job opportunities have expanded, cost burdens remain so high that families are initially running in place. We kind of center my work on the notion that we will drive prosperity and economic agency through home ownership. And really through doing so, or looking at, we’re not wanting to just help someone close on a home, but build the skills to be resilient and have that sustained stability. So for us, the numbers really look less like abstract data and more as a call to action of more that we can do to deepen our impact in our communities.

Sydney Diavua

That’s helpful. Thank you for sharing that. And that point about consistency, I saw some questions pop up on, well, how many were sampled, what geographies are included? So this is a national survey. The sample size was 440 respondents. And so it is giving us a glimpse into what organizations and entities and communities are facing. Denise, what about you?

Denise Harlow

I would agree. I don’t think there’s anything that is necessarily surprising. I think it does reflect the on-the-ground perspective with local community action agencies reaching into every community across America, urban, rural, suburban. The one thing that I think I teased out was the uncertainty piece. Any business for-profit, nonprofit, government, it’s that certainty piece, that you want predictability. And I think you saw that uncertainty, that unpredictableness being reflected in some of those results.

Dr. Kelvin Adams

Yeah, I guess from my vantage point as well at the St. Louis Community Foundation, these findings align closely with what we are hearing from our nonprofits that we support, the internal data analysis, and what we hear differently from grantees and the community partners who resist the struggle around housing affordability is a real, real challenge. Obviously in the St. Louis region, the most recent tornado has impacted the housing dynamics a great deal. Personal finance stability also. So really the data and the report aligns to that.

I think one of the more positive outcomes around employment and adult education is significant and important. And we do see some ability to support that area. But from our own vantage point, two areas that are critical to us is economic mobility and new connections. So that’s what the community foundation has leaned into, and is what we are articulating to our donors in the community. But overall, the report was not surprising in any way, shape, or form. It provided us with alignment, quite frankly, with what we’re seeing on the ground as my colleagues have already articulated.

Sydney Diavua

So I would like to understand how can we put this into context a little bit more. Denise, you represent an organization that represents over 1,000 community action agencies. As you’re talking with your members, what explains some of these findings in the current economic context?

Denise Harlow

Well, in these post-pandemic years, we know that communities, as the world has reopened and economics improved over time, and I do appreciate that those economic job opportunity numbers did look a bit more positive, which is really good to see, it’s the sense that that cost of living piece. You talked about the personal finance piece. I think that is truly reflective of the burden that we see on families, right? Whether it’s housing, rental costs are weighing folks down, whether it’s energy, utility costs that are weighing folks down. And while salaries or hourly wages increase, so does the cost of living.

And where do we impact that needle on decreasing that cost of living for families? And in many places that’s programs and services that help decrease that cost of living. But those are sometimes, I think right now, also under the most unpredictable going forward in that space. I’ll also add I think some of the results around when we think about debt loads that families are carrying, whether it’s low- and moderate-income families, how that has grown post-pandemic, the amount of debt that an individual family is carrying right now, also weighs on the opportunity to pivot ahead, to leapfrog ahead, because it can weigh folks down.

Sydney Diavua

And so you talked a little bit about opportunity. What about you, Kelvin? Because your work at the St. Louis Community Foundation is also about that opportunity, that economic mobility. From your perspective, what explains some of these findings in your context? I’m sorry, you’re on mute right now.

Dr. Kelvin Adams

I think, number one, inflationary pressure. While wages have increased modestly in some sectors, they have not kept pace with the cost of living, which is a real, real issue, particularly as it relates to child care. In some cases, child care costs more than a house notes. Healthcare leaving the LMI households with shrinking disposable income. Secondly, the housing market, as I’ve already articulated, a shortage of affordable rental units, plus the rising interest rate and a stagnant federal housing assistance have really deepened this whole housing crisis.

This notion of nonprofits are facing some increased demand while expansion decreases in government funding. Met with a group of foundations so they to talk about how we could identify what nonprofits are going to be impacted and how we could prioritize how to support the nonprofits that are most at risk of losing dollars, and how that aligns to what the needs of the community are. And this whole notion around the whole post-pandemic uncertainty. Even with low unemployment, there is an undercurrent of economic uncertainty, which I think has already been articulated by my colleagues. From fluctuating consumer demands to evolving workforce expectations.

So it’s a real hodgepodge of pieces that are impacting what nonprofits are seeing and obviously what we’re seeing through our nonprofits. And it really causes a great deal of uncertainty in our donor base. All of our dollars come through our donor base, and it really creates a level of confusion for them about who to support, how to support them, and what the challenges are in terms of supporting them.

Sydney Diavua

So Michael, my next question is for you because we are hearing a lot about housing, and your portfolio includes housing and financial capability as well as, during our poll, 61% of the folks on this webinar today said that’s the sector that they’re most concerned about. So as we heard from Steven, housing and personal finance are the two worst performing indicators in the survey. Are there strategies that you’ve seen working in either sectors that are working well for lower-income households?

Michael E. Collins, Jr.

Yes. So I’ll say this. We manage a network of 27 HUD-certified housing counseling sites, where folks are able to gain services that not only help them on this pathway to home ownership, but provide financial support. What we’re seeing is, despite some of these challenges outlined, a targeted integrated approach where we’re looking at both collaboratively really are helping move that needle. And when we look explicitly at the housing side, models that combine both pre-purchase counseling, rental support, along with post-purchase support, really help families to get into those homes and sustain that home ownership.

Additionally, in the personal finance space, it’s really those strategies that are gaining the most traction or where we’re looking at financial coaching to help families really establish those goals. Look at the long-term picture and then also focus on those short-term wins. We’re talking about debt-reduction plans that free up monthly cash in the short-term and match savings programs that help to build emergency reserve funds. I think the common thread across these approaches is just a one-off intervention isn’t really as salient in this moment. We need layered supports and layered opportunities and partnership across community partners to really drive this forward.

Sydney Diavua

I’m going to come back to you later on that point on layered support because I think that also points to where our foundations are interacting in this space. But Denise, I’ll come to you a little bit. Could you share how you’re working with your members currently, especially around financial health as well? So are there particular things that are working? Are there things that members are doing for their financial health that you’d like to highlight?

Denise Harlow

Definitely. Community action agencies have been around for, they’re institutions in community oftentimes. And in rural America, community action agencies sometimes are the largest or one of the largest employers even in a community. And they’re trusted partners. And so that consistency of an organization that is there to help families thrive, to build opportunities, to do job training, to do some of that housing, counseling work, all of those pieces, local matters so much.

And our job here is to try to keep our local community action agencies as healthy and as positive, financially healthy, moving forward, no matter what kind of waters are going to have to be navigated. Local is just so important. Local connections, local knowledge. What happens in Detroit is different than what happens in Dallas versus what happens in Des Moines. So you got to understand your local community.

And so when we talk to our local community action agency executive directors, CEOs, it’s about what are your plans right now? How are you engaging your boards of directors who are in and of community? Community action boards include elected officials. They include the movers and shakers in community. And they include persons living with low- and moderate-incomes. It’s the entire community coming together. So how do we help our agencies who have these folks around the table really leverage the knowledge, both on-the-ground and the financial and the political aspects of all of this that has to be navigated?

You mentioned the layering. It takes so many different community partners to create a strong community. And we have scenario planning toolkits, we have board discussion guides. We’re developing tools and resources every day because what happens today is going to be different than what’s going to happen next January versus what happened last April. So we have to stay in the moment. And that’s sometimes where you have the local, you have state groups, and then you have some of these national organizations which really can provide this amplified support. All in the spirit though of supporting the local organizations and what’s happening on the ground.

Sydney Diavua

You know, it’s interesting that you called out, that you all utilize scenario planning. That speaks a little bit about preparing those organizations for the uncertainty you called out is helping them prepare, think about what they would do and build tools.

One other finding I thought that was interesting in our poll of our audience today, 48% believe that a lot of stress would categorize the financial health of organizations serving LMI communities. And that’s significant. And with it being that local matters, especially if 48% of organizations might be categorized as having a lot of stress, the local community foundation matters as well. And so Kelvin, at this current moment, what role do you find that community foundations should or will be playing?

Dr. Kelvin Adams

Well at first, community foundations right now are really serving as a stabilizing force and anchor for capacity building for nonprofits that are so desperately viewed as in need, especially those addressing the needs of LMI communities. While many entities report that they are still able to serve the community well, the persistent funding challenges really puts them at stress, as you indicated. Staff shortages, growing demand for services, meaning that the community foundation step in to provide the following things.

One, flexible gap fill grants. Ability for nonprofits to have dollars that are flexible. Not tied to a specific need that they might have, but generally such that they can be supported long-term. And that’s long-term funding, not just one off-funding. Because nonprofits are going back every single year looking to get the same dollars, and so they need some long-term support over a period of time. The whole notion of capacity building, we know that when these downturns occur in our country, the corporate community have the ability to navigate through these downturns, which means that they have a skillset to do so. This is not the first time that downturns have occurred from the national level, whether it’s at federal, local, or state funding. So a lot of nonprofits don’t necessarily have the skillset to know how to navigate through this time period.

The notion of convening power, which means that they work in collaboration to address the needs and the issues that are present before them. What that means, quite frankly, in some cases, is that some nonprofits will not survive. And that’s not necessarily something that we welcome, but we know that this will force some level of collaboration to take place such that those nonprofits who are working in isolation will need to work across the level of need to make sure that they’re providing the services, quite frankly, that has already been indicated by Denise that the community, local communities need.

And lastly, I think this is a great opportunity for advocacy. Because sometimes nonprofits are working in isolation with their head down to get the work done and not standing up to be politically aligned to make sure that they are working collaboratively together to articulate what their needs are and how those needs are incredibly important to the communities that they serve. So I think this is a really great opportunity, believe it or not, to try to reframe how nonprofits work in this space and how community foundations or foundations in general can work with them to increase their ability to provide what the community really needs, especially the LMI communities.

Sydney Diavua

So I hear a lot on it’s a moment for collaboration. And not just a collaboration, traditional collaboration that we’ve seen, but to really think outside the box on how nonprofits are collaborating, collaborating with community foundations, but also other entities at the community level. How will that help foster economic resilience? How will the work you’re doing, how does that help foster economic resilience in St. Louis?

Dr. Kelvin Adams

I think from our vantage point, it’s really about investing in housing stability, which has already been articulated by Michael and also Denise, is such a critical need right now. So it’s prioritizing funding for rental assistance, affordable housing development, landlord-tenant mediation services, just to name one, as housing was rated the worst as you already indicated. And then partnering with CDFIs in terms of expanding assets to affordable financing for both renters and small-scale developers. And that’s just one critical area. There’s several areas around financial capacity and organizational resilience. But just the area of housing, we see ourselves leaning into this space because it really is the most critical need in our region, and I think across the country in some ways, especially for the LMI community.

Sydney Diavua

That’s helpful. So I want to go back to the survey a little bit because this is a significant survey, and I want to get your perspectives on how is this information relevant and how could it be used by organizations that are serving low- and moderate-income communities? Michael, I’ll start with you. How can organizations use this information?

Michael E. Collins, Jr.

Yes. So I think these findings are a bit both sobering and instructive. What they do is they tell us where those pressure points are and they help us, at organizations, nonprofits, really be able to prioritize services. For us, this means an increased focus on integrating housing counseling with broader financial capability services to ensure we’re being holistic. It’s really not just about addressing the crisis at the moment, say a pending eviction or a mortgage denial, but building that foundation for long-term stability. Additionally, through a lot of our work, where we’re hoping as a civil rights organization really to execute work that helps to dismantle some of those structural barriers and to continue to provide that ongoing tailored support. And I really think that that’s the relevance of this to nonprofits executing this work.

Sydney Diavua

Denise, what about you?

Denise Harlow

Community action agencies are required by statute to conduct community assessments every three years. So we’re always looking for up-to-date data sets. Because we know the trends, the patterns. And I think your survey results are going to be one of those key data points that our agencies look at, especially if they’re looking to plan what will the service needs be a year from now, two years from now, three years from now? So if the mood is that perhaps job training has made those scores a little bit greener, I guess on that particular slide, but the provision of other kinds of assistance or supports were more in the negative, where do we need to spend the precious few dollars we have in a way that’s going to maximize? So I think it’s an incredibly important data point to add into that mix.

Sydney Diavua

Kelvin, what about you?

Dr. Kelvin Adams

I think they have articulated really well what this means, but holistic, as Michael has already indicated, cross-sectional approaches or political, this kind of forces that, as both instructional and directional in terms of what it does. And so nonprofits who have limited resources, whether that’s human resources or financial resources, can target the areas that are articulated here. Obviously we’ve all talked about housing. So how can these nonprofits that are out there in the space providing resources redevelop their focus, quite frankly, to address the area of housing because it’s such a great need? This notion of financial resilience, again, a great need. So they can reframe their purpose, if you will, such that they are aligned with what the data says because the community has spoken, this is what the need is in our community.

And lastly, I think this gives an opportunity, quite frankly, for this notion of sustaining funding models. With the increasing demand and reduced public funding, nonprofits will need more diversity in unrestricted revenue streams. So the ability for them to think about how to leverage those dollars in a real direct way, it’s such that they are focused on what the data already speaks to. So the notion of, and this is not a negative in any way, shape, or form, but those nonprofits that might focus on resources for animals might rethink how they might align their focus such that they’re talking about supporting those needs that exist in the area of animals, but aligning that in a way such that it impacts the areas that are being articulated by this report.

Sydney Diavua

So I hear to use this data to really think about what’s emerging, especially around housing and those concerns, but also where there has been some positive growth, where it has been around workforce. What do you all expect in the near future? I know we talked about housing is absolutely a clearly articulated challenge. But are there other challenges? Are there some more opportunities? What do you all expect? Michael, I’ll come to you.

Michael E. Collins, Jr.

Perfect. So really looking ahead, I think there’s a mix of momentum and headwinds. On the opportunity side, housing affordability has the public’s attention in a way I haven’t seen in years. This creates a policy window. We need to act on understanding the environment. Lenders too are showing a little bit more openness to be creative and to deploy targeted interventions and programs like of course the HUD Housing Counseling program can be scaled to even greater reach.

I think the challenge really, some that have persisted, but the racial wealth gap continues to influence every other economic outcome. There are rising operational costs that are continuing to stretch nonprofits thin, just as demand for services grow. And we need to look at more creative funding models and how we can support nonprofits. Also, the shift in the interest rate landscape and tight housing supply is really taking this option of home ownership further out of reach for first time home buyers, and I think this is a challenge we’ll need to address as more Americans experience these economic headwinds.

Dr. Kelvin Adams

Yeah, I would agree with Michael in a lot of ways. I think this gives nonprofits who are supporting LMI communities the ability to diversify their funding streams, not just to depend upon the local and the state and federal dollars. Because as we’ve seen, as the data has indicated, 63% decline in what’s happening in that government funding. So there’s been of dependency in the past to think about federal dollars, local dollars, and state dollars. Which means that nonprofits have to think about creating a reserve and an endowment, if you will, such that their work can continue long-term. If the work is relevant and important and the community is supporting it, they need to put themselves in a framework. And I know that’s difficult, because in some cases, they just have enough to make it from year to year, but I think there has to be a long-term view around that.

And I think the other piece is data-driven decisions. In many cases, the qualitative data is important, but I think the quantitative data is the driver in this conversation. The qualitative data speaks to surveys and those kinds of things that drive what they do, but I think the quantitative data in terms of dollars and cents is a real driver to help them think critically about how they need to move forward.

And lastly, this notion of collaboration. I can’t beat that horse to death any more than I’m doing right now. Because that collaboration has to take place. In the region of St. Louis, I think some surveys have been done that there are over 20,000 nonprofits in our region. And some of them are duplicative in terms of what they’re providing. And I’m sure my colleagues will say the same thing. And so how can those nonprofits leverage the skillset collectively to still provide what the community needs are, but not necessarily be duplicative in terms of resources, in terms of staffing, and all of those kinds of things. There’s a limited number of philanthropic dollars out there. And so we have to be really careful and targeted about how we use those dollars to get the biggest bang for the buck in terms of what the community needs are. And quite frankly, this report pushes this, forces us to move in that direction.

Denise Harlow

I haven’t written a grant application in 20 years that hasn’t made nonprofits collaborate. We’ve been pushed to have shared sub-grantees, or there has to be a lead agency or the collective impact model. There’s all these models where people and organizations come together. Because that is how you do the work. You have to come together. You have to collaborate. What’s going to be different, and I love the term headwinds, it just keeps blowing in our face.

And so we’re going to have to do something different. And so if you look at the sector two years from now, what will be different in terms of how we navigate what their survey is showing us in terms of the results, the needs of our communities, and how we help communities thrive? Are we going to see more shared services models within the nonprofit communities? And you see nonprofits develop because the needs in this particular neighborhood might look different than the needs in this. So there do tend to be oftentimes lots of perhaps nonprofits.

A nonprofit can stretch a dollar, 100 different ways from Sunday. They make it work. The use of volunteers, the dedication of communities to come together to make a community better and stronger. But this is business. We’re coming into business strata in terms of how do these nonprofit corporations navigate these headwinds? So is it shared services? Is it some of those mergers that somebody else talked about. Is there different ways that funding comes out. And funders collaborate as well to make sure the pot is large enough to make a difference. And then de-silo funding requirements and de-silo regulatory and regulations that make it really challenging to take, whether it’s a range of funders into an organization.

How do you become data driven when each individual funder wants you to use a different data system, for instance? How do you support enterprise system development across the nonprofit sector? Because we all want to move the needle, but the data’s telling us the headwinds are strong on a wide range of issues, both from an organizational financial health, but I think about the families and communities and their financial health, and their ability to thrive and for strong families and communities to happen. Individual families have their own desires, and then the nonprofits surrounding the community and embedded in the community need to be strong as well. Rambled there a little bit. I’m sorry about that.

Sydney Diavua

No, you gave a charge to our group. And what I hear is that not only is it nonprofits, but it’s those that fund them, there’s two different charges going on in terms of how these two groups will have to adapt for the future. And you’re right, nonprofits make it work. But there’s a difference between making it work and making it last and creating sustainability. And so how can these entities work together and create some sustainability?

So I’ll let you know, I have seen such an active Q&A this session. And I know that our audience is eager. I’ve seen a lot of questions come through. I want to push our polling results just so that our audience can see a little bit about what you shared during the conversation. But I’m going to come back to this question of funding. Because in order to make it work, nonprofits and community organizations need dollars. And so we have a question from the audience, with federal funding disappearing and increased demand on philanthropies and more natural disasters, how well-positioned are states and cities to step in? And so Kelvin, I’ll come to you because you are, not only a funder, but you also are a funder who is dealing with a region that recently had a really significant natural disaster.

Dr. Kelvin Adams

What I’ve found, quite frankly, is that when disaster occurs, philanthropic community rallies around support. It’s I think the history of our country, quite frankly. The most recent tornado that happened three months ago, I think tomorrow, over five million was raised over a quick period of time, provide resources and support. But the nonprofit community can’t do it by themselves. They have to leverage the federal and the local funding for that to take place.

And what we’re seeing from a national level is that there seems to be some challenges around FEMA and other organizations that have historically stepped in a way that has really impacted the region. I, unfortunately, was part of Katrina 20 years ago, August the 27th, 20 years ago, August will be the 20th anniversary at that point in time. And the difference between what happened then and what happened in our most recent tornado matter here in St. Louis, it’s the difference between night and day in terms of how the federal government stepped in.

So I think we have to build some level of reserves, and we have to be a little bit more strategic around how we support a community. Because we know these kinds of things are going to continue to happen. And so the real challenge I think for us as a community is how do we set ourselves up now for what the future looks like in terms of those kind of disasters? There cannot be a dependency on the federal government in the way that it was before, which means that we have to leverage the available resources, and quite frankly, not just necessarily dollars and cents, but the human capital that the community already has in place to try to drive the kind of support and changes that needs to take place.

We are a community foundation that manages over $650 million. About $100 million goes out on a regular basis as required or requested by our donors. So we’re transactional in that way. So how do we get our donors, quite frankly, to align their desires in a way that will impact the community in a greater way, as opposed to them looking to provide those dollars in isolation, meaning based on their desires. But what the desires of the community really needs as opposed to the desires of what their dollars say. It’s their dollars. I want to be clear about that. But how do we influence them to think differently around what the needs of this survey says and what the needs of the community really might be?

Sydney Diavua

It’s interesting you pulled out how you’re helping donors to the foundation also understand what the needs are. There’s a question from an attendee that’s asking how do nonprofits help advocate for themselves to funders, and to get funding that’s unrestricted or not tied to a specific program? Because it can be difficult to advocate for themselves when it takes away from time where they could be serving their constituents. And so how did they do that to a foundation, or in similar, how do you do that with your donors?

Dr. Kelvin Adams

I think it’s a real challenge. It’s a matter of providing information to our donors such that they understand the dynamics of what nonprofits are really going through. In some cases they don’t. And this is not a criticism in any way, shape, or form. It’s just a reality of how the history of philanthropy has been over time. It has been basically the donor drives the decision. And I think that has to be a much more collaborative kind of decision. And so it has to be a community foundation like us providing some level of education to our donors, quite frankly, and bringing some of, not all, and it’s real challenge to determine how to do that, bringing some of the nonprofits into the conversation with our donors as they’re making some decisions around how to use those dollars.

And frankly, the nonprofits are doing a better job, and this is not a criticism either, of articulating what they are really doing. And sometimes they don’t necessarily know how to do that. And so the capacity building is critical for them. They are short staffed, they don’t have all of the resources. So I think a helping hand by community foundations or others to help them do a better job of articulating what they are really doing and how it’s making a difference in the community is a critical, critical, critical piece that we are trying to drive to do. But it’s really hard to do when you have 20,000 nonprofits that you’re trying to get to help them move to that space.

Sydney Diavua

So Michael, I’m going to come to you with this next question. Is this an opportunity for innovative solutions, for example, within housing? So are you seeing this as an opportunity? Are you seeing some innovative solutions emerge? What can we do now?

Michael E. Collins, Jr.

I am. And I’m kind of excited to share this. I think what Dr. Adams said really resonates in that we have to show our value and show our value in new ways. I think one of the most creative things or innovative things that I’m currently working on is, for a few years, we’ve been working in partnership with a few other organizations about a fee-for-service model. Whereas once someone is denied, let’s say a loan, a mortgage from a financial institution, if that financial institution, through a partnership, refers them back to a nonprofit that delivers services, they’re able to make a fee, I don’t want to use the word commission, but a commission of sorts. But it’s really looking at, not only who’s funding us, but who are our partners, what is our value and how we can function, as Denise said, more as businesses, and to build that business case. And so that’s one that I’m really excited to see come to fruition and hope to share some insights around.

Sydney Diavua

I’m sure there’re going to be people in the Q&A asking how does that work? So be prepared for questions after that one.

Michael E. Collins, Jr.

Absolutely.

Dr. Kelvin Adams

And I’m one of those persons, Michael.

Michael E. Collins, Jr.

We can chat.

Dr. Kelvin Adams

Okay.

Sydney Diavua

Denise, what about you? Are you seeing some innovative solutions emerge?

Denise Harlow

Community action agencies have leveraged housing dollars to build affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families. And I too want to talk to Michael more about some of those ideas. It is that, someone used the word layering early for community impact, but I think that’s also for project impact. And that’s where community action agencies have been really skilled at layering all the varying funding opportunities, the lending that banks and CDFIs can provide, philanthropy who comes in the door, to really build housing that is respectful and good and healthy for families.

Then it’s where do you put those additional supportive housing aspects in that allow for, whether it’s Head Start, Early Head Start, or other childcare on site to allow residents then to have a safe space for their children so they can go to work in a confident way. How is it based in a transportation hub place where people can get to places and get to jobs? And so that co-location piece, I’ve seen community action agencies be successful with because community action agencies provide a range of services. And so you have to leverage housing with all the other programs and services that you’re able to provide and assist families with. And so for me, when I see that model in play, it’s just fantastic for families and the community. It is a community hub of energy, activity, and success.

Sydney Diavua        

Are there any strategies on financial resiliency you all have seen as well?

Denise Harlow              

For individuals in that kind of way?

Sydney Diavua           

For individuals or households?

Denise Harlow              

Right. So what is it, the best economic plan is a job, right? So job training, getting people into career paths that have growth potential. And you layer it with, I think Michael was talking about, the budgeting, the financial capability training, making sure people understand how to manage the income that does come into the household. And I’m a personal advocate for staying out of debt. That debt load is huge for individuals. It is such a weight on people.

And so we see our agency’s leverage, and during tax season, helping families access the child tax credit, to access the Earned Income Tax Credit, which is probably one of the most impactful programs that is out there in terms of impact on finances that come into the household for working families. It can be really important to leverage all those pieces to help working families manage every possible dollar and stretch it as far as it’ll go.

Dr. Kelvin Adams

Yeah, I’ll agree. I think we’re meeting with a potential donor next Tuesday as a matter of fact to kind of talk about this notion of financial empowerment programs. So I think from our perspective, getting our donors to support those kind of programs. Secondly, to look at credit repair. It’s probably the most important score that anybody could have. Knowing what your credit score is and working to make sure that it’s an appropriate score to get the kind of resources that you need. This notion of income growth, which means a second job and all of those kinds of things. The dynamics, I think all of us on this screen, and I’m sure your audience as well, have been in that place before where they had second jobs, sometimes third jobs. So it’s about increasing your income in some way, shape, or form. The personal finance instability really that stems from incomes not keeping up with the cost of living.

And so I think there’s a real challenge around that piece, how to be smart around that. And I think Denise spoke really well to this notion of workforce development. It’s about getting a job and keeping a job long-term, and then going back to get involved in adult education programs where you could re-skill yourself to move up the ladder in some way, shape, or form. So I think that’s what we want to kind of support and get our donors to move in that direction to do. And it’s a process. It’s not overnight. It’s a process that has to take place with that to occur.

Sydney Diavua

You’re building a bit of a cycle around financial well-being. Not just being able to have finances, but all of those things that support you in having that financial well-being. We’ve got another question about housing. I think, of course based on the survey, it’s a very hot topic. How can community planners and developers bridge the gap between creating market-rate housing while also supporting LMI residents in housing? Michael, Denise, any thoughts on that one?

Dr. Kelvin Adams

Could you repeat the question please?

Sydney Diavua

How can community planners and developers bridge the gap between creating market-rate housing while also supporting LMI residents in housing? So that tension between market rate but also creating affordable units?

Michael E. Collins, Jr.

I think this is a difficult question for me. And six months ago, eight months ago, would be very different. Because the legislative land shift have shifted so much. As we’ve seen shifts to programs like LIHTC and different pieces of legislation that will drive more development have shifted, creating attention. I know there’s some recent legislation that should support more development in communities. But it’s really being able to identify those resources and leverage them. And I hate to be a naysayer, but I know we’re just in a difficult time where a lot of those programs are disappearing, being retooled, and are reconfigured. And so it’s difficult to offer driving a solution that’s actionable.

Dr. Kelvin Adams

Yeah, I think from a community foundations perspective, it’s about providing gap funding, quite frankly, to get people up to a point where they have enough dollars as a down payment, and reducing what the interest rate might be for that to occur. We are in the beginning stages of those kind of conversations with some of our donors and some of our CDFIs, and quite frankly, looking to see what that looks like. But it is a process, and it takes a long time for that to happen.

There’s also some conversations in our community around modular housing, which is fabricated housing in a way that doesn’t take away from the quality of the home, but expedites getting the home built faster. But then we have to find the dollars to make sure that people will meet the requirements to get into the home. So there a lot of dynamics going on, and Michael is doing a really great job in terms of articulating what the challenges are because the landscape has changed over the last six to nine months in that space.

Sydney Diavua

So I think we’ve unfortunately reached the end of our time. But one, I just want to thank our panelists because, your insights, one, on helping us understand the survey, helping us understand from your perspective, but also for those on the line, how they can use these results, how they can leverage this data, how they can leverage their own community insights to really help them understand what are conditions now, expectations for the future, but also what else could they do? Collaborate, innovate, lean into some really new solutions. And so I just want to thank you all for sharing your insights with us today. And thank you to our audience for tuning in today.                

I want to remind everyone that the report is available, the 2025 Community Perspective Survey, Insights from the Field. It’s now live on fedcommunities.org under the data section. Attendees, thank you for spending your valuable time with us today.

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