News

Sound Rivers Executive Director Heather Deck weighs in on legislative, executive actions on the federal/state levels that could have an impact on nonprofits and Sound Rivers.

Federal

A new Executive Order by President Donald J. Trump could have serious implications for nonprofits and other grant recipients.

The order, issued on Aug. 7, changes how federal agencies award, manage and terminate federal grants. Of particular concern, according to Sound Rivers Executive Director Heather Deck, is requiring each agency to have a political appointee overseeing the grant process, giving the appointee broad authority and explicit instruction to make sure grants are “consistent with agency priorities and the national interest.”

“You take the Fish and Wildlife Service — these grants could be funding research, restoration for a specific species, many different projects, and now this allows funding to be decided by, depending on the political appointee, someone who has zero experience,” Heather said.

While Sound Rivers receives very little federal funding — and what it does receive comes through the state — the concern is that the executive order will create a chilling effect.

“If an appointee has broad oversight of the grant process is funding going to be inconsistent? What if it’s a grant for work on climate change or environmental justice?” she asked. “I think the intention is to ensure applicants work only on convenient things.”

Broad language indicating funding can be pulled at any time leads to another question: whether a grant recipient’s funding could be terminated because they speak out against bad policy choices.

“This just created more uncertainty for universities and institutions and nonprofits that provide a whole host of services — nonprofits that step in to fill community needs when other funding disappears. Those needs don’t go away, even if the funding does,” Heather said.

State

A recently created division in the State Auditor’s Office, DAVE (Division of Accountability, Value, and Efficiency), is set to review what the state’s spending money on and decide if any state agencies, divisions and positions should be eliminated.

This includes review of investment (grants) in the work of nonprofits like Sound Rivers.

The deadline to get this done is Dec. 31.

“I’m not opposed to see where things can be streamlined and where the state can save money, but I don’t think that’s the point of this,” Heather said. “What gives me great pause is how in the world is an auditor’s office, in four months, going to be able to appropriately evaluate what all these state agencies do and decide which agencies and nonprofits deserve to be funded?

They’re essentially modeling this after DOGE, and we saw how well that worked out at the federal level.”

Along with private foundation grants, Sound Rivers’ Campus Stormwater Program receives the bulk of its funding from the state — in past years, through the Environmental Enhancement Grant program; currently through the North Carolina Land and Water Fund.

“We have some funding that has come through the state from the federal government, and in the grant world, we rely on grant funds to do this great work, along with donations, but it’s getting harder. The grant landscape is getting tougher.”