Hawaii nonprofits hit hard by funding cuts

The Honolulu Advertiser’s July 28 edition included a story by Mary Vorsino that summarized the impact of local government funding cuts on Hawaii nonprofit organizations and their ability to serve clients:

State funding cuts are battering the nonprofit sector, which has laid off scores of people over the last 12 months and is preparing for more bad news as state departments scrutinize their contracts looking for more savings.

During the first half of this year, human services nonprofits have seen drastic state spending cuts to services for the mentally ill and the developmentally disabled.

Specific programs also have been hit, including Healthy Start, a child-abuse prevention initiative whose funding was cut from an initial appropriation of $10 million last year to about $1.5 million this year.

"There is great uncertainty in the private nonprofit area," said Alex Santiago, executive director of PHOCUSED, a consortium of human services nonprofits. "I think the word 'uncertainty' is quickly turning to fear. We know it's going to get worse."

The cuts have left some nonprofits struggling to survive. Larger nonprofits — many of which rely on state money for at least 40 percent of their budgets — have been forced to lay off employees, whittle away at programs and search for new money.

And nonprofits say the reductions aren't just hurting their budgets, but the services that target society's most vulnerable, including the severely mentally ill, at-risk families and children, and the elderly. These programs — considered core services — are seeing unprecedented reductions, they say, that could take years to restore. Click here to read the entire story on honoluluadvertiser.com.