Now is not the time to mince words.  Our country is in deep trouble.  

And everything has the possibility of getting much, much worse.

The negative impact of tariffs haven’t been fully realized yet.  The cuts to the social safety net – e.g., the Medicaid, Medicare, and SNAP cuts in the Big “Beautiful” [sic] Bill won’t take effect until 2026 – also haven’t been fully realized yet.  There’s the ongoing human cost and economic cost of mass deportation – which the current administration intends to ramp up.  The federal government is divesting from medical and scientific research, child development, education, basic health and human services, housing and community development, arts, culture, anything that says the letters LGBTQ or DEI, international aid, etc.  And there will be even more cuts coming, if those in power continue to get their way.

Millions of people will die because of the actions that the federal government has already taken.  Even if funding is fully restored tomorrow, millions of lives will be lost, prematurely.  These deaths are already locked in.  And, repeating myself for emphasis, there is the very real possibility that things will get worse.

Along with the rest of the country, our nonprofit sector is in deep trouble.

Across multiple federal programs, there have been billions of dollars in cuts to funding that supported nonprofit organizations to serve millions and millions of people.  Philanthropy, as it currently exists, will not be able to fill this gap.  And philanthropic institutions themselves are struggling in these times.  In times of economic anxiety and uncertainty, donors are less willing to give.  And in times of economic downturn, donors simply will have less to give.

In spaces where nonprofit and philanthropic professionals gather, the conversations are grim.  In the next couple/several years, people in our sector are predicting major upheaval.  Many organizations will likely close their doors.  Others will shrink, consolidate, shift their focus, or change in other ways, just to survive.

Whatever the future holds, those of us in the nonprofit sector will not be able to do business as usual.  With federal cuts and philanthropy stretched thin, we will need to raise resources in new ways.  This means that we are going to have to try new things – new things that we won’t know whether or not are going to work.

One new thing (new to us, at least) that we at SV@Home are trying is a deeper focus on individual member engagement and recruitment.  If we have more dues paying members, we become less dependent upon philanthropy and public funding.  Typically, our membership has been in the hundreds.  We are hoping (and again, we do not know whether this is something that is going to work) to expand our individual membership to number in the multiple-thousands.

We are asking everyone who believes that the rent is too damn high in Santa Clara County to join us.  Anyone who lives in our county and believes that housing is a human right, who believes that everyone deserves a home, who believes that affordable housing is an important cornerstone to a just society… Anyone who has had friends and family leave Santa Clara County because of housing prices, anyone who is struggling to make ends meet, anyone who believes that Silicon Valley is losing its soul.  Anyone who still believes in the vision of a healthy, thriving, diverse, vibrant Silicon Valley where everybody has a home.  We want you to consider joining our movement and becoming a member.

We understand that we are asking a lot of folks who are already stretched thin.  And we are not the only nonprofit organization who needs new and more support in these times.

So, we are not looking for anybody’s charity.  We ask that you give only if you can.  And, whether or not you can give money, there are things we want from you that are more valuable than money.  We want your attention, we want your effort and action.  We want you to join us in making our county – our collective home – a better, more affordable place.