War And Nonprofits - Not a War on Nonprofits but we're still catching shrapnel

War doesn’t have to happen in your city to hit your nonprofit.

In this episode of Philanthropy N The Black, we break down how the escalating U.S.–Iran conflict is impacting nonprofits through rising gas prices, inflation, disrupted supply chains, donor anxiety, and shifting government priorities.

This is not a political episode.
This is a nonprofit survival episode.

From food pantries and youth programs to healthcare foundations and humanitarian organizations, nonprofits everywhere are feeling the pressure when global conflict drives up costs and stretches funding thin.

We discuss:
• How war impacts fundraising and donor behavior
• Why gas prices matter to nonprofits
• Humanitarian organizations facing major disruptions
• How donor attention shifts during global crisis
• Why unrestricted funding matters more than ever
• A simple 30-60-90 day nonprofit survival strategy
• How organizations can stay financially stable during uncertainty

Because keeping nonprofits “in the black” means preparing for real-world disruption — not just celebrating wins when times are good.

🎙️ Philanthropy N The Black
Keeping nonprofits in the black. Financially. Socially. Morally.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to another episode of Philanthropy and the Black. Listen, today we're talking about what happens when war breaks out overseas, but the nonprofit is trying to feed families, raise money, pay staff, deliver services, and keep the light going. Today we're talking about war, but I'm not in the traditional sense. Let's go. Listen, as a United States Navy veteran, I absolutely understand what the men and women of our military services are going through at this particular time. And so my prayers are with them as well as their families. This is not that kind of show. We're not going to get into the political aspect of this, but we always want to give honor and respect to those men and women serving, right? Because here's the thing. And this is not about turning tragedy into talking points. This is Philanthropy in the Black, where our where our goal is to help nonprofits stay in the black socially, financially, and morally. So today we're talking about what war does to nonprofits. Because when conflict breaks out, normally people just start thinking about soldiers, right? Fair enough. They think about governments, they think about oil prices, they think about presidents, missiles, and markets, all of the things. But nonprofit leaders know that there's another battlefield. And that battlefield is the food pantry, it's the clinic, it's the school, it's the refugee support center, it's the domestic violence shelter, it's the arts organization already living rent to rent. The small profit trying to make payroll. War may happen overseas, but the impact pulls up right at your front door. And so what this one uh financial, I'm sorry, nonprofit expert called this type of situation we're dealing with with this war. Uh, he called it a fundraising disruption event. FDE, fundraising disruption event. And that language is important. Not every disruption means donors stop caring about you. So get out your feelings, people. Okay, get out your feelings. A donor who had who was about to give to your to an after school program may suddenly start giving to international humanitarian relief. A foundation that was reviewing your capacity building proposal may pause. The board may start looking into emergency responses, right? And your corporate sponsor for your little event there, right? And I meant that with all due disrespect for your event. They may pull back because fuel, travel, and operating cars are squeezing their own budget. But it doesn't mean nonprofits should panic. As someone who's been doing this work since 9-11, uh, the tragedies of 9-11, I've been doing this work since then. I've seen nonpo how nonprofits react. Katrina, uh, COVID, all the things. Panicking is not what nonprofits need to do during a time like this. But it does mean nonprofits should not pretend everything is normal because it is not. As a regular citizen, you know this. So as a nonprofit leader or someone who works in nonprofit, you should know things are not normal because donor behavior changes during war. It's it's a given, right? Like I said, you know, we're citizens, we have our own issues. Some donors get emotional and reactive, some donors get cautious, some donors wait to see what the economy does because if they have hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in these markets, they're paying attention to what's going on on Wall Street. Some donors give only to emergency relief. They change, right? Some donors start asking harder questions of you about your reserves, your risk, and sustainability. So the first lesson, the first lesson of this, the first lesson of this. Do not overcorrect, but do not sleep either. That's the first lesson. Don't overreact as a nonprofit leader or someone who works in a nonprofit, but don't sleep. This is not the time to throw your whole fundraising plan away, right? But it is the time to update your donor messaging, check your cash flow, make sure your supporters understand why your mission still matters during global chaos. All right. Now let's talk about the obvious impact of uh these type of wars or fundraising disruption events. Money. Mula, moolah, moolah. War drives up cost. All prices have surged, right? So they're talking $104 a barrel and renewed concerns over the Strait of Hermuse, all the things, right? Like we're not the political show to talk about that. Um, the AP also reports that gas prices have climbed over a dollar, I'm sorry, four dollars and fifty cents. Listen, in the South, we're looking at uh four dollars and twenty cents. Like that's unheard of, it's ridiculous. It it's a serious disruption, right? Now, some people go, okay, gas prices are high, and and what? But nonprofit people hear this, and this is what we think or should be thinking. How much more will it cost to deliver meals? How much more will it cost to transport seniors? To move supplies? How much more will it cost to staff for staff just to get to work, right? How much more will vendors charge us? How much more will that same event cost? A food pantry pantry, by the way, they don't just buy food. It transports the food, it stores the food, it refrigerates the food, and depends on volunteers and staff who also have to pay for gas. That's big. A health nonprofit does not just provide care, it supplies shipping, refrigeration, generators, medicine, transportation, and of course, people. So when fuel goes up, missions get more expensive. And here's the ugly part most grants do not automatically increase because your cost increased. That $100,000 grant is still just $100,000, but your expenses just got bigger. So you gotta do what we do in the community, you gotta make that money work, you gotta stretch it. So it means like our nonprofits, like any of our home budgets, we're asked to do more with less. And that's like a toxic phrase in nonprofit. People love saying do more with less. But what people don't understand is that eventually less becomes nothing. And let me go to the to the to the macro level right quick. And we're gonna get we're gonna drink uh drill down to the micro, but let's go macro. For international humanitarian organization, this conflict is a brutal double bind, right? Then the needs go up, right? You're in war, so the needs go up, your access goes down, cost goes up, funding gets complicated. Do you know that there's um a US sanctions that doesn't allow banks and certain nonprofits or people to directly donate to Iran or those humanitarian efforts over there? Like this there's a sanction that we can't just pull out our money and just give to who we want to give to when something's going on around the world. That is a real thing. El Ja Zero reported that UN officials warned a conflict could push millions back into poverty because fuel and fertilizer disruptions affect food systems and crop shares. I'm gonna bring this home for a minute. Stay with me. We're at the top level right here. This means that it's bigger than one country. That's what I'm trying to get to, and we'll get to the United States and nonprofits. When fuel prices spike, food prices spike. When fertilizer fert fertilizer shortages hit, crop yields suffer. Shipping routes are blocked, medicine gets delayed, banks get nervous, lawful humanitarian payments can still get stuck. Macro. And this is where the nonprofit profit, this is what the nonprofit sector has to understand something. Humanitarian work is not just about compassion, it's also about compliance. Again, here's the the the the true fact, and you can look this up on the Council of Foundation site, uh, that direct support into Iran is heavily restricted by U.S. sanctions, even for philanthropic philanthropic actors. It is a sanction. So you can have good intentions and still create legal problems if you don't understand the rules. This is why you're a nonprofit coming home now. You need to have counsel. Okay, I can't tell you how many places I've uh consulted with or worked that didn't have counsel or good counsel. You need to have documentation, you need to do your due diligence, and you need to understand banking partners uh have banking partners that understand humanitarian work. You don't think about it when you're depositing all your funds into a certain bank, but what is their stance on humanitarian work? Because in wartime, the question is not just do we want to help, the question is can we legally help, safely help, document the help? Can we protect our staff, partners, and beneficiaries while helping? That's a grown-up conversation in a nonprofit world that needs to be happening, and not everybody has it, trust me. Now let's get home. So that was my micro, macro. This is micro. We're gonna bring it home. So you're thinking you're going, hey man, my my nonprofit is in New Orleans, it's it's in Texas, it's in Georgia. My nonprofit is not sending money overseas. So why, why, why, why should I care? Shout out to OG Murder. Here's why you should care. Because war does not need your permission to affect your budget. That's dope. If your organization delivers food, your costs may rise. If you host events, your vendor costs may rise. If you rely on government funding, priorities shift. And we're gonna get into that at another in another podcast about you got all your eggs in one basket and the government like, nah, we're not funding that, that's a problem. If your donors are watching the stock market, as I alluded to before, their giving may slow down. It might not stop, but it might slow down. If the people you serve are already living paycheck to paycheck, guess what happens? Their needs increase. This is where local nonprofits get squeezed on both sides, right? Expenses up, demand goes up, donor confidence down. It's a dangerous, dangerous compensation combination. You don't want to be there. In the organization most at risk are not always the big boys, it ain't the trillion dollar, million dollar budget boys. It's the small, mid-size nonprofit with no reserves, no flexible funding, no finance staff, and no room for error. You cannot make a mistake. The ones already surviving on delayed reimbursements, waiting on one big grant check, the ones with a passionate team, but no cushion at all. It's just they raw dogging it out here. Excuse the expression. War exposes weak systems. Not because the mission is weak, but because the funding motto is weak. That's heavy. And as I said earlier, for our military families, and how this plays into the nonprofit way as well. Listen, veterans and military families, when conflict escalates, military families carry out have stress before the rest of us even know what the hell's going on. Deployments, fear, anxiety, trauma, financial stress, family instability. Veterans organizations and mental health nonprofits should expect increased need, not only from active duty family, but from veterans like myself whose past trauma is reactivated by current events. That means outreach matters. You can't wait until people in crisis. Are you checking on your community right now? Are you creating a safe space for your people right now? You have to communicate your resources. Partner with organizations already serving veterans and families. Listen, if they're not nonprofits that are trying to partner with veterans and family military family organizations, that that is a piss poor statement for our community. Because there are already these organizations that are doing the work, and you can partner with those. Collaboration is big. That's another episode for another day. This is not charity, this is duty of care. Duty of care is a legal term. Look it up. Messaging. And I'm about to wrap it all up for you people. Now, here's where nonprofits can get themselves in trouble. In moments of war, everybody wants to make a statement. Everybody got something to say. Some people want to condemn, some people want to support, some people want to stay silent. Some will attack no matter what you say. Like they're right. So what should nonprofits do? I'm gonna get into it. First, ask, is this connected to our mission? Is what's happening in the world connected to my mission? If you serve refugees, veterans, immigrants, Muslims, Jewish communities, and direct indirectly affected populations, yes, you may need to make a thoughtful message. Let's put that in parentheses or quotations, because if it's not thoughtful, shut the hell up. Alright. But if your organization has no clear mission connection, be careful. Not because you should, you know, lack courage, but because performative statements can create real consequences. Ugh, we'll drop a bomb for that. A bad statement can confuse your donors, a careless statement can endanger your partners, a vague statement can satisfy nobody. Nobody. A political statement with no mission connection can damage trust. The rule is simple. Do not speak just to be seen speaking. Speak when your mission requires clarity. And when you speak, center people. Don't get into the politics of the thing. Center the people, civilians, families, children, staff, communities. The people, your mission exists to serve, to serve. So that's that part. Let's get into solutions and we're gonna bring it home right here. What nonprofits should do right now? Right now, you should run a cash flow test, stress test. Ask yourself, what happens if your donations drop 10%, 20%? What happened happens if a grant is a grant payment is delayed by 60 days? What happens if your services increase next month? Then call your top donors, not with panic, with leadership. Tell them, hey, we're monitoring the impact of the global instability or something like that on local service. Our mission remains steady, but costs are rising. This is how you keep donors close. And here's another thing. Review your donor contracts, transportation costs, event budgets, and grant budgets. Do not wait until you are underwater to tell your funders, help, things have changed. It's pitiful. Here's a let's go a little bit further. Update your funding message, please. Don't be on here with these happy, go lucky messages and foolishness. This is the time to explain what unrestricted giving can do for you. Be intentional. Not in boring nonprofit language. Say it plainly. Restricted gifts fund programs. Unrestricted gifts keep the organization alive enough to deliver those programs. That's the truth. Talk to foundations, ask whether they are offering emergency flexibility, uh, budget amendments, accelerated payments, or general operating support. Talk to your foundation partners. And if you operate internationally, talk to your bank, ASAP. Ask what documentation is needed for cross-border transfers and sanctioned regions and so on and so forth. And here's the final thing you should do and think about doing as a nonprofit, nonprofit leader. Revisit your reserves policy. You have a treasurer on your board. Let's look at the reserves. What's the policy on what we could do? If you do not have reserves, start building a case for it. If your board does not understand what reserves are, educate them. A reserve is not lazy money. A reserve is survival money. A reserve is how you avoid laying off staff during a crisis, people. A reserve is how you keep serving people when the world gets a little shaky. Review your risk plan if you have one. Not the dusty binder nobody reads, a real risk plan. Who makes decisions in the crisis? Who talks to the donors or the media? Who monitors compliance? Who protects your staff? We always got to throw staff in there. That's leadership. And I'll say this directly. Board members cannot disappear during global disruption. We have some lazy ass boards out there. Big facts. This is when boards need to be boards, not just names on a letterhead, uh gala attendees or a rubber stamp. Board should be asking, do we have enough money? Excuse me, are our grant payments at risk? Are we too dependent on one funding source? Are we protecting our staff? Do we need to adjust the budget? Are we being realistic? A good board doesn't panic, but a good board does pay attention because crisis. The crisis doesn't create all problems. Sometimes crises reveals problems, leadership ignored. And here's the real lesson. We're gonna wrap it up. We're gonna wrap it up. War is not just a military event. War is an economic event, a social event, a humanitarian event, a fundraising event, a governance event, a nonprofit survival event. And while this may not be a war on nonprofits, nonprofits absolutely are in the blast radius. So the question is not can we avoid disruption? The question is can we lead through it? Can we protect the mission, right? Tell donors the truth, that's a biggie, avoid fear-based fundraising. It's all hell breaking loose, and now you're begging, right? Can we support affected communities? Can we stay legally compliant? Can we keep our organization financially, socially, and morally in the black? That is the assignment. So to every nonprofit leader listening, do not panic. This is not the time to panic, but do not play. War changes the environment. Your donors are watching, your costs are rising, your clients may need more, the people you serve may need more. The funders may shift priorities, the board needs to be awake. This is not the moment for silence inside organizations. This is the moment for planning, people. Cash flow, communication, compliance, compassion, courage. This is how nonprofits survive during times of war disruption. And that's exactly where we are. Who knows how long we're gonna be here? But right now, we are all here together. I'm gonna be back next time with a new hot topic. If you enjoyed this, by all means, please like it, share it with your colleagues, subscribe. I appreciate your support. And I'm gonna be back again. We're gonna get into a few other things, but don't panic. Let's hold it down, we'll get through this together. Please.