Editor’s Note: As of press time, the Associated Press is reporting that a judge has temporarily blocked the federal freeze on grants and loans.
Berkshire County — In less than 24 hours following the release of a memo from the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), local nonprofit organizations and beneficiaries of federal funds are scurrying to understand the directive’s impact on their ability to complete their missions.
A January 27 document obtained by various news outlets, including Reuters, provided that all federal grants and loans will be “paused” as of 5 p.m. on January 28. The memo, a copy of which was published by CNN, requires federal agencies to review their financial assistance programs and other activities, ensuring those measures align with that of the new administration and ferreting out those programs “implicated by the executive orders [ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs], including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.”
As news broke of the impending deadline, Berkshire officials and organizations readied staff, residents, and clients for the potential fallout.
City of Pittsfield
Catherine Van Bramer, Pittsfield’s director of administrative services and public information officer, told The Berkshire Edge that her office is still trying to figure things out “as the recipient of many federal grants and loans.” “We are actively monitoring and looking into the executive order and deadlines being placed by the federal government,” she said.
Officials are in the process of gathering information while “keeping an eye on all of our federal funding” to determine what impact the pause will have locally, Van Bramer said. “At this moment in time, we’re taking it case by case, grant by grant, and seeing where we are at and what’s the current status of each of those areas right now,” she said.
With the deadline looming, Van Bramer said Community Development Block Grant funding might be in jeopardy after the municipality just received a $1.6 million community-planning grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The funds will partially subsidize a $2 million “Deconstructing Urban Renewal” study focusing on the removal of an arterial interchange to reconnect Pittsfield’s West Side to its downtown. “So, we are paying attention to what this [announcement] means for that grant fund,” Van Bramer said.
Schools and libraries will also be within the city’s assessment of the situation. “We are actively paying attention to these actions that are being taken and figuring out what we need to do as a community to prepare,” Van Bramer said.
Berkshire County Head Start
As of 1:34 p.m. on January 28, the federal action had already affected Berkshire County Head Start as its Executive Director Brett Random said the agency’s payment-management system, that allows a drawdown of funds, was temporarily shut down, paralyzing its activities and program operations. She called the federal freeze on grants as having “a profound and potentially detrimental impact on our ability to serve the 200-plus children and their families who rely on us countywide.”
Most of the agency’s operational funds come from a federal grant, with the interruption of monies impacting its services that include early childhood education and support for families through nutritional assistance and other resources.
“In the short term, my senior leadership team and I are working diligently to develop a plan that will allow us to maintain services,” Random stated. “We are working to strategically leverage the limited unrestricted funds we have, in combination with available state funding, to continue supporting the families who depend on us.”
Additionally, according to Random, the federal Office of Head Start has been directed to stop all external communication “until further notice.” “This directive prevents the federal employees responsible for managing and monitoring our funding from engaging with us as grant recipients, leaving us without guidance or updates until they themselves receive further instructions from their agencies,” she said.
Berkshire Regional Planning Commission
In an email response to The Berkshire Edge, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) Executive Director Thomas Matuszko stated that the impact of the federal announcement on the organization isn’t fully apparent now but its “abrupt and sweeping nature” deeply concerns his team.
The organization offers municipalities land-use, transportation, community-development, and other planning services and works with local officials to identify and obtain grants to fund such projects. According to its website, its staff has established a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging (DEIAB) Working Group.
Matuszko stated that, per the OMB, more than 2,300 federal grant programs are “paused,” including those within the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Small Business Administration, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the National Endowments of the Arts and Humanities.
“Despite follow-up information issued by OMB today, explicitly listing Executive Orders prompting the pause, it will take considerable time and careful review to determine if specific grant-funded projects are implemented,” he stated. “In the immediate term, we are monitoring communications from these agencies and the federal OMB and carefully reviewing potentially affected projects.”
South Community Food Pantry
According to Steering Committee member Joan Morgan, the South Community Food Pantry received two federal grants in 2024 totaling $15,562 from the Emergency Food and Shelter National Board Program. Those funds were spent directly on food, she said, and the group is applying for a grant this year to cover some of its transportation costs.
The Food Pantry’s website states that the organization is the largest food pantry distribution in the Berkshires and serves more than 1,000 families weekly.
Although the organization doesn’t rely heavily on federal monies, the grants help with operating costs and food purchases.
Berkshire United Way
Although the majority of funds obtained by Berkshire United Way are derived locally at this time and not from federal grants, President and CEO Tom Bernard said his organization is eyeing severe consequences to volunteer services they work with as a result of the recent OMB decision, especially for food-access groups that are already strained, as well as local housing organizations advocating rental assistance and housing stability and programs supporting victims of violence and domestic violence.
“It’s not just the programs,” he said. “The good work isn’t just the dollars that flow. It’s the people who do the work, who deliver the programs, who are the points of connection to vulnerable populations in the community. Right now, they don’t all know who’s going to be affected. People don’t necessarily know what exceptions or what expectations they’re going to be facing. That’s concerning.”
Bernard also counted economic-development programs that stand to be impacted by this changed course. “So, the economic impact on the community that we serve, it has the potential to be devastating,” he said.
With 14 United Way organizations within the Commonwealth, Bernard hopes that the voice of that coalition will show where attention needs to be placed, advocating in Boston, if need be, for local support for its vulnerable populations. “What’s happening right now is going to make it much harder for individuals and families to thrive and, therefore, for communities to thrive,” he said. “And, we know because when these types of cuts happen, it is the most vulnerable populations that experience the greatest stress and pain and effect first and longest. This is an equity issue for our community and for every affected community as well.”
Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires
With its diversified revenue stream, the Nonprofit Center of the Berkshires probably won’t be touched by the recent directive, said founder and Executive Director Liana Toscanini. The group serves as a clearinghouse for local nonprofit organizations and doesn’t receive federal funding but offers workshops on revenue diversification.
“This is always the game, right?” Toscanini said. “At any moment, an important source of your funding can be pulled right from under you, whether it’s an individual who dies, one of your main supporters, or something like this. I’m sure it must be pretty scary right now for the folks for whom a large part of their budget comes from federal funding.”
On the afternoon of January 28, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced that the Commonwealth is joining the attorneys general from California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island to enjoin the OMB action through a court order as being unconstitutional.