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Today’s episode is the second in a two-part conversation with Atrómitos president, founder, and CEO Michealle Gady and legal intern Devon Cavaliere. Together with Communications Director Monette Goodrich, they delve into strategic responses nonprofit organizations can enact in the current political and funding landscape. They discuss the importance of financial independence, the urgency of diversifying funding sources, effective advocacy strategies, and the necessity of documentation and legal preparedness.
The convergence of executive branch funding freezes, judicial limitations on protective relief, and congressional rescissions represents an unprecedented threat to the nonprofit sector. But it's also a call to action. Organizations that adapt to this new reality can not only survive but potentially emerge stronger. The organizations that don't adapt are putting their missions, their staff,and the communities they serve at serious risk.
Key Takeaways
Financial Independence: Nonprofits should limit federal funding to 30-50% of their budget, and a multi-year diversification plan is essential for sustainability. The organizations that survive this transition are the ones that started planning yesterday, not tomorrow.
Political Engagement: Effective advocacy should focus on more than just issue education—nonprofits need to strengthen congressional relationships by establishing themselves as a valuable resource for policymakers. Start local, and build a clear, compelling narrative using personal success stories.
Documentation and Legal Preparedness: Documentation of impact is essential for survival in a volatile environment, but organizations must think strategically about what resonates with different audiences. Numbers matter for budget justifications, but stories are key for political communications.
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These changes to the nonprofit funding landscape aren't going away after the next election—they represent a fundamental shift in how all three branches of government approach federal funding decisions. The traditional playbook of relying on successful lawsuits to provide sector-wide protection no longer works. The question for every nonprofit leader is not whether these changes will affect their organization, but whether they're prepared when they do.
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This podcast is a production of Atrómitos, a woman-owned boutique consulting firm creating a better way for our health and human services provider clients to achieve their goals by strengthening internal operations, enhancing financial stability and evaluating public policies.
Want to know more about the firm behind the podcast?
In addition to our podcast, we've developed additional resources to improve your understanding of both long-standing and emerging issues important to leaders in the health and human service provider, government and philanthropic sectors.
Our articles, policy briefs and infographics provide you with information you can use to reach your organization’s goals.
Between the federal funding freeze initiated by the Trump administration in January, the Supreme Court’s ruling in the CASA case in June, and the 119th Congress passing the Rescissions Act in July, 2025 has been a chaotic year for nonprofits—especially those who depend largely on federal funding.
Today’s episode is the first in a two-part conversation with Atrómitos president, founder, and CEO Michealle Gady and legal intern Devon Cavaliere. Together with Communications Director Monette Goodrich, they talk through these legal challenges, and how they have fundamentally altered the landscape for nonprofit funding, requiring organizations to adapt their strategies for financial sustainability and advocacy in a politically charged environment.
Key Takeaways
Executive: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo in January caused confusion and chaos among federal agencies, revealing significant vulnerabilities in nonprofit funding. Swift legal actions were taken against the funding freeze, and the memo was rescinded less than 48 hours later—yet even eight months later, some organizations are still waiting for funding decisions.
Judicial: The Supreme Court's ruling in the Trump v. CASA case restricts the ability of courts to issue universal nationwide injunctions. This decision fundamentally alters the legal landscape by restricting the ability of lower federal courts to issue sweeping orders that protect non-parties.
Legislative: In passing the Rescissions Act, the 119th Congress has shown a willingness to use every procedural tool available to advance ideological priorities. Even if nonprofits successfully challenge executive actions in court, they could still lose their funding through congressional action.
Nonprofits now face threats from all three branches of government, and must fundamentally rethink their legal advocacy, political engagement, and financial sustainability strategies.
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This podcast is a production of Atrómitos, a woman-owned boutique consulting firm creating a better way for our health and human services provider clients to achieve their goals by strengthening internal operations, enhancing financial stability and evaluating public policies.
Want to know more about the firm behind the podcast?
In addition to our podcast, we've developed additional resources to improve your understanding of both long-standing and emerging issues important to leaders in the health and human service provider, government and philanthropic sectors.
Our articles, policy briefs and infographics provide you with information you can use to reach your organization’s goals.
Major policy shifts at the federal and state levels will affect every nonprofit, including health and human service providers across the country. Today, Atrómitos Founder, President & CEO Michealle Gady is joined by Ivan Canada, President & CEO of the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits. Together, they discuss the importance of strategic planning, collaboration, and innovation in order to navigate the federal and state policy changes which have created the new nonprofit landscape.
During their conversation, Ivan and Michealle explore the numerous new challenges surrounding sustainable funding, and address some of the misconceptions about nonprofit funding and advocacy. They emphasize the need for strategic planning, advocacy, and collaboration among nonprofit leaders to navigate these changes effectively. Their discussion also highlights the importance of board engagement and the role of philanthropy in supporting nonprofits during uncertain times.
Michealle Gady is a policy strategist with over 20 years of experience driving systemic change in health equity, social justice, and community empowerment. As Founder, President & CEO of Atrómitos, LLC since 2016, she has built and scaled a national boutique consulting firm specializing in health and human services policy and strategic operations for mission-driven organizations.
Ivan Canada is passionate about leadership, social change, and service to community, and has been involved with nonprofits and foundations as a staff member, volunteer, consultant, and board member. Before joining the Center as President & CEO, Ivan was executive director of North Carolina for Community and Justice (NCCJ), where he began as a board member before joining its staff.
Key Takeaways
Current policy landscape. How do state policies interact with federal changes to create unique challenges for nonprofits? What are some of the common misconceptions about these policy changes?
Impact assessment & strategic adaptation. How are policy changes forcing nonprofits to modify their programs or internal operations? What are the top 3 actions nonprofit leaders should take now to reduce adverse effects from these policy changes?
Long- and short-term outlook. Advocacy and collaboration will continue to be essential for nonprofits to survive and thrive. What should nonprofit leaders do today to prepare for the next 6-12 months?
Atrómitos Knowledge Hub Promo
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This podcast is a production of Atrómitos, a woman-owned boutique consulting firm creating a better way for our health and human services provider clients to achieve their goals by strengthening internal operations, enhancing financial stability and evaluating public policies.
Want to know more about the firm behind the podcast?
In addition to our podcast, we've developed additional resources to improve your understanding of both long-standing and emerging issues important to leaders in the health and human service provider, government and philanthropic sectors.
Our articles, policy briefs and infographics provide you with information you can use to reach your organization’s goals.
As food assistance programs see their federal funding slashed, food banks across the country struggle to meet rising demands. These cuts, in tandem with rising costs, have occurred as food insecurity reaches its highest point in almost a decade. Navigating this shifting landscape in order to serve their communities, nonprofits like the Sumner Community Food Bank in Washington state have had to develop creative strategies in order to build resilient funding models.
Atrómitos Principal Kate McNulty joins Sumner Community Food Bank Communications Manager Katie Garling to discuss the importance of diversifying funding sources, and discuss the role of community engagement in supporting food distribution efforts.
Katie Garling brings previous experience with a grantmaking application software to her current role at Sumner Community Food Bank, where she has been writing, fundraising, and writing grants since 2021, raising almost 1.5 million in grants to date. Those funds have helped the Sumner Community Food Bank fulfill its mission to provide families with nutritious food, and to partner with other food banks and charitable nonprofits to meet the overall needs of the community.
Kate McNulty spent more than a decade helping nonprofit organizations learn the intricacies of the federal funding process to increase their chances of success in what continues to be a highly competitive market. She has a strong background in grant writing as well as an uncanny ability to identify growth opportunities.
Key Takeaways
What has changed? With food insecurity at a decade high and a record number of Americans affected by federal funding cuts, nonprofits have had to think creatively in order to secure the funding necessary to meet the needs of their communities. Diversifying funding sources is crucial for sustainability.
What has worked? Along with community engagement and building partnerships with other local organizations to enhance outreach, Katie stresses the importance of storytelling in fundraising efforts. Donors enjoy knowing who their donations have helped, and how — even if it’s just “keeping the lights on.”
What’s next? While it may sting, learning from rejection can only improve future fundraising efforts. Katie emphasizes the importance of delegation, research, and preparation in grant writing as well as staff and volunteer engagement.
Atrómitos Knowledge Hub Promo
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This podcast is a production of Atrómitos, a woman-owned boutique consulting firm creating a better way for our health and human services provider clients to achieve their goals by strengthening internal operations, enhancing financial stability and evaluating public policies.
Want to know more about the firm behind the podcast?
In addition to our podcast, we've developed additional resources to improve your understanding of both long-standing and emerging issues important to leaders in the health and human service provider, government and philanthropic sectors.
Our articles, policy briefs and infographics provide you with information you can use to reach your organization’s goals.
Trump administration officials have been removing public health information from federal agency web pages causing concern among public health professionals who rely on this data for public health policy development and program planning and evaluation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) websites, among others, have erased or significantly altered data sets about adolescent health, racial and ethnic health disparities, HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ+ health.
While a court order has since restored some of the missing data, public health experts wonder about the broader implications of data erasure or alteration. What happens when the federal government not only omits public health data, but also no longer collects it for the foreseeable future?
Atrómitos Principal Amanda Rodgers joins Katy Rodgers, a data analyst for population health and quality at a health system, in a conversation about what missing federal data means for public health, health and human service providers, community-based organizations and advocates.
Katy Rodgers has used her diverse academic background in public health, medical anthropology, religious and women’s studies to lead public health
and rural health workforce programs in Idaho and transform emergency room responses to human trafficking and intimate partner violence in California health systems.
Amanda Rodgers is a public health professional with over a decade of experience in program evaluation, strategic planning, and stakeholder engagement. She leads data collection, stakeholder facilitation, and research development for government contracting and capital funding readiness initiatives for the firm.
Key Takeaways
Zoom in: Katy and Amanda discuss their prior work together on the CDC’s Rape Prevention and Education Program grant as an example of how federal-level data sets helped create a comprehensive approach to sexual violence prevention. Without federal data, developing an evidence-based intervention like this would be difficult, if not impossible.
Zoom out: When the federal government no longer collects public health data about specific populations, how can local and state level agencies fill in data gaps that affect not only program evaluation and grant funding opportunities, but also exacerbate health disparities and compromise public accountability?
What can be done: Katy emphasizes the importance of local health assessments, partnering across sectors to build “patchwork” equity indicators, and whenever possible, compile qualitative data like narrative stories and anecdotes in the absence of quantitative data.
Atrómitos Knowledge Hub Promo
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This podcast is a production of Atrómitos, a woman-owned boutique consulting firm creating a better way for our health and human services provider clients to achieve their goals by strengthening internal operations, enhancing financial stability and evaluating public policies.
Want to know more about the firm behind the podcast?
In addition to our podcast, we've developed additional resources to improve your understanding of both long-standing and emerging issues important to leaders in the health and human service provider, government and philanthropic sectors.
Our articles, policy briefs and infographics provide you with information you can use to reach your organization’s goals.
Since January of 2025 organizations like Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) have faced numerous legal and financial challenges in the wake of recent federal policy changes. Atrómitos Communications Director, Monette Goodrich, and IRIS Executive Director, Maggie Mitchell Salem, discuss the origins of the organization, the support it provides refugees integrating into their new homes, and how ordinary people in communities across Connecticut can help secure the future of organizations like IRIS. Monette and Maggie shed light on the critical first 90 days after refugees arrive in the United States, the impact of a $4 million federal funding cut on IRIS staff and the people they serve, and the vital role individuals play in advocating for refugee and immigrant rights with local, state and federal elected officials.
Maggie Mitchell Salem joined IRIS as Executive Director in January 2024. Throughout her 30-year career, Maggie has managed diverse teams focused on civic education, intercultural dialogue, social and political rights, and forced displacement. Given the fewer number of refugees allowed into the country due to the recent federal immigration ban, Maggie has focused on organizational structure, systems, and new initiatives that create a solid foundation for the organization’s continued growth.
Monette Goodrich, the new Atrómitos Communications Director, has decades of strategic communications, media relations and management experience in the governmental, non-profit and philanthropic sectors.
Key takeaways
The Past: For more than four decades the federal resettlement program funded organizations like IRIS to provide newly arrived refugees with critical and comprehensive integration services from basic living necessities and employment assistance, to healthcare and mental wellness support, and so much more.
The Present: Recent presidential executive orders including the immigrant ban, funding freezes and pauses, and stop work orders have drastically decreased the number of refugees allowed to immigrate into the U.S. and cut funding for resettlement agencies across the nation. After losing federal grant dollars, which make up a quarter of its annual budget, IRIS closed offices in New Haven and Hartford, restructured its services and cut its staff by more than half.
The Future: While national organizations have challenged these policy changes in federal courts, judicial rulings take time. During this interim period of legal and financial uncertainty IRIS relies on state-level assistance and fundraising efforts, such as the Run with Refugees, to keep its doors open and continue providing important services to refugees, many of who are fleeing extreme poverty, political violence and war in their origin countries. Maggie urges listeners, no matter where they live, to reach out to their elected representatives and advocate for refugees, and support organizations like IRIS in their state.
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This podcast is a production of Atrómitos, a boutique consulting firm creating a better way for our health and human service provider clients to achieve their goals by strengthening internal operations, enhancing financial stability and evaluating public policies.
Want to know more about the firm behind the podcast?
In addition to our podcast, we've developed additional resources to improve your understanding of the long-standing and emerging is
Atrómitos Knowledge Hub Promo
--
This podcast is a production of Atrómitos, a woman-owned boutique consulting firm creating a better way for our health and human services provider clients to achieve their goals by strengthening internal operations, enhancing financial stability and evaluating public policies.
Want to know more about the firm behind the podcast?
In addition to our podcast, we've developed additional resources to improve your understanding of both long-standing and emerging issues important to leaders in the health and human service provider, government and philanthropic sectors.
Our articles, policy briefs and infographics provide you with information you can use to reach your organization’s goals.
Tens of millions of low-income and disabled Americans – including children and the elderly could lose health insurance coverage if Congress cuts Medicaid funding and changes work requirements. Atrómitos’ Founder, President, and CEO Michealle Gady and Health Policy Consultant, Kat Latet, discuss Medicaid’s far-reaching role in keeping both our country’s most vulnerable people and our overall economy vibrant and healthy. Michaelle and Kat debunk Medicaid myths and urge everyone––even those who don’t qualify for coverage to raise their collective advocacy voices to protect this critical health insurance program.
Kat F-M Latet has nearly 20 years of experience in health and social policy design, implementation and evaluation in both the private and public sectors. Throughout her career – which includes positions at Milliman, the Community Health Plan of Washington, the Washington State Health Care Authority, and the Oregon Primary Care Association – Kat has focused on reforming Medicaid, advancing health equity, and developing initiatives that address the intersection of health and social services.
Michealle Gady, who has almost two decades of experience in health law, policy, and system reform, is the Founder, President, and CEO of Atrómitos, a boutique safety net health and human service consulting firm. Positions with the U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, where she shaped the Affordable Care Act of 2010, Families USA, and the Medicare Rights Center honed her expertise in health policy analysis, stakeholder engagement, and value-based healthcare delivery models.
Key Takeaways
The High Stakes: Tens of millions of Americans, including elderly, low-income and disabled people and children, could lose health insurance coverage if Congress cuts Medicaid funding and changes work requirements.
Medicaid’s Critical Role: As the largest health insurer in the country, Medicaid covers over 80 million people with essential services like primary care, maternal and behavioral health, and long-term care, while stabilizing the U.S. economy.
Myths About Work Requirements: Despite political rhetoric, data shows that a vast majority of Medicaid recipients already work, and imposing more work requirements will lead to additional bureaucratic red tape and more people losing Medicaid coverage.
Atrómitos Knowledge Hub Promo
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This podcast is a production of Atrómitos, a woman-owned boutique consulting firm creating a better way for our health and human services provider clients to achieve their goals by strengthening internal operations, enhancing financial stability and evaluating public policies.
Want to know more about the firm behind the podcast?
In addition to our podcast, we've developed additional resources to improve your understanding of both long-standing and emerging issues important to leaders in the health and human service provider, government and philanthropic sectors.
Our articles, policy briefs and infographics provide you with information you can use to reach your organization’s goals.
In this reflective episode of The Atrómitos Way Podcast, producer Liz Church explores the challenges of 2024 and the power of collective action.
Atrómitos Knowledge Hub Promo
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This podcast is a production of Atrómitos, a woman-owned boutique consulting firm creating a better way for our health and human services provider clients to achieve their goals by strengthening internal operations, enhancing financial stability and evaluating public policies.
Want to know more about the firm behind the podcast?
In addition to our podcast, we've developed additional resources to improve your understanding of both long-standing and emerging issues important to leaders in the health and human service provider, government and philanthropic sectors.
Our articles, policy briefs and infographics provide you with information you can use to reach your organization’s goals.
Since 1981, Lambert House has been a vital lifeline for young people facing mental health challenges, loneliness, and societal pressures. Brandon Knox, Program Director of Lambert House, explores the center’s pioneering role in supporting LGBTQ youth in Seattle, Washington. He discusses the importance of community support networks, innovative programs addressing barriers like geographical isolation, and the need for sustainable funding to ensure these essential services continue.
Atrómitos Knowledge Hub Promo
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This podcast is a production of Atrómitos, a woman-owned boutique consulting firm creating a better way for our health and human services provider clients to achieve their goals by strengthening internal operations, enhancing financial stability and evaluating public policies.
Want to know more about the firm behind the podcast?
In addition to our podcast, we've developed additional resources to improve your understanding of both long-standing and emerging issues important to leaders in the health and human service provider, government and philanthropic sectors.
Our articles, policy briefs and infographics provide you with information you can use to reach your organization’s goals.
Michelle Voegtle, a licensed professional counselor, explores the integration of technology in behavioral health and the importance of personalized recovery approaches. She discusses challenges in traditional treatment methods and how innovative practices, including integrative wellness strategies, can empower both clinicians and patients. The conversation highlights the balance between human connection and technology in enhancing therapeutic relationships.
Atrómitos Knowledge Hub Promo
--
This podcast is a production of Atrómitos, a woman-owned boutique consulting firm creating a better way for our health and human services provider clients to achieve their goals by strengthening internal operations, enhancing financial stability and evaluating public policies.
Want to know more about the firm behind the podcast?
In addition to our podcast, we've developed additional resources to improve your understanding of both long-standing and emerging issues important to leaders in the health and human service provider, government and philanthropic sectors.
Our articles, policy briefs and infographics provide you with information you can use to reach your organization’s goals.
From the publisher's feed
Welcome to The Atrómitos Way Podcast, where we candidly discuss the everyday challenges facing safety net health and human service providers, government agencies, philanthropies, and advocates. Our…