How Do You Plan for Scenarios in a Changing Landscape?

Although it wasn’t the title of the conference session, one phrase spoken by the presenter really encapsulated the mood many grant recipients are facing right now. During this week’s Nonprofit Legal, Finance and Grants Conference sponsored by Thompson Grants, Rachel Werner, principal of MyFedTrainer, was addressing a session providing guidance on managing federal grant funding when she mused, “How do you scenario-plan when you don’t know what the scenarios are?”

With situations changing almost on a weekly basis pertaining to federal funding, this simple statement hit home the challenges grantees must be facing right now. It’s always a best practice for recipients to verify that their policies and procedures are up-to-date to ensure that they can stay compliant with federal laws, regulations and guidance. Now is not the time to have program findings and misspent funds that would call attention to federal agency attempts to terminate funding.

It has always been a good idea for grantees to plan for “worst-case scenarios” to assess where all their funding was coming from, where their funding risks are and how they can manage to continue their missions stemming from any funding challenges. In light of numerous terminations of funding that have occurred in the last several months, along with guidance released by agencies aimed at preventing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in federal programs, nonprofit recipients are particularly facing issues when trying to determine how to maintain their current funding and apply for new funding.

These terminations and the implications of new stringent Executive Orders, such as E.O. 14332, Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking, not only are impacting nonprofit recipients themselves, but also are affecting their subrecipients and the individuals and communities being served by the nonprofits’ programs. And as we’ve seen over the course of the year, there may be new guidance or executive orders that are still to come over coming weeks and months that will create even more new challenges. Which brings us back to Werner’s statement about planning for scenarios. Grantees have always preferred administrative stability so they can know what to expect when managing their grants. Currently, stability is a rare commodity. Let’s see what next week brings.

Join us for our following Thompson Grants event:
Federal Grants Forum | Nov. 11-12, 2025 | Orlando, Fla.