This year, the Michigan legislature approved millions less in funding than victim services organizations had asked for to fill gaps in federal funding.
That has left organizations like YWCA Kalamazoo sounding the alarm about what's to come.
In an email, YWCA Kalamazoo CEO Susan Rosas said the organization is facing $1 million dollars in “immediate losses.” That’s at a nonprofit whose total revenue was about $10 million last year according to ProPublica.
Rosas said the organization was initially facing roughly $2 million in immediate losses in October, but that number was reduced to around $1 million in part because the state's Division of Victim Services allocated more funding than expected.
"They have maneuvered contracts temporarily. For YWCA, the temporary measures protected about $650K that we would have otherwise lost suddenly for victims - again, temporarily. We will still see that loss - and much more - in 2026 if our legislators fail to act again," Rosas said.
After federal funding cuts and changes in programs impacted vital funds for victim services organizations nationwide, Michigan victim services organizations asked the Michigan legislature to approve $75 million in funding to help fill budget gaps — but legislators only approved $35 million in funding.
Rosas and other advocates say the state's Division of Victim Services' efforts to "maneuver contracts" allowed organizations to receive similar funding levels to previous years — but they say next year, there won't be enough money to do it again without a significant increase in state budget funding for victim services.
"We will still see that loss, and much more, in 2026 if our legislators fail to act again, as they did this fall, and there won't be a safety net to catch us. For now, we have still lost more than a million in funds that are not controlled by DVS, and our programs are actively downsizing," Rosas said.
Rosas also said the state budget "did not respond to millions in new federal cuts for human trafficking survivors" and "removed critical funding for [YWCA's] maternal and child health programming."
Looking forward, Rosas said YWCA Kalamazoo is relying more on private donations and community support amid what she calls "government volatility". She said the organization has seen an increase in donations.
"Because lives depend on us, YWCA must remain steady, even if our government is not. We cannot wait for politicians to save us. YWCA is looking to the community to become recurring donors, so that we know what funds we can depend on every month," she said.
