Real progress takes steady, long-term work from nonprofits willing to persist when the federal government can’t or won’t. That’s what long-term governance looks like when it’s stripped of partisanship.
For over a month, the country watched federal agencies grind to a halt. Now that the government shutdown has ended, the fragility of the systems we rely on every day has come sharply into focus. 1.4 million civil servants went unpaid. Millions saw their food benefits disrupted. After school programs were cut. Flights were canceled. Communities across the country waited desperately for Washington to offer support.
It was the nonprofits that stepped in.
Quietly, steadily, they filled the gaps the government left behind, offering a powerful reminder of who remains accountable to their communities when the government isn’t.
As Americans open their wallets to support their favorite causes this holiday season, they should know this: the nonprofits they donate to aren’t simply patching holes in our social safety net — they’re doing the job our government should be doing, and they’re doing it better.
I’ve spent nearly 13 years leading the Chef Ann Foundation, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping schools replace ultraprocessed foods with fresh, healthy, and delicious scratch-cooked meals. In that time, we’ve stayed true and advanced our mission through four presidential administrations. I’ve seen policies enacted and reversed, funding streams opened and closed, initiatives launched with fanfare only to be dismantled four years later. Meanwhile, my team — and thousands of nonprofits like ours — keep our heads down and do the work.
I’ve seen policies enacted and reversed, funding streams opened and closed, initiatives launched with fanfare only to be dismantled four years later. Meanwhile, my team — and thousands of nonprofits like ours — keep our heads down and do the work.
The contrast couldn’t be starker. While Congress deadlocks over partisan battles, nonprofits keep communities intact. The most recent government shutdown underscored this divide. In Colorado, for example, nonprofit Bright Leaf Seniors rapidly adapted their models to ensure older adults continued receiving meals. Even when Washington is fully operational, nonprofits step in where government support falls short. Every day, food banks deliver billions of meals to hungry families. While politicians argue about immigration policy, legal aid organizations are helping vulnerable communities navigate complex systems. Environmental groups defend our natural resources while national climate policy lurches from one administration to the next.
Like the school food system I work within, many of today’s social issues are maddeningly complex, tangled in layers of federal regulations, state mandates, and budget constraints. In my world, these complexities have resulted in cafeterias serving ultraprocessed chicken nuggets and pizza more often than fresh vegetables — contributing to a dietary crisis among children. Fixing school food requires tackling barriers to cooking in schools one by one, such as inadequate culinary training for food service workers, aging kitchen equipment that can only reheat processed food, broken supply chains, poverty wages that create constant turnover, and insufficient federal school meal reimbursement rates that make quality meals nearly impossible to afford.
In other sectors, the barriers and solutions look different, but the truth is the same: real progress takes steady, long-term work from nonprofits willing to persist when the federal government can’t or won’t. That’s what long-term governance looks like when it’s stripped of partisanship.
Real progress doesn’t fit neatly into four-year cycles. You can’t build a statewide network of school garden programs or establish farm-to-school supply chains on a campaign calendar. You can’t decarbonize a city grid or rebuild a neighborhood after decades of disinvestment by midterms. True systems change takes a decade or more of sustained effort, and requires the kind of long-term strategic thinking that seems impossible in our current political climate, where each new administration arrives determined to undo its predecessor’s work.
True systems change takes a decade or more of sustained effort, and requires the kind of long-term strategic thinking that seems impossible in our current political climate, where each new administration arrives determined to undo its predecessor’s work.
So nonprofits persist. We develop five-year and ten-year strategic plans, demonstrating what governance focused on outcomes rather than optics looks like. We build relationships with our communities that span administrations. We design new programs to advance our causes long after today’s elected officials have left office.
We persist because our nonpartisan missions drive us.
That persistence has earned something rare in American life today: trust. Americans trust nonprofits more than any other sector of society — more than business, more than media, more than government. That trust has increased even as confidence in other institutions has eroded. People know that when they donate to a food pantry or shelter, that money will be used to serve real people with real needs, not squandered on political theater.
This giving season, consider what your donation really represents. When you support a nonprofit, you’re investing in an organization committed to solving problems rather than winning news cycles. You’re backing institutions that measure success in lives changed, not poll numbers improved. You’re supporting a sector that answers to mission, not to party.
I don’t pretend to have solutions to our political dysfunction. Partisan gridlock and short-term thinking are problems far beyond my expertise. But I do know this: Thousands of nonprofits across this country operate with a “humanity first” agenda. We show up every day focused on one question: How do we help the people and communities we serve?
That’s the work of nonprofits in 2025: persistent, unglamorous, essential. As you consider your year-end giving, remember that your donation isn’t charity, it’s an investment in the only sector consistently putting people over politics. In a time when so little in America works the way it should, that’s worth supporting.
