To our amazing community of supporters and changemakers,
Today, we want to share some hard news with you about RVC. RVC will have a funding shortfall in the next fiscal year, requiring us to make some tough decisions about our budget and staffing.
The reality is that RVC is not immune to the financial challenges facing the nonprofit landscape. As anyone in the nonprofit sphere will tell you, these struggles existed before the Trump administration and have only been compounded by the rollback of policies that prioritize resourcing communities of color.
How did we get here?
As an organization, we always wanted to prioritize the needs of our community and partners – sometimes at the expense of our sustainable development. Since our founding in 2015, we have grown quickly – increasing programmatic staff yet neglecting to increase staff and capacity within our internal teams, resulting in less staff capacity for activities that are vital in maintaining a fiscally healthy organization. Neglecting these areas of organizational development meant we did not recognize the urgency or direness of the financial situation we quickly approached.
What are we doing?
Over the last month, we have been deep in conversation about the specific changes needed to address this shortfall and ensure our ability to meet our obligations to our partners now and in the future. After a careful assessment of our financial constraints, our Co-Executive Director team made the difficult decision to implement a reduction in force.
This reduction of force will include the closure of our Capacity Building program. It will also include the closure of our Fellowship program and the elimination of several positions on our General Operations and Development teams. This means we are focusing on our Operating Support (fiscal sponsorship) work for the next fiscal year alongside building up strong internal systems that will hopefully allow us to rebuild our Capacity Building and Fellowship programs in the years to come.
The decisions around this reduction in force were based upon our financial constraints and obligations and are not in any way a reflection of the value and richness these individual employees have brought to RVC. Each RVC staff member has played an important role in our organizational evolution, and we are grateful for the unique contributions and impacts they have made toward our mission.
What happens next?
In the coming weeks and months, we will be holding a town hall meeting with our fiscally sponsored partners to ensure full communication with them about our organizational status and how we can move forward together during these difficult times.
Our community can expect to see blog posts and a webinar around our lessons learned, the state of RVC moving forward, and other updates as we come to decisions internally. In short, RVC is not going anywhere.
Internally, we will be taking steps to set ourselves up for future financial sustainability. This will include compiling and sharing what we learned about what led us here, continuing work to strengthen our financial infrastructure, and reevaluating our budgeting and fundraising strategy and goals in response to a changing fundraising landscape. Over the next year, we will be working tirelessly to create a stronger foundation for RVC where we can reimplement our Capacity Building and Fellowship programs with more sustainable funding systems in place.
How can I help?
As we navigate these challenging times, your support is needed more than ever. RVC is home to many BIPOC organizations within the Seattle community. Please consider donating or hosting a house party so we can continue to support these essential organizations during a time when BIPOC communities are coming under attack.
