I belong to a grassroots nonprofit with an annual budget of $100,000 and one employee. When the Affordable Care Act tax credits recently ended, the organization sent an emergency fundraising appeal.

The details were pretty gruesome. To cover one employee and their partner, monthly premiums had jumped – I am not making this up – from $977 per month in 2025 (already way too high) to $2693 per month in 2026. For the same coverage!

This is untenable for any employer, not to mention a tiny organization. Donors have been stepping up, but that’s not a long-term solution.

As I was reflecting on this unfortunate situation, I thought about multiple threats to the well-being of nonprofits – and why we need to advocate for ourselves and our peers. A few examples:

The hidden, inequitable health care subsidy

Many nonprofits – especially larger, more established groups – offer some sort of health insurance. Others do not, citing high costs … because, as we’ve just discussed, these costs can be extreme.

In a country where most health coverage is connected to employment, this creates all sorts of equity issues within the nonprofit workplace. If you’re covered through your partner, spouse, or parent’s policy, then it’s easier to work for an organization that doesn’t offer insurance.

For decades, we’ve benefited from this hidden subsidy. Those households with a relative amount of privilege, in the form of reliable health insurance, are subsidizing many organizations. Potential staff members who need insurance – often people with less privilege – end up seeking jobs outside the sector.

Yes, your organization can and should raise enough money to fully compensate your staff. However, what we really need is a national health care program that uncouples coverage from employment. With this issue, as with many others, nonprofit advocacy could make a real difference.

Nonprofits doing the work of government

Compared to the United States, most developed countries have a much more robust system of government services: health care, childcare, social housing, family leave, eldercare, etc.

In our country, we’ve outsourced much of this responsibility to nonprofits. As Jennifer Hutchins shared in a recent post, If the Nonprofit Model is Broken, Who Benefits?, “Let’s remember that other sectors – specifically corporations and government – assign certain kinds of work to charitable nonprofits they don’t want to deal with: the complex, difficult, generational, unprofitable, and inherently messy stuff. For better or worse, that’s our niche.”

Here’s the “worse” part: When government funding is slashed, as we’ve recently experienced, the wheels start to come off. As Hutchins writes, “Nonprofits of all sizes and missions … continue to respond to increasing demands with fewer and fewer resources.”

If we want a just society, we need a fairer, more comprehensive system of taxation that underwrites the public good. Nonprofits can and must advocate for better tax policy and the appropriate role of government in creating and supporting public welfare.

Is your 501(c)(3) status secure?

A year ago, many of us were talking about a proposed federal law: H.R. 9495, known informally as the “Nonprofit Killer” bill. Among other provisions, according to Nonprofit Vote,

“H.R. 9495 would empower the Treasury Secretary, and by extension, the President, to unilaterally designate a nonprofit as a ‘terrorist-supporting organization’ and strip … their 501(c)(3) tax status. The bill outlines no evidentiary standard that must be followed in making this determination; it does not require the disclosure of any evidence, allowing for the use of ‘classified information’ that cannot be reviewed by the nonprofit being accused or challenged in court.”

Author Kelsea-Marie Pym adds, “The loss of tax-exempt status alone is enough to shutter many nonprofits … But the harms run deeper than that, with the stigma and reputational damage that designation as a ‘terrorist-supporting’ organization could have on donors, community members, and other stakeholders.”

Not surprisingly, this bill generated huge pushback from the nonprofit community. After passing (!) the House of Representatives, the Senate never took up the bill and it “died in chamber.”

Thanks to solid organizing, we won that round. Given the current political landscape, don’t be surprised if some version of this bill is reintroduced. If that moment comes, it’s all-hands-on-deck … again.

Nonprofits: Claim your power!

Our sector has credibility, moral authority, boots-on-the-ground expertise, and more economic power than we realize. Nationally, nonprofits provide about 10% of employment;  in my home state of Vermont, it’s 20%. (You can find national and regional nonprofit employment data here.)

Collectively, we have the economic and political muscle to advocate for ourselves, our neighbors, and our democracy. Let’s use it.

If you’re interested in learning more about permissible advocacy for nonprofits, two great resources are Bolder Advocacy, a program of Alliance for Justice, and National Council of Nonprofits.