Issue Space is all about holding space to process life in the business of impact – an experience that’s never been as put to the test as it is now.

In this letter, we hear the lived experience of a program officer working at a federally funded organization as she braces for downsizing, spots parallels between America’s current politics and her foreign diplomacy portfolio, and worries that it’s too late to quit on account of burnout.

Do you work at a federal agency or at an organization that’s federally funded?

I work at a program that’s federally funded – we’re congressionally appropriated every year. We’re part of a bigger organization that runs several programs allowing people to come to the U.S. to pursue specialized courses of study and allows Americans to go abroad to do the same. We collaborate with foreign governments, private corporations, and foundations, and we have offices around the world and affiliated partners in every global region.

My program has existed for decades as an independent soft diplomacy program for the United States. High-level government officials from foreign countries and the U.S. have participated in it, from both sides of the aisle. In the past, it’s been a program they’ve spoken about publicly with support and approval.

What kind of work do you do personally?

I’m a program officer for my organization’s biggest program. My job is to be in constant communication with our partners at a U.S. federal agency as well as our embassies and implementing partners overseas, which each have their own offices and their own governments funding the work regionally. We’re responsible for managing our portfolio grantees from beginning to end, from the applications we receive from the field and review for eligibility, to budgeting for the grantees who get funded. I work with every team we have to keep the program moving and I also advise our grantees. My caseload is between 200 and 300 grantees annually across 25 countries, with the programs ranging from large and relatively easy-to-manage to smaller and more high-touch.

How are you feeling about your work right now?

I’m wondering – will this work exist [in the near future]? That’s the big question on everyone’s minds. Three weeks ago, I thought, okay, they might reduce our funding, but they would never kill this program. I was so confident in that. And now, I think it’s 50/50. I could see the elements of our program that bring foreigners to the U.S. being cut, or I could see the program being railroaded entirely and just…ended. I hope that’s the nihilist in me, but I’m not confident three weeks into this that we’re actually going to survive this. I think that no one in our organization or our industry will come out of this untouched.

A lot of folks, even those who were anticipating changes to the social and political landscape in 2025, have been caught off guard by the swift, sweeping Executive Orders and directives we’re seeing now. Given your vantage point, did you feel at all prepared for the changes we’re experiencing?

There’s an aspect that feels familiar in the sense that there’s a giant crisis we’re navigating and we have no choice but to deal with it. In 2021, we had a diplomatic relations breakdown between the U.S. and a foreign country in my portfolio. All of the U.S. diplomats were kicked out of the foreign country. At first, my organization was on a short list of groups that were able to continue to work in the country, but eventually all of our programs were paused indefinitely and it got much harder to get our grantees back to the U.S. They would send us messages begging, ‘please don’t cancel my grant’ – or else, ‘please bring me home because I feel unsafe.’ I saw offices close for the safety of teams and at one time had to abruptly cut off communications with my grantees because staying in contact with them would have made them vulnerable to persecution. Every few months there would be another big diplomatic event that would consume my work.

So we’re used to the work shifting rapidly, we’re used to diplomatic changes, we’re used to a level of danger for people who are relying on us for their participation in this program. But it’s different now in that it’s on our own turf. And having seen the way things have gone down in other countries, even from my very small scope of exposure to it, it feels like we are on the precipice for something more sinister here in the States if we’re not careful – and we’re not being careful.

What’s the energy like among your friends and colleagues in the social impact space right now?

Everyone is on edge, everyone is scared, but until we’re told otherwise, we’re trying to continue our work as normal. The emotional impact of watching this all go down reminds me of how some of my grantees are targeted by the governments in their home countries.

It’s also scary to see how quickly this is all happening. I was talking to a friend who works at a refugee organization that is getting hit so much harder than mine and we were saying that this is like watching the collapse of our entire industry in real-time. I don’t even know what happens now. Nobody does.

Is there anything you feel is misunderstood or misrepresented in the public discourse about what’s happening at organizations like yours?

Despite all of the scrutiny about federal spending, our program goes through a stringent process of submitting budgets and estimates to our federal agency partner in cycles. We’re audited regularly to confirm that everything is on the up and up. From where I’m sitting, when it comes to our spending, we’re standing on business. I don’t know how else to put it.

And then as far as what happens to us after the furloughs and closures and defunding – I’ve heard it said that we [federally-funded workers] should all just go find jobs in the private sector. But it’s not just the nonprofits and federal agencies that will be affected by the changes that are happening. For example, the private contractors that we engage to administer and deliver our work – tech companies, housing companies – will all be affected, too. And even more broadly – with my program, while the cost to fund it is incredibly high, it generates billions of dollars for the economy through the work and through the tourism that comes with it. So we’re going to see the failure of certain actors in the private sector if all of this comes to fruition.

It’s also worth saying that the need for [social impact] work is going to continue. Everyone wants to see taxpayer money being used wisely and efficiently. But in taking away these agencies and jobs, the need for the work isn’t going away. It’s just going to shift to other organizations that might not be prepared to pick it up.

What do you want decision-makers in the social impact space to know about your experience in this moment?

Over the four years that I’ve worked on this program, while I’m proud of the work I’ve done, my burnout levels have been remarkably high. We’re understaffed and underfunded, which is incredible considering how much this work costs. I’ve wanted to leave my job for quite a long time because of the burnout, but now I feel like I can’t because so many of us are going to be competing for the same jobs with our specialized expertise. And even though my organization is not being as monumentally impacted as some others in our space, we’re on a hiring freeze and as people leave, we’re not back-filling their roles. Meaning that entire caseloads of work are going to be redistributed between the people who stay.

The burnout rate is so high in the nonprofit industry; there’s a reason they hire fresh out of college. And then a lot of those people get three, five, ten years in and then leave for other industries that pay better and are less stressful. It's not sustainable and it needs to change, but the changes we’re going through now are not happening to address this dynamic. And they’re going to make it much, much worse.

Finally, how are you looking out for your wellbeing as a social impact pro during this stressful time? How are you thinking about the future?

It sounds counterintuitive, but as someone who’s very ‘online,’ I have stayed glued to the r/fednews subreddit. It’s a pool of information and almost hope-inducing to read. There’s a lot of frustration, pain, heartbreak, and anger, yes, but I keep seeing people say to hold the line and that it’s a concerted effort to withstand these changes. I’m hearing federal employees say, ‘we’re going to keep doing this work as long as we can, until it’s impossible to do it.’ That gives me hope.

For those of us on the periphery of the changes, I would encourage us to use this as an opportunity to not only support our federal government colleagues but also to look inward at our industry and organizations and say, ‘We recognize that this work is going to need to be done by others now – how do we find the funding to do that and how are we going to support our staff who are going to do it?’ It’s preparing ourselves mentally and physically, supporting each other, and employers having their employees’ backs so we can still deliver the work we need without running people into the ground and losing people with experience and knowledge.

Some of my colleagues are interested in going into the private sector, but I will continue to pursue work in social impact.

I love America. I want to see us be the best that we can be. I want to be able to help the people that need it. I want to continue this work in some capacity. Regardless of what part of it I’m in, this is work that I believe in. I do a lot of screaming and yelling and this work is how I put my money where my mouth is.

We welcome your thoughts, ideas, and experiences about life in the business of impact. Reach out via email at [email protected] or on Signal at @issuespace.24.

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