Federal Grant Terminations: One Year Later

Earlier this month, the Vera Institute published a sobering one-year accounting of what happened after the federal government abruptly terminated roughly $500 million in grants to more than 200 organizations and state and tribal governments working on safety and justice issues.

The picture is stark. The programs that lost funding are rarely the ones that make headlines. They are the ones doing patient, relationship-based work: reentry support, healing circles, community-based mentorship. And when those organizations go under, it is not only they who suffer. It is the smallest, least-resourced communities in America who lose access to services they depend on. For an administration focused on crime in its messaging, the report notes, there has been little interest in the work that could actually prevent it.

We know this landscape from the inside. In 2025, Land Together lost significant federal funding through EPA cuts, funding that supported core programming for the people we serve. We are still here, thanks to the support of our donors and partners. And we intend to stay.

Read the full Vera report here.