A Modern Nonprofit Podcast · The Charity CFO, LLC

Episode 130: Why You Shouldn't be Giving up on Federal Grants

·43 min·2 clips

Fielding says federal grants in 2025 are about compliance, and she calls it 'billboard scary.'

Tasha Anderson sits down with Fielding Jezreel, founder and principal of Jezreel Consulting, to talk through federal grants from a nonprofit operator's point of view. The conversation opens with the scale of Fielding's work, including strategy, pre-award coaching, program development, and programmatic, funding, and finance compliance support tied to more than $135 million in funding. The tone stays practical throughout. Tasha and Fielding keep circling back to a simple but messy question: what does a shifting federal funding climate actually mean for the people writing grants, running programs, and managing risk inside a nonprofit? They dig into executive-order language and the possibility that organizations could still be asked to certify compliance somewhere in the application or contracting process. That leads to the harder judgment call. If the requirement is not allowed, should the language be removed entirely, rewritten, or challenged with legal support? The episode does not pretend the answer is neat. It treats the choice as a real operational problem, not a theoretical one. The conversation also turns to grant narratives and the pressure to avoid words that may trigger concerns. Fielding pushes back on the idea that language is fixed or sacred in these settings. Words shift, organizations adapt, and sometimes the work is about deciding what to keep, what to strip out, and what still represents the mission honestly. That tension sits right at the center of the discussion. There is also a broader point about identity and recognition. When rules start targeting language, the damage can reach beyond paperwork and into how organizations describe the communities they serve. Tasha reflects that many nonprofit teams are already used to playing this kind of linguistic game. Fielding agrees, while keeping the focus on the practical side of the problem. Check in with counsel, weigh the risk, and think about the downstream effects on staff, boards, budgets, and program delivery. The close brings the conversation back to support and shared experience, with a reminder that people do better when they are not navigating these pressures alone. It leaves listeners with a calm, useful frame for a messy moment in nonprofit funding.

As heard by us

A practical look at federal grant operations, compliance, and the language nonprofits may need to defend.

Federal grants are treated less as a funding headline than as an operational question: what goes into an application, what gets signed later, and how those choices shape a nonprofit's day-to-day work.

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Why you'd press play

When federal grants get murky, you want practical footing for the next decision.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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