A national network of funders supporting strategic, innovative, and effective solutions to homelessness

Co-Sponsored Webinar: What’s at Stake? Governor Newsom’s 2025 – 2026 State Budget Proposal

Thursday, February 6, 2025 | 1:00 - 2:30pm PT 

Co-sponsored by: Philanthropy California

As California faces threats from federal budget and policy proposals amid an anticipated flat (no-growth) budget for its 2025 – 2026 fiscal year, strategic choices grounded in values of racial and economic equity are needed to ensure that all residents can thrive. The state’s budget process holds the key to determining which policies will create a more equitable California, and philanthropy has an important opportunity to influence these outcomes over the course of the state’s budget cycle from January to June.

Last year, California’s budget deficit resulted in cuts to important programs impacting housing and homelessness, the social safety net, climate resiliency and much more. These cuts disproportionately affected women, children, low-income families, rural communities, and neighborhoods of color, leaving nonprofits and direct service organizations to shoulder even more of the burden. This year, despite higher than anticipated revenues, the state is still facing no significant growth and has stated they have no capacity for new spending commitments. At the same time, federal budget and policy proposals could significantly reduce state revenues and leave state leaders with difficult decisions about whether to increase funding to fill gaps due to cuts in federal funding and whether to raise revenues at the state level to help cover the costs.

Join us in conversation about Governor Newsom’s 2025-26 budget proposal, key implications, and short- and long-term structural solutions to ensure a fiscally responsible state budget that reflects values rooted in racial equity and economic inclusion. We’ll discuss the challenges posed by federal proposals, the state fiscal landscape, and the shifting political climate. We’ll explore the role philanthropy can play during turbulent times for policymaking and how the field can support community-based organizations and advocates working toward transformative policy changes and equitable public investments for their communities.

Outcomes

  • Understand the role philanthropy can play to support a fiscally resilient, responsive, and responsible state budget
  • Explore how philanthropy can support community-based organizations and advocates as they experience the impact of budget shifts in their communities
  • Seed ideas for potential collaborations between funders, policy makers, and advocates

Speakers

  • Katie Heidorn, Director, State Health Policy, California Health Care Foundation
  • Chris Hoene, Executive Director, California Budget & Policy Center 

Webinar Eligibility & Registration  

Please register for this webinar through Southern California Gratmakers using the button below. SCG members; NCG members; Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties members; FTEH members are all welcome to attend.

 Register for the webinar here 

Technology 

This webinar will take place via Zoom Webinar and will last 90 minutes. 

WHEN
February 06, 2025 at 1:00pm - 2:30pm
CONTACT
Lauren Bennett ·

Showing 1 reaction

  • Lauren Bennett
    published this page in Programming 2025-01-15 11:22:30 -0500

We joined Funders Together because we believe in the power of philanthropy to play a major role in ending homelessness, and we know we have much to learn from funders across the country.

-Christine Marge, Director of Housing and Financial Stability at United Way of Greater Los Angeles

I am thankful for the local partnerships here in the Pacific Northwest that we’ve been able to create and nurture thanks to the work of Funders Together. Having so many of the right players at the table makes our conversations – and all of our efforts – all the richer and more effective.

-David Wertheimer, Deputy Director at Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Very often a lack of jobs and money is not the cause of poverty, but the symptom. The cause may lie deeper in our failure to give our fellow citizens a fair chance to develop their own capacities, in a lack of education and training, in a lack of medical care and housing, in a lack of decent communities in which to live and bring up their children.

-President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 State of the Union Address

Funders Together has given me a platform to engage the other funders in my community. Our local funding community has improved greatly to support housing first models and align of resources towards ending homelessness.

-Leslie Strnisha, Vice President at Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland

Our family foundation convenes local funders and key community stakeholders around strategies to end homelessness in Houston. Funders Together members have been invaluable mentors to us in this effort, traveling to our community to share their expertise and examples of best practices from around the nation.

-Nancy Frees Fountain, Managing Director at The Frees Foundation


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