Nonprofit organizations that provide refugee services in Missouri are pivoting to diversified financial strategies to reduce their dependency on government funding.
These organizations are now focusing more on expanding community-based crowdfunding and scaling up revenue-generating programs to address anticipated financial gaps and ensure continued support for refugees.
City of Refuge, a Columbia-based nonprofit that provides services for refugees resettled in mid-Missouri, was notified that 40% of its federal and state funding might dry up by October 2026.
Jackson Efuta, a former refugee and now a staff member at City of Refuge, said witnessing the ongoing funding cuts is deeply painful.
“I have personally experienced how vital these resources are during the most vulnerable time in a person’s life, when they are trying to adjust, heal and survive in a completely new environment,” Efuta said. “It is life-changing, providing emotional, practical and community based help that gives individuals the chance to thrive, not just survive.”
Garrett Rucinski, director of engagement at City of Refuge, said the organization is making plans in case its funding dries up.
“We already have a plan now,” Rucinski said. “It’s to grow the revenue producers, grow the monthly donors.”
Hilary Cohen Singer, executive director at Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City, said it’s hard to determine a specific number of funds lost, as some programs have been discontinued permanently, others temporarily paused and some funding has fluctuated between being frozen and unfrozen.
“We are increasingly looking to our local community to help provide the vital services for refugees and immigrants to help them integrate into the community,” Cohen Singer said. “We are certainly affected in significant ways by the loss of federal funding.”
David Gonzalez, vice president of development at the International Institute of St. Louis, thinks the future for these service providers is going to be less reliant on government funding, and that is the direction his organization is moving in.
The Missouri Office of Refugee Administration reported 3,272 refugee arrivals in Missouri during the 2024 fiscal year, which extended from Oct. 1, 2023 to Sept. 30, 2024 — the highest number in the past eight years. According to the American Immigration Council, the total number of refugees in Missouri is estimated to be around 24,600.
Expanding revenue-generating services
City of Refuge launched a campaign to recruit 1,000 donors contributing $50 per month. According to Rucinski, it has reached 20% of that goal within just a couple of months.
The organization is also focusing on its three revenue-generating initiatives — City Boutique, City Cuisine and City Preschool. City Boutique is a thrift shop that sells goods from local donors and refugee artisans; City Cuisine operates a food truck and provides catering services; and the preschool program supports young children’s social and language development.
Together, these initiatives help fund the larger organization, with revenue from the boutique funding 15% of the total annual budget, Rucinski said.
“We are knocking on every door possible, asking for monthly gifts, asking for end-of-year gifts. That’s what every nonprofit is doing right now,” Rucinski said. “We have the benefit of having those three revenue generators, and those revenue generators are going to help us.”
Amid news of future funding cuts, an unexpected opportunity arose for City of Refuge — the building next to its location was listed for sale. The organization purchased it using previously awarded American Rescue Plan Act funds to expand on its services.
“When the building came up, we realized that we could put down the down payment,” Rucinski said. “With tenants still in the building next door, we can continue to operate as we were, while affording the building next door to us, so it is self-sustaining.”
City of Refuge is now planning to use the remaining space in that new building for youth programming and a commercial kitchen, which it hopes will generate additional revenue for the organization, Rucinski said.
“If we keep getting more monthly donors and end-of-year donors, if we keep getting more visitors to the Boutique, Cuisine and people attending our preschool, more sponsors and we continue on the pace that we are at, I feel very positive about October 2026,” Rucinski said.
Leaning on community support
Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City continues to support refugees despite the ongoing challenges caused by the federal funding cuts. The organization has adapted by reducing staff and expanding its search for alternative funding sources.
Katie Norman, communication manager at JVS, said that the organization supports approximately 7,500 refugees and immigrants each year, with community integration, health and education.
“We do receive quite a bit of funding from the federal government, so we have been impacted by the cuts and freezes to federal funds,” Norman said. “But we also receive funding from private foundations and the state as well.”
Due to federal funding cuts, JVS has already reduced its services and is now seeking and has received new funding to continue much of its work, Cohen Singer said.
“We did have to make staff reductions, and so we have done that,” Cohen Singer said. “We anticipate being able to continue with our operations at the size and scale that we are certainly into next fiscal year, and that is probably as far as we are able to plan for.”
Agencies like JVS have traditionally been closely involved in the initial resettlement period of refugees. That program has now stopped, and there are no new arrivals associated with it. Following that, there is no funding available for refugee resettlement, said Cohen Singer.
“But that doesn’t mean that our work stops, because the work that we do provides support to people who have been here one year, but also three years or five years or 10 years, depending on what their needs are,” she said.
According to Cohen Singer, the organization now reaches the local community, individuals, foundations, and state and local governments that have programs to support people’s wellbeing, even if the funding is not specifically for refugees and immigrants.
“The people that we serve can benefit from funding that is targeted towards employment or education or youth services or mental health, or any number of things,” Cohen Singer said. “So we are talking to folks that provide funding in all of those areas so that we can bring additional resources into the organization.”
Less reliance on government funding
The International Institute of St. Louis, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping refugees, has been forced to make staff reductions and a renewed push for community and private-sector support to adapt to the federal funding cuts.
The organization has been a government contractor since the 70s, working to safely and legally bring refugees to the area and support them by providing housing, education and employment. Last year, the organization served over 3,500 individuals. However, since January, things have been tough due to a roughly $500,000 funding cut.
Gonzalez said that even when federal funding was frozen, the organization still had an agreement with the federal government to bring refugees to the St. Louis region and provide support.
“We immediately found a shortfall of about half a million dollars that we had to come up with,” Gonzalez said. “This money would be used for things like housing.”
To continue that support, the International Institute of St. Louis launched a campaign in February called Keeping Our Promise, aiming to raise $500,000. The organization also made workforce reductions in areas that didn’t have much direct client access, Gonzalez said.
“We had about 125 people here locally, and we had to cut about 60% of those,” Gonzalez said. “So we were down to under 60 staff in February and March.”
Gonzalez said the organization has now been able to bring some staff back, bringing the current team size to around 70 to 75, with some community support.
The annual budget of the International Institute of St. Louis is roughly $24 to $25 million, with 70% to 80% of that coming from federal funding, Gonzalez said.
“That is not a long-term solution for funding, particularly when our funding is at the whims of whoever’s in the White House,” he said. “So we have looked at re-establishing or establishing alternative sources of funding.”
Gonzalez outlined three key strategies for future financing: increasing support from the corporate sector by making them understand the importance of new people in the local economy; uncovering new grant opportunities from organizations that are new but interested in the program outcomes; and engaging the broader community, which values the long-term impact of this work.
“They understood the cuts, they understood what was happening. And so we had a tremendous response to the Keeping Our Promise campaign,” Gonzalez said. “I will say now we’ve had more individual donors already, at this point, halfway through the year, than we had all of last year.”
Last year, the International Institute of St. Louis increased its non-governmental fundraising by 33%, which amounted to over a million dollars, Gonzalez said.
Urge for more support
Kindness Begins with Me supports refugee women in the greater St. Louis area, providing English lessons and driving instruction. The organization serves 225 refugees each week.
Half of its annual budget comes from federal funding through the Missouri Office of Refugee Administration, which is about $125,000.
Jessica Pachak, executive director at Kindness Begins with Me, said its funding was temporarily frozen, then came back after the freeze. But it’s still unstable.
“We are going to have to be a mixture of fundraising initiatives, which will be individual donors and then additional foundations,” Pachak said. “So in the past, we relied 50% on federal funds, and now that 50% of federal funds, potentially, is going to need to be replaced with foundation donors.”
Pachak thinks that Kindness Begins with Me is going to be able to raise most of that money but not all.
KC for Refugees, an organization that supports refugees in the Kansas City metro area, is mostly funded by donations from the community and friends. It has not received any federal funding since 2019.
Linda Zemke, president of the Board of Directors at KC for Refugees, said it is planning to expand its program in the coming days.
“We’d like to have more to be able to help the refugees with more things, maybe with rent and emergency assistance,” Zemke said. “But right now we don’t have the money for that. So that would be a good thing to be able to get donations for that, for grants for that.”
Carson Myers, interim executive director at Refuge KC, said its programs are funded 100% by donations from individuals and churches.
“We have experienced an increased bandwidth for operations and support and future planning in the midst of a time of deep need,” Myers said in an email.
This story was originally published by the Missouri Business Alert, a fellow member of the KC Media Collective.
