A November 2022 survey of nonprofits’ experiences with government human services contracts over the past 10 years found that:
91%
had government contract budgets that fell below the full operating costs required to provide the contracted services. Of those:
- 79% always or often had to cut administrative costs
- 56% always or often had to undercut staff salaries
- 87% always or often turned to private funders to close the gap
- 23% always or often had to pay loan or interest fees while waiting for a contract payment, with 59% in this situation never being reimbursed for such fees
86%
believe the funding gap between government contracts and the true cost of providing contracted services will increase in the coming years
96%
are concerned that government contracts will not be sufficient to provide support for the increasing challenges faced by individuals, families and communities
40%
of all organizations surveyed felt they may not be able to continue to operate in Hawai‘i if government contracting challenges are not addressed
The True Cost Coalition thanks Hawai’i Data Collaborative for providing technical advice in developing the survey and analysis of the results.