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Celebrating Nonprofit Day Blog Celebrating Nonprofit Day

Celebrating Nonprofit Day

Southern California’s nonprofit sector is undergoing an alarming contraction that will threaten essential social and civic infrastructure in our region.  Each passing day, we learn about another nonprofit leader who has had to lay off employees, reduce program capacity, or even consider a significant business model overhaul.  This news is heavy and we know these impacts are being fueled by overlapping crises: 2025 Los Angeles fires, loss of federal funding, immigration enforcement, and shrinking local budgets. 

We cannot hold this pressure alone. While situations may activate fear and overwhelm or grief and sadness, we know that our collective power is immense. United we can all move forward in sustaining the nonprofit sector. United we can uphold the essential infrastructure it creates for millions of individuals and families in the region.  Because of this unity, we will sustain Southern California’s nonprofits—and the communities they serve—now and into the future.  

This is why we need days that remind us of what matters. And nonprofits matter profoundly.

CalNonprofits, our state’s leading policy voice for the nonprofit sector, is leading the way to recognize May 20th as California Nonprofits Day. Through conversations on nonprofit business model resiliency, the leadership power of nonprofit first-generation  professionals, and responsive programming, I have come to see the strategic importance of creating a day like this. Especially now.

This type of advocacy is a powerful way to remind our society—currently in a complicated relationship with equitable wellbeing—of the indispensable role nonprofits play in our democracy, quality of life, and community joy. 

All great days carry some political dimension because they reflect the values, priorities, and responsibilities of a society. Nonprofit Day is no exception. The nonprofit sector often stands closest to the realities communities face, especially when public systems fall short or when social challenges intensify.

In today’s climate, where nonprofits are increasingly navigating public scrutiny, policy shifts, and questions about their role and impact, it is important to remain grounded in the principles that define the sector’s work: kindness in service, discernment in recognizing unmet needs, and regard to practice empathy and advocacy. These are not abstract values. They are lived daily through food distributions, youth programs, community clinics, legal services, arts organizations, housing support, mutual aid efforts, and countless other acts of care that help communities survive and thrive.

Amid this complexity, there is also a need for pause. Stillness and reflection require a disciplined practice of slowing down long enough to recognize what has been built, sustained, and carried forward.

One of our sector’s north stars is the radical embrace of our multi-cultural, identity-varied, people-centered industry. Despite the harsh conditions of recent years, both those outside of our control and those intentionally manufactured, we have weathered the eye of storm. 

It is moving through these difficult moments that I can feel a new springtime energy emerging.  One shaped by fresh ideas, catalytic clarity, deeper collaboration, and hard-earned wisdom.

I find myself thinking not only about the nonprofit sector, but about the broader social impact sector taking shape around it. One that includes nonprofits, philanthropy, grassroots organizers, mission-driven businesses, public institutions, and community leaders working across systems to create meaningful change.

As this landscape evolves, organizations continue adapting in real time. We pivot. We scenario plan. We protect mission integrity while responding to emerging community realities. We work every day to strengthen the future of this sector and the people it exists to serve.

That said, it is normal to want a moment of stillness or a day of vibrant visibility.  

May 20th is close.

What does it mean to amplify nonprofits that have either touched your heart, opened new opportunities in your life, or have transformed your understanding of the vast diversity of the world? 

I invite you to prepare a true-to-your-core intention to give thanks and love to the nonprofits that you care about –and those that have cared about you. 

I invite you to be playful with the ways you can be honorific and practice the satisfaction of being a champion of the social impact sector. Don’t be shy. Give a cheer to the nonprofits of the year. A clap or finger snap to the emerging ones. Offer a proud drumroll to the ones transforming and give a deep embrace to the ones critically holding onto survival.

CalNonprofits has put the call to celebrate with them with extra love to this year’s California’s Nonprofit of the Year. To join in on the festivities, I extend their invitation to you: 

How You Can Celebrate:

We have gone through a lot this year. We don’t have to do it alone, we are with you. 

Happy May 20th!

Cynthia N. Cortez, VP of Learning & Innovation

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