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What It Is

In the 2024-25 State Budget, Governor Newsom has proposed a more than $50 million cut to the Office of Community Partnerships and Strategic Communications (OCPSC; the Office), functionally eliminating the community-serving role of this critical office. OCPSC was created in part as a result of the mass mobilization of community-rooted nonprofit organizations during the 2020 Census and in protecting vulnerable communities from the severe and disproportionate impacts of COVID-19. The Office has also been effective in developing cross-sector partnerships with philanthropy to leverage additional resources into communities served through OCPSC campaigns including, but not limited to: understanding the risks of extreme heat, improving water conservation efforts, and strengthening economic security. 

Why it Matters

As a nonprofit ourselves, SCG recognizes the significance of the OCPSC's role in cross-sector collaboration and uplifting issues that are of immediate concern to communities that philanthropic entities serve. Many nonprofits and community campaigns rely on funding cycles that are unsustainable and inconsistent, leaving nonprofit organizations with little resources to scale efforts and deepen the impact as trusted partners. OCPSC helped combat this inconsistency through its funding programs, representing a major, nation-leading effort to combat that trend and recognize the critical role that nonprofits play as trusted messengers in vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities. 

We are particularly concerned by the proposed cuts to OCPSC, not only because they eliminate the ability of this office to meaningfully partner with nonprofits through grants and contracts, thereby walking back the supposed commitment that underpins this office, but because they represent a broader and more troubling trend of balancing the state budget by first cutting or eliminating critical programs that serve and prioritize nonprofit organizations and vulnerable communities. Without the Office’s ongoing assistance, more of our neighbors will be put at risk, jeopardizing their health and well-being while also creating greater, lasting fiscal burdens on our cities, counties, and ultimately the State. As we have seen with climate, public health, and other disasters, not having the systems in place to adequately reach non-English speaking and other hard-to-reach populations with messaging about resources and proactive measures, means that communities of color and other vulnerable populations will continue to be the most at risk of harm. This issue demonstrates that nonprofit sustainability is well connected to the various topical issues that philanthropy plays a role in. Without a support system and the proper infrastructure to develop sustained funding, the most vulnerable communities will be impacted.