Local nonprofit could be affected by government shutdown

The partial federal government shutdown is affecting nonprofits around the country, including right here in Idaho Falls.

“It could affect us across the board,” said Jay Doman, CEO of the Eastern Idaho Community Action Partnership.

The Eastern Idaho Community Action Partnership in Idaho Falls has multiple programs, including family services, Head Start and housing. About 70 to 75 percent of it is funded by the federal government.

“Our organization is reimbursement-based almost in total,” Doman said. “So, our housing properties, the housing assistance payments that we receive, those are delayed. Our Head Start program, our CSBG programs that we have that are federally funded, we have to show that we have expended the funding before they pay us.”

Doman said the organization hopes the partial shutdown will not last through the normal reimbursement cycle.

“If it continues to go on and we have government employees that would normally process our payments not able to do so because they’re on furlough, that’s obviously going to delay our ability to pay vendors, pay employees and those that we owe money to,” Doman said.

EICAP currently has a rainy day fund carrying it through the shutdown, but if the shutdown goes on through the end of January, EICAP could be in trouble.

“Then we’ll probably have to start looking at liquidating our long-term investments and things like that to keep the doors open,” Doman said. “And at that point it would be a board decision whether we start to furlough our own employees and cut back on services or whether we utilize those investments on the hope, faith, that the federal government reimburses us quickly.”

EICAP says people don’t need to worry just yet, but it says it may need to have serious talks in the next two to three weeks if the government is not reopened fully.