United Way of Lake County’s new incoming president and CEO Quinton Snodgrass warned cuts to federal funding could hurt nonprofits and charities across the county, and the tens of thousands of Lake County households that rely on them.
Snodgrass, whose career in nonprofits spans over two decades, is taking the nonprofit’s lead on April 1 in what he calls a time of “flux” for many nonprofits. He succeeds Kristi Long, who announced in November she would be retiring after serving 23 years as president and CEO.
He has served as UWLC’s vice president of resource development for the last eight years after moving up from Chicago, and has had a 20-plus-year career in leadership work at local, national and international health and human services organizations.
Snodgrass said he appreciates the “wholly local” aspect of United Way, with its efforts impacting “people that I live with.” UWLC has two primary focuses; youth education and the 211 program.
Its education-related work includes afterschool and summer programs, literacy development and college readiness, Snodgrass said, among other efforts. UWLC partners with schools to get connected with families, and offers kindergarten prep and classes for young students and parents alike.
The 211 program, launched in 2019, acts as a connection point to numerous other resources in Lake County, to make it easier for residents in need to find and connect with services. Snodgrass said it is an issue the pandemic highlighted, with many people who had never needed services before finding themselves struggling with “basic services,” including food, rent and education assistance.
The program is largely funded by state and county money, as well as a “large coalition” of individual and corporate donors, Snodgrass said. But while United Way isn’t reliant on federal funds, the same isn’t true for other nonprofits and charities in Lake County, including many with which UWLC regularly works.
“There’s lots and lots of programs that people in Lake County use where if they’re disrupted, people are going to feel it,” he said. “And when we make referrals to programs for people to get assistance, we’ll feel it because the assistance won’t be there.”
The impact will be felt across Lake County, Snodgrass warned. According to UWLC data, about 86,000 Lake County households, roughly a third of the county’s 260,000, are struggling financially in some way.
About 8% of households fall under the federal poverty line, which is better than the state average, but 25% fall into the “ALICE” designation. ALICE stands for “Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed,” sometimes called the “working poor,” Snodgrass said, although he considers the term a misnomer.
“These are not people living off of federal stipends,” he said. “They’re trying to do everything right.”
These are individuals or families who sit in the gap between the federal poverty line — about $32,000 a year for a family of four — and UWLC’s household survival budget for Lake County, which is about $92,000 for a family of the same size.
Snodgrass said people are often surprised to learn what Lake County’s survival budget is, but between housing, food, child care and more, costs add up. The calculation is also based on 2022 data, meaning it doesn’t account for any price increases since then.
“There’s a disconnect between what people think it takes to survive, what the basic survival income is … versus what that income really is,” he said.
While families under the poverty limit are eligible for a variety of benefits and services, as their income passes the poverty line, they lose that support, Snodgrass said. These are households still “struggling every month to balance that paycheck.”
That gap above the poverty line is really only covered by charities, nonprofits and townships, Snodgrass said, and if federal funding is cut, some 65,000 Lake County households could face the consequences.
“Without those funding pieces, and without agencies that are able to provide those services, people are having to make choices between, ‘Do I cover my food, or do I have a car?’” he said. “That’s the sweet spot where the impacts are going to hurt, and they’re going to hurt people that are working but below survival income.”
One of the issues with public understanding in Lake County is the difference between people’s image of the county and its reality, something Snodgrass understands personally. Prior to moving to Lake County, he said he largely imagined Lake Forest and other affluent communities when thinking about Lake County.
“But it’s not,” he said. “There’s a lot of families here that need assistance, and I think it’s a matter of getting that word out and building advocates who will talk in their communities, will talk in their companies, will talk to their legislators and really lean into this and understand what the issues are.”
Discussion around federal cuts is highly political, but Snodgrass emphasized that UWLC is a nonpartisan organization. Its work isn’t a political issue, he said.
“Being able to pay for your rent, being able to feed your children and being able to have access to childcare isn’t about politics,” Snodgrass said. “It’s something that everyone needs to have.”
Some residents will be in for an unfortunate shock if federal funding is cut, Snodgrass said, as family members lose services. He warned of the “ripple effects” residents would see.
Future instability could mean more difficulty funding solutions that have already come to bridge the existing gaps, and companies could start drawing down support. Snodgrass hoped to continue to inform the community about the importance of UWLC’s work, as well as keep its community and corporate partnerships strong as it enters a “changing time.”
The current environment makes it all the more important, “to engage, lean in and learn about what’s happening in our local communities, regardless of how people fall down into politics,” he said.
“I don’t think our communities know exactly what the next three and six months are going to look like,” Snodgrass said. “Funding is going to be a challenge.”