PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — The future of the Rhode Island Black Business Association (RIBBA) is up in the air as President Donald Trump calls for an end to policies related to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
RIBBA hosts workforce development programs and helps smaller businesses grow, particularly businesses owned by people from marginalized or underserved communities, although their free services are open to all.
The organization said it has served more than 6,000 local businesses in its nearly 15-year history.
RIBBA President Lisa Ranglin told 12 News on Wednesday that since Trump’s DEI rollbacks, the people RIBBA had been communicating with at the federal level appear to have been laid off.
“The two people that we were connecting with, they’re gone with email just going off in the space and we’re not getting anything back,” Ranglin explained.
The uncertainty of everything is what Ranglin said keeps her up at night.
“There are way too many unknowns,” she said.
Some RIBBA programs were already approved, but the funding has yet to come through and the organization hasn’t been able to get any answers.
“We have federal dollars that could be clawed back. We don’t know,” Ranglin said.
The challenges RIBBA is facing started before Trump took office. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action last year, Ranglin said promised funding began to shrink.
“That also had a cascade effect where we got smaller funding that we may have gotten more in the past,” Ranglin noted.
In December, RIBBA laid off two workers, leaving the organization now with 11 employees.
If the federal dollars are yanked, it could mark an end for RIBBA once its already-funded projects come to a close.
In the meantime, RIBBA is scrubbing its websites and grant proposals of words like “underserved” and “equity.”
“We heard that these are the words that they’re flagging,” Ranglin explained.
Despite the new challenges, Ranglin hopes RIBBA will be able to continue its mission for years to come.
“We’re looking for support, financial support. We’re looking for volunteer support. We’re looking for people to advocate on our behalf. RIBBA needs to be here,” Ranglin said. “It’s about closing the racial wealth gap. It’s about allowing families to thrive.”
Ranglin is not alone in her concerns about losing funding.
Rhode Island Foundation President David Cicilline told 12 News he’s contacted by nonprofit organizations every day looking for guidance on how to navigate Trump’s federal funding freeze.
“There are organizations receiving notifications that they’re grant has been frozen, or if they go to access the funds, like they’ve done every month … suddenly they’re unavailable,” Cicilline said.
United Way of Rhode Island President Cortney Nicolato said they’re hearing similar concerns.
“It’s a very anxiety-filled, uncertain time for many nonprofit organizations,” Nicolato said.
Both Nicolato and Cicilline urged Rhode Islanders to support nonprofits if they’re able to during these difficult times.
“Sometimes you hear about these numbers, and about freezes, and it feels like something big and unrelated,” Cicilline said. “But this is about actual Rhode Islanders.”
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