Higher prices and funding cuts hit Arizona harder than other states, this nonprofit CEO says

There are concerns about the Arizona’s current and future economy.New numbers show the state has about $200 million less to spend than it did in January, meaning the new budget could see some cuts.

At the same time, gas prices continue to be well above the national average, and data show Arizona has one of the highest drops in the federal food assistance program, known as SNAP, in the country.

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Arizona's fiscal situation isn't great. This economist says state should use rainy day fund

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The Finance Advisory Committee estimates the state has about $200 million less now to spend than it did in January — and that could have a significant impact on what the new state budget looks like.

Listen • 6:50

With all of that and more going on, The Show checked in with the nonprofit sector and called on Carla Vargas Jasa, president and CEO of Valley of the Sun United Way.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: And Carla, it seems like there are a lot of different kinds of needs right now. What are you seeing, in terms of what the needs are?

CARLA VARGAS JASA: Well, so we’re seeing exactly that, and we as Valley of the Sun United Way have been focused on the greatest needs our community identified about four years ago now in the areas of housing and homelessness, workforce development, education and health. And all those issues are still critical, and we’re seeing the needs rising in them even more so.

Especially over this past now year and a half with the change in administration that took place, which has had a real significant impact on a lot of policies that have also impacted federal funding and investments in the social safety net throughout the country, but also very strongly felt here in Arizona and in Maricopa County, is making things even tougher.

Nonprofit organizations are seeing significant funding that is no longer available to them, that’s actually been retracted that they had been counting on. Just amongst the family of organizations that we work with, which is about 100, about $115 million of federal funding is no longer there. It’s just evaporated essentially.

And with organizations that do have federal funding, we’re seeing, they’re seeing that the payments aren’t coming at the right timing, they’re just facing continued uncertainty. And in terms of the overall community needs, I mean, we’ve seen evictions in Maricopa County be at an all-time high this past year. The first quarter of 2026 is showing it’s going to pace a lot higher this year.

We’re also seeing, coverage that people may have had, with SNAP in order to receive food benefits has been significantly reduced. The last thing that we saw as of January, was at about 33% of Arizona residents who had SNAP previously, no longer have SNAP. And we’re actually seeing that trend tick up potentially to almost 50%. And so these are all concerns, that we’re seeing.

Another main concern that we’re seeing here in our community, is that with increased immigration enforcement throughout the country, that is being, that is the case here in Arizona as well.

And we’re seeing and we’re hearing from nonprofit partners a lot of declining attendance rates, either within afterschool programming, within nonprofit organizations or at school, and are needing to really think about how they can deliver services in a completely unique and interesting way.

And in fact, some of them have even shared with us that they feel like they’re back in COVID time all over again.

MARK BRODIE: Really. How quickly do you see sort of what’s going on in the community show up at your doorstep? Like when SNAP benefits go away, food stamp benefits go away, like how quickly do you find that people are coming and saying, hey, we need some help?

When gas prices go up, how quickly do you see people say, hey, we’re really struggling here, we need some help?

CARLA VARGAS JASA: Yeah, so we really try and be proactive so people don’t have to come to us first to tell us about it. And so as Valley of the Sun United Way, you know, we serve Maricopa County, there’s 11 others of us throughout the state of Arizona, but we at Valley of the Sun United Way, we’ve really deliberately made sure that we bring our nonprofit partners together in conversation at least twice a year and over this past year it’s been even more frequent.

We, we see it real-time because we try and deliberately stay in touch with our nonprofit partners and I mean, because of that, we as Valley of the Sun United Way actually took a good hard look at who we were and how we responded to community needs based on what we heard from our nonprofit partners and changed our model to actually be able to more nimbly respond with special grants to, for example, food provider organizations and really using our voice to educate the broader community about what the needs are and how private philanthropy really needs to step in right now.

MARK BRODIE: What are you seeing in terms of philanthropy? I mean, I would imagine that, you know, with inflation and gas prices and, you know, a lot of folks are kind of concerned about where the economy is and where it might be headed. I would think that might have an impact on how much folks are willing and able to give.

CARLA VARGAS JASA: Yeah, so in terms of philanthropic giving, time still will tell, right? So I mean, we know on a national level, the Giving USA report that comes out every year on philanthropic giving showed last year that giving had increased between ’24 and ’25. Of course, now, like the majority of the turmoil that’s happened between ’25 and ’26. And so time will tell.

We are seeing that there’s a real concern with I think the broader philanthropic community about what to do right now, right? Corporations are concerned, as are philanthropists, that they cannot necessarily fill the gaps that the public sector is leaving. But the fact is, the public sector has left gaps.

And so we do need to step in to do something because the impact of people not having enough gas to be able to take their kids to school or, you know, not being able to stay home when their kids are sick are, have ripple effects on every aspect of our community, including people who don’t have needs, including, you know, businesses and their employees who may be struggling.

MARK BRODIE: When you look at some of the recent sort of economic shocks and, and times of need, things like, you know, the Great Recession or COVID, how do those compare to what we’re seeing now in terms of how people are doing and what they need and how much they need and, and maybe how they’re feeling about things?

CARLA VARGAS JASA: Yeah, I mean, I don’t know that we can compare them just yet. I mean, what I will say is that just the overall environment I think makes it feel scarier for people in need, for the nonprofit leaders who are trying to, you know, respond to the need, and for donors just generally. So I don’t know that we’ve had as uncertain as a time. I mean, certainly, you know, a pandemic and, you know, prior like, you know, history, history that we faced as a community, but I mean, what’s important is and what I think is our superpower as United Way is that, you know, we really have the ability to have a bird’s eye view of all the issues and needs in a community and can help to bring the right people together to meet those needs. And I think also, like, when people are asked they will step up.

MARK BRODIE: When you talk to folks who do what you do, either in other parts of the state or even other nonprofits here in the Valley, or, or folks, you know, with nonprofits or even other chapters of the United Way elsewhere, you know, outside of Arizona, do you hear kind of similar things to what you’re dealing with here?

CARLA VARGAS JASA: Yes, we certainly do. I mean, every United Way throughout the country is trying to determine like how they can best shift what they’re doing in order to meet the most important needs. They’ll vary depending on the community, but they’re all trying to do something in this regard.

I think though, like some of the issues, some of the need is actually exacerbated here in Arizona. I think that we have a statistic in which we are the 12th least affordable county in the country in which to live. You know, we’re also of the belief that the reduction of SNAP benefits to Arizonans is probably one of the highest in the country and, you know, we’re also, I think more than others, have a real significant current and future concern related to the approach to immigration enforcement, how that impacts kids, how that impacts families, etc.

MARK BRODIE: So maybe everybody’s seeing some concerning trends and, and numbers and everything, but maybe a little bit, a little bit bigger here in Maricopa County.

CARLA VARGAS JASA: Yeah, and I will also share that, you know, we have a grant process every year where we have open opportunities for nonprofit organizations to submit their grant applications and we just closed that open process, and we’ve had the most applications this year than we ever have had and we had the most dollars requested. And this is with us even having capped dollar amounts that people could request.

And so the need is real and in terms of what we’re seeing like on the ground as United Way in terms of applications that we’ve received but also we’re definitely seeing some concerning trends impacting Arizona residents in a much more significant way than in other parts of the country.

MARK BRODIE: Alright, Carla, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

CARLA VARGAS JASA: Thanks for having me.

MARK BRODIE: Carla Vargas Jasa is president and CEO of Valley of the Sun United Way.