Cuts to national AmeriCorps programs are creating uncertainty for community organizations that have long relied on the program to fill staffing gaps.

The Trump administration last month rescinded about $400 million in grant funds supporting AmeriCorps members serving in local and regional programs. About 80 members stationed in Montana were abruptly released from service as a result, according to a May 7 press release from the Montana AmeriCorps Alumni Council. 

“It was kind of like whiplash,” said Silas Smith, one of the Montana-based AmeriCorps members whose service was terminated last month. 

Smith had worked since January with the local nonprofit Land to Hand to spearhead food security efforts in Columbia Falls. His main task was to catalyze efforts to open a local food bank, but the 21-year-old accounting major also helped run the Weekend Backpack program, which provides food to schoolchildren in food-insecure households each weekend. 

The position was funded through a state AmeriCorps program. While Smith worked full-time hours at Land to Hand, he received only a modest living stipend as well as some financial education benefits such as deferred loan payments. 

After the Trump administration shuttered the National Civilian Community Corps branch of AmeriCorps and gutted the agency’s administrative staff, Smith said he began to mentally prepare for his own position to be axed. On Sunday, April 27, he received what he described as a “very cookie-cutter email,” informing him that his AmeriCorps position “no longer effectuates agency priorities.” His service term originally extended to January 2026. 

“It’s really sad and demoralizing. The way that this is happening is so disrespectful to people” said Gretchen Boyer, the executive director of Land to Hand.  

She said the abrupt termination is a major loss for Land to Hand, which has partnered with AmeriCorps for seven years. The cost of hosting an AmeriCorps member for a year is a fraction of what the organization would otherwise pay to hire an employee to a similar position, making it a cost-effective solution for the small nonprofit. 

Land to Hand is far from the only community organization that has benefited from the AmeriCorps model. Last year, about 2,900 AmeriCorps members served at nearly 400 locations across the state. 

Rural Dynamics Inc., a Great Falls-based nonprofit that helps low-income and elderly Montanans file taxes, has relied on AmeriCorps partnerships for over a decade. Executive Director Jordyn Schwartz said it is difficult to find local volunteers with expertise in tax filing, so the nonprofit instead hosts both short-term and year-long positions through AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps and Volunteers in Service to America programs. Funding for both programs was cut in April. 

“It’s kind of catastrophic to lose that,” said Schwartz. “It just really makes it hard for us to mobilize and do the work we do.” 

She said the organization lacks the staff capacity to take over the services AmeriCorps members were providing, such as tax clinics in rural communities. With the Trump administration now pushing for Congress to fully eliminate all AmeriCorps programming, the future of the organization remains unclear. 

ONE OF the state's largest AmeriCorps programs, Montana Conservation Corps, escaped April’s cuts unscathed, but Executive Director Jono McKinney said the Department of Government Efficiency’s presence at AmeriCorps “remains a grave concern” for both Corps members and the communities they serve.  

 Each summer, Montana Conservation Corps members clear trails, reduce fuels and restore streams on thousands of acres of public lands. About 28% of the annual budget to support this work comes directly from AmeriCorps grants. 

Another third is derived from contracts with federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, which have been hit by large scale budget and personnel reductions by the Department of Government Efficiency. Corps members in the Kalispell branch typically work with federal and state officials to complete projects in Glacier National Park, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness, the Mission Mountain Wilderness, Lone Pine State Park and Herron Park. 

“It’s been 4-6 weeks that we’ve been waiting on some of these areas [to sign contracts],” said McKinney. “But there is progress.” 

In a typical year, McKinney said major agreements between Montana Conservation Corps and federal agencies would already be signed, but negotiations with many land managers stalled at the height of the federal cuts and are only now being wrapped up. 

While millions of federal dollars go into the program each year, McKinney said Montana Conservation Corps, like many AmeriCorps programs, is a financial benefit in the long-term. A 2023 study estimated that Montana Conservation Corps has a return on investment as high as $144.32 for every federal dollar spent. 

“In an era where we’re looking at how we improve government efficiency, Montana Conservation Corp and AmeriCorps are one of the best solutions,” McKinney said. 

IN COLUMBIA Falls, Gretchen Boyer is seeking other solutions to keep Silas Smith on Land to Hand’s staff. Earlier this month, the organization launched a fundraising campaign to support a temporary staff position for Smith and fill the deficit left by another terminated federal grant. 

According to Boyer, the organization needs $38,000 to hire Smith through the end of the year, when his AmeriCorps service was originally supposed to end. As of May 9, more than $17,000 had been contributed to the campaign.  

Boyer said the fundraiser was about keeping a promise the organization had made to Smith and to the community. 

“We want to fulfill what the government is not fulfilling,” she said. 

Reporter Hailey Smalley may be reached at 758-4433 or [email protected].