The central African country of Sudan is facing one of the worst hunger crises in modern history.
“Every day there are children dying from hunger and malnutrition,” Mary Stata, chief development officer of Portland-based international nonprofit Mercy Corps, told OPB. “And we have had to cut programming as a result of the U.S. reduction in foreign assistance.”
Stata said Mercy Corps’ work in Sudan helped feed and support more than 220,000 people. But that program, along with dozens of others, was abruptly terminated when the federal government stopped the majority of its foreign aid.
Since then, the Portland-based aid group has been reeling from President Donald Trump’s cuts to the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID.
The U.S. government has traditionally been Mercy Corps’ largest financial backer, Stata told OPB. But she says due to the abrupt halt in federal funding, Mercy Corps has been forced to cut more than 40 of its 60 programs receiving that funding.
“We really have just a fraction of the programming left that we had once been doing,” Stata said on OPB’s “Think Out Loud.” “And that programming that is continuing is important work, it is lifesaving work, it’s critical. But at the same time, we are still not receiving payment from the U.S. government.”
That means nearly all of Mercy Corps’ federally funded programs could take a hit. Stata said the organization is not able to access funds for all of the remaining programs.
“The payment system has not been functional,” she said. “And so we are not able to continue all of this work — even the stuff that has been approved, technically — because we aren’t actively getting paid by the U.S. government for it.”
What Oregonians are likely to notice most clearly in Mercy Corps’ latest steps relates to the nonprofit’s headquarters next to the Burnside Bridge. The organization is selling its longtime Portland building as part of an effort to cut expenses and reduce the organization’s carbon footprint.
Mercy Corps provides food, clean water, and other humanitarian services in war zones and places ravaged by natural disasters. The organization is currently working with the United Nations to help survivors of last month’s massive earthquake in Myanmar that killed more than 3,500 people, according to Mercy Corps’ website.
Over the decades Mercy Corps has partnered with communities in dozens of countries. Last year, the group reached more than 38 million people around the globe, according to the organization’s website. That’s the equivalent of the entire population of California.
Stata said the sudden end to federal funding has meant pulling out of projects in a way that could be dangerous and deadly.
“We have been managing a program in Nigeria that supports health facilities,” Stata said. “These facilities provide lifesaving nutrition support to over 55,000 children under the age of 5 and 11,500 pregnant women.”
The program was cut with no warning, she said.
“This has put these children and pregnant women at immediate risk,” Stata said. “These are malnourished kids who are no longer receiving therapeutic foods.”
Stata also confirmed to OPB that Mercy Corps’ Portland office on Southwest Naito Parkway is going up for sale due to the increase in remote work, the need to cut costs and the desire to lessen the nonprofit’s environmental impact.
‘A loss for Oregonians’
The real estate posting lists the building at $17.6 million. The organization originally spent $37 million on the space and its renovations.
She said the group has considered a sale for years, and it likely would have happened eventually even without the cuts to USAID.
The international nonprofit bought the Portland office space and renovated it in 2009, adding 40,000 square feet to the existing 43,000 square feet, according to a Mercy Corps representative.
Before the pandemic hit in 2020, about 75% of Mercy Corps’ U.S.-based team was located in Portland, but that has dropped to 36%. Most days, the Portland office only operates at about 12% occupancy.
Oregon is home to thousands of nonprofits but Mercy Corps is among the largest and most well known, according to Jim White, the executive director of the Nonprofit Association of Oregon.
“Having a cadre of people who are based here in Oregon,” he said, “Who are regularly interchanging ideas and experiencing firsthand and being able to be witnesses to what is happening around the world — bringing that back, talking with their community members, talking with families, that’s a real asset for Oregon.”
And the diminished presence of these international nonprofits is a loss for Oregonians, he said.
White remembers when Mercy Corps’ opened its building on Naito Parkway in 2009. He was an employee of the nonprofit at the time, and said the Mercy Corps’ Action Center allowed the public to learn about international aid work.
“It’s a shame to hear that that asset is going away for Oregon,” he said.