This story was originally published in Nonprofit Quarterly on November 4, 2025: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/peoples-budgets-insist-on-care-first-for-and-by-everyone/

State of the Movements is a recurring NPQ column dedicated to tracking the pulse of social movements and the solidarity economy in 2025.

In the shadow of federal layoffs , President Donald Trump’s administration has inadvertently revealed that budgets are not neutral. Rather, public budgets are moral documents that expose our polity’s deepest priorities and health—or its failures.

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To date, working mostly at the city level, people’s budget coalitions have advocated for budgets that truly meet people’s needs.…