“It’s hard to decipher what’s threat and what’s theater right now.”

Julia Hatton leads Rising Sun Center for Opportunity — a Bay Area nonprofit that’s spent three decades building inclusive pathways into the green economy. Their work sits at the intersection of climate resilience, economic equity, and workforce development — all through a justice lens.

That means their work is also increasingly under scrutiny.

I sat down with Julia to explore how she’s navigating a time of growing political pressure and economic uncertainty — without compromising her organization’s values or losing sight of what matters most: the people Rising Sun exists to serve.

Interview:

Eric Ressler: You're in a sector facing a lot of political pressure. How are you thinking about this moment?

Julia Hatton: The balance of it feels like everything all the time, but also nothing has actually happened yet. The good news is we don’t receive any substantial federal funding, so we feel a lot less pressure to comply the way some nonprofits have to. The bad news is that all the work Rising Sun does — climate equity, racial equity, gender equity — is directly under attack by the administration. Our work feels very threatened.

Being a California-based nonprofit reliant on state funding, we anticipate California will have less money due to changes at the federal level. That could impact our budgets. And then there’s the impact on our program participants. If costs are increasing due to tariffs and other economic pressures, it’s going to hit low-income folks first and worst. If there are fewer job opportunities in construction, that’s bad for our graduates. If the social safety net continues to erode, that directly impacts our participants. We’re not feeling the funding pressure directly yet, but we see the downstream effects coming fast.

Eric: How are you thinking about navigating that visibility and potential exposure? Are you trying to thread the needle or double down?

Julia: Right now, since we’re not federally funded and no laws have changed, I think it’s important to stand up for what we believe in. That said, I recognize we’re in a relatively advantaged position — we don’t have federal or national visibility.

We’ve talked about the fact that this could change. There could be a time where we need to go behind the scenes more. I really don’t want that. I can’t imagine looking my staff or participants in the eye and saying we’re not going to talk about racial equity anymore. What would that mean to our staff of color? To the women in our programs? It would feel like such a betrayal.

I’d take my cue from our participants and staff — the people most impacted. But for now, there’s no reason to stop, and even more reason to keep going.

Eric: Would that calculus change if you had more exposure to federal funding?

Julia: It would be a harder conversation. I can’t say we’d reach a different conclusion, but it would be tougher. I think a lot about immigration justice nonprofits — I don’t know what I would do. You have to protect the people you serve. It’s a really tough call.

Eric: How do you think about that balance — between risk and values?

Julia: I don’t think it’s necessary to preemptively eliminate certain words based solely on an executive order or the whims of an authoritarian regime. That’s where I draw the line.

Eric: How are you approaching planning right now — short term vs long term?

Julia: Since January 20, it’s been hard to decipher what’s threat and what’s theater. We’re getting better at it, but it still takes a lot of time and energy.

Just a couple weeks ago during Earth Week, there was all this chatter about climate nonprofits losing their tax-exempt status. I was ready — I started writing an op-ed, prepping comms, doing research. And then nothing happened. I remember thinking, “I have to change my work schedule for this?”

Despite all that, we just completed a three-year strategic plan and we’re fully committed to executing it. We’re focused on the immediate work and the longer-term goals. Our funders have been amazing — offering support groups, resources, and filtering information so we don’t have to spend as much energy tracking it all ourselves. Financially, we’re in a good place, and that makes a huge difference.

Eric: When did you become CEO?

Julia: I’ve been at Rising Sun since 2012, but I became CEO on March 1, 2020. Right before COVID. We got through that crisis and built up tools and muscles we didn’t have before. Last year, we were facing serious funding uncertainty. We were talking about layoffs — something we’d never discussed before. Luckily, we didn’t have to go through with it. But we were prepared.

We’ve been in a quiet mode for four or five years now. And I think we’re feeling like it’s time to break out of that — launch new programs, innovate within existing ones, expand our reach. It’s not a time to sit quiet anymore. We’ve done enough of that.

Eric: There's been more pressure on funders to change their practices. How are you experiencing that?

Julia: We’ve been lucky. A lot of our funders changed their practices because of COVID and have maintained those changes. We’ve seen more general operating support, multi-year support, and different reporting requirements. Instead of submitting a written report every quarter, some funders now just have a phone call — and they actually get more information and a stronger connection that way. For us, it’s less burdensome. Not less oversight, just different ways of checking in.

Eric: What are the broader ripple effects of decreased government funding?

Julia: Most people have no idea what the government actually pays for — and how many of those programs are administered by nonprofits and other organizations. Even government-specific programs often get implemented by other entities that hire people. It’s a whole ecosystem.

If federal funding dries up, the impact ripples outward. At Rising Sun, we don’t have many individual donors. A significant part of our budget comes from state contract grants, and we have some great foundation support. But even foundations are vulnerable — if the stock market dips, that impacts their ability to pay out. It’s all connected.

Eric: Any advice or philosophies helping you through this moment — or anything you’d share with peers?

Julia: It’s hard to give advice when I know Rising Sun is in a relatively advantaged situation. Everyone has to figure out how to deal with this in their own way — no judgment.

What’s helping me is staying focused on doing the work. We know the work we do is important and that it has impact. Being laser-focused on that and sharing that impact gives hope and inspiration.

I try to balance between threat and theater — doing the research on what’s actually required versus what’s just fear-based. I’m trying to lean more into compassion and community.

But there are exceptions to that. Sometimes compassion and community and being polite — that’s not appropriate. Sometimes you have to draw a line. You don’t have to paint it with a broad brush, but there are opportunities to bring people in. Because clearly, this whole thing is the result of people feeling ostracized and left out. So community and solidarity — to the extent possible and appropriate.