The longest U.S. government shutdown in history has the already overburdened nonprofit world on alert. The National Council of Nonprofits joined the National Governors Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in condemning politics as usual when it sent a letter to President Trump and members of Congress, calling the shutdown "a tragic failure of leadership" with "very real and lasting consequences."

Tim Delaney, president of the charity advocate, said in an interview that the shutdown is "an unnatural disaster."