AuSM Needs You: A Critical Fundraising Moment for the Autism Community

October 1, 2025

For more than 50 years, the Autism Society of Minnesota (AuSM) has been here for you: providing mental health therapy tailored to autistic experience, offering summer camps where kids and adults can belong and thrive, advocating at the Capitol, and equipping families, educators, and professionals with tools to build more inclusive communities.

Today, this foundation is at risk. Drastic policy and funding changes in 2025 have created an unprecedented $500,000 budget shortfall for AuSM. Unless we close this gap by December 31, we will be forced to scale back or discontinue the very programs that thousands of you rely on every year.

This isn’t just another appeal. It is a turning point. Without your support, Minnesota’s oldest autism organization—and the lifeline it provides – could be forced to shutter many of its essential programs. But together, we can protect what matters most: the safety, dignity, and inclusion of autistic people in our state.

You know the impact. Maybe you or a loved one found community at an AuSM support group. Maybe your child’s teacher changed the way they support autistic students because of our training. Maybe camp gave your family a chance to breathe and your camper a chance to shine. Services like these are exactly what we cannot afford to lose. This is what we fight to save.

Now, we need you to act:

Donate today: www.ausm.org/donate
Share your story: Let your friends, family, and colleagues know why AuSM matters. You can also share your story directly with AuSM to help us with our marketing and fundraising efforts through this form.
Call on others: Ask your workplace, local businesses, and community groups to join you in supporting AuSM.
Volunteer: Support AuSM’s fundraising efforts through volunteer activities like phone banking and donor thank yous. Call 651.647.1083 or email info@ausm.org to get started.
Host a fundraiser to support AuSM. Learn more about becoming a fundraiser here.
Reach out to AuSM with your ideas! Email info@ausm.org to set up a meeting and discuss ways to support the organization.

This community has always risen to challenges. With your help, we won’t just keep the lights on—we’ll build the next 50 years of possibility, connection, and advocacy.

How did we get here?

AuSM is committed to transparency as we ask you to support us. Many in our community may have questions about how AuSM reached this critical juncture. A variety of factors came together to lead to our current budget shortfall, including:

Drastic changes to government funding are creating chaos for non-profits that rely on grants to fund their work. Private and corporate grants are being flooded with requests, creating overwhelming and unsustainable competition for institutional support
Dangerous attacks on public support programs, like Medicaid, have disrupted mental health services and access to care
Stigmatizing and harmful misinformation about autism is spreading quickly, causing confusion and division, driving autistic people further away from the supports they need to live safely and fully
Divestment from diversity, equity, and inclusion infrastructure is leaving the autistic community more greatly underemployed, excluded, and financially unstable
Dissolution of resources for public and special education is leaving schools, teachers, and counselors with fewer resources for key training that helps them serve autistic students
The need for mental health services for autistic individuals and families is at an all-time high, and yet, insurance shortfalls leave people without access and incentivize most providers to turn autistic patients away from services

To address these challenges, AuSM has already taken significant action to balance the budget, including:

Two comprehensive staff reductions since 2023
Consolidating our offices into a smaller suite, optimizing remote work for more efficient use of space
Contracting Next in Nonprofits to support our grant writing efforts
Adjusted price models to ensure program sustainability and reflect true program cost. Unsustainable programs have been remodeled or removed.
Reviewed all programs for operational efficiency and to ensure timely income for accounts receivable
Modeled business practices on advice from community-trusted financial organizations, including Propel Nonprofits, the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, and GiveMN
Updated fundraising strategies in line with current best practices focused on digital fundraising

It will take all of us to ensure AuSM remains strong in the face of these ongoing challenges. You can be the reason we survive – and thrive.