Progressive nonprofits in Washington, D.C., are recommending their counterparts in cities like Chicago and Baltimore — where the Trump administration may soon also deploy the National Guard — start planning for how they might boost direct services to affected communities.
Nonprofits that work with unhoused people, communities of color, and immigrants should be prepared to provide additional resources — such as legal aid, food, and information about civil rights protections — if armed federal forces arrive in their cities to crack down on what President Donald Trump has characterized as rampant crime, D.C. nonprofit leaders said.
Law enforcement in Washington, D.C, has been under federal control since August 11, when the Trump administration declared a “crime emergency,” took over the D.C. police department, and deployed National Guard troops and federal agents into the city to combat what Trump called “out of control crime.” Meanwhile, D.C. officials have repeatedly cited data to show crime is at a 30-year-low.
Roughly 2,000 armed troops are now patrolling the nation’s capital. And federal law enforcement agents have cleared at least 48 homeless encampments and ramped up immigration arrests. Legally, the president can exert law-enforcement control over D.C., which is not a state, for at least 30 days without congressional approval.
However, the deployment of federal troops may not end there. The Trump administration has named other cities, including Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and Oakland. National Guard troops could be deployed to Chicago as soon as next week, the Washington Post reported Saturday. Trump reiterated his threat to send troops to Chicago on Monday, calling the city a “disaster” and “a killing field.” Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance has said cities like Chicago and Los Angeles should welcome the National Guard troops to “help them get their crime under control.”
Nonprofits must take the Trump administration’s statements seriously and start scenario planning and coordinating with other organizations, said Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director at the National Homelessness Law Center, headquartered in Washington, D.C.
“We have been trying to sound the alarm and trying to get people prepared for this moment,” he said.
For the National Homelessness Law Center, preparation has included strengthening partnerships with groups not solely focused on homelessness, such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Popular Democracy, a coalition of grassroots groups.
“What Trump is doing is going to have impacts for different communities in the country, not just homeless folks,” Rabinowitz said.
Assessing and Planning
Some leaders in philanthropy worry that the federalization of major cities will worsen conditions for inhabitants while increasing the need for social services.
The Trump administration’s actions are unlikely to lower crime rates in cities but may have long-term effects on the health and well-being of their residents, said Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
“The president believes that arming troops, bulldozing tents, and making arrests will solve societal ills,” Besser wrote in a statement to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. “He could not be more wrong. More affordable housing will lower rates of homelessness. Greater investments in treatment and prevention will reduce drug overdoses. Providing children with good schools and safer places to play will help address violence. And ensuring access to health care will lower poverty.”
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has been a major funder of nonprofits in the D.C. region, providing $86 million in health-related funding since January. The foundation will continue to support them, “especially amid the administration’s unprecedented and unconscionable actions,” Besser said.
Organizations should not wait until their cities are under federal control to spring into action, D.C. nonprofit leaders said. Instead, they should develop strategies internally for how they will respond to community needs.
Funders should foster “synergy” among grantees focused on issues like housing, immigration, and legal aid, said Jaqueline Tucker, vice president for community partnerships and strategy at the D.C.-based Meyer Foundation.
“Be proactive about the possibility that this could occur and make sure you’re funding people who can respond to what’s happening,” she said.
Nonprofits also should start thinking about how to share information with local and national media to counteract misinformation, said Clinique Chapman, CEO of the nonprofit DC Justice Lab.
“When it comes to taking lessons from D.C., I think you can see right now people are resisting the power play and resisting the narrative,” Chapman said. “Continue to tell your own story and continue to be led by data.”
Funder Responses
Several leaders said it’s also critical that funders ask grantees what they need and that nonprofits listen to the communities they serve.
Regional grant makers like the Greater Washington Community Foundation and the Meyer Foundation have provided additional resources to grantees for the past several months to offset federal funding cuts.
The Greater Washington Community Foundation created a pooled fund for nonprofits in the D.C. region that lost federal funding and has distributed nearly $1.3 million so far. The Meyer Foundation said it will provide at least $1 million in rapid-response grants this year. In recent weeks, both foundations have shifted to distributing grants for food and other basic necessities to communities affected by the federal crackdown.
Staff from the Meyer Foundation recently sat in on a call with 50 grantees, who asked for additional funding to print “know your rights” flyers and pay for food and mutual aid, among other things, Tucker said.
Food aid is crucial for people afraid to go outside their homes right now, said Tonia Wellons, president of the Greater Washington Community Foundation.
“We have families that are choosing not to leave their homes, not to send their kids to school, and even as they are making these choices, we want them to have access to basic needs,” she said. “We have to inject some humanity into the situation — whether ultimately someone is deported or not, we still have to treat people with a level of decency.”
On August 14, the Greater Washington Community Foundation and iF, A Foundation for Radical Possibility published the open letter “Stand With DC: Defending Our Community’s Right to Self-Governance,” which more than 50 mostly regional nonprofits and grant makers have signed.
Borealis Philanthropy, an intermediary funder, is among the national organizations endorsing the letter.
“If philanthropy wants to defend democracy, it cannot do it from the sidelines,” said Amoretta Morris, president of Borealis Philanthropy. “The lesson here for philanthropy is the importance of investing in organizing, investing in civil society, so that the infrastructure is already there before it needs to go into overdrive.”
