Good afternoon,

What you need to know this week: A digital ad campaign champions nonprofits, the Gates Foundation makes a $2.5 billion announcement, the tax bill’s potential impact on DAF giving, and more.

—Tamara Straus, senior editor

National Council of Nonprofits

• Digital blitz: On Tuesday, the National Council of Nonprofits launched a digital “Nonprofits Get It Done” campaign. The idea is to shine a light on the work of charitable organizations and encourage people to contact their lawmakers to defend the sector, reports Eden Stiffman in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The ads will appear across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn and via banner ads on websites and apps.
• Fighting back: The campaign is a response to the Trump administration’s and other lawmakers’ continued shots at the nonprofit world. “We don’t have to look far to see a really harmful narrative growing — one that is attempting to malign or harm the nonprofit sector,” said Diane Yentel, CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits. A recent congressional hearing that aimed to vilify nonprofits as corrupt and politicized is just one example, she said.
• Strength in solidarity? The initiative marks a rare coordinated effort that spans the sector and signals a call to political action, said Peter Panepento, a communications consultant to nonprofits and foundations. “This is something the sector should have been doing earlier to validate its position in American society and shape its own narrative,” he said.

• Keeping up momentum: This week, the Gates Foundation pledged $2.5 billion for innovation in supporting women’s health, reports the Chronicle’s Alex Daniels. The move signals that the foundation intends to continue to invest in the cause following the 2024 departure of Melinda French Gates. Since her divorce from Bill Gates, French Gates has committed more than $1 billion to support women.
• A funding void: The news follows a U.S. pullback of support for global maternal health programs during the first seven months of the Trump administration. The shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development and program reductions at the Centers for Disease Control have sunsetted programs focused on women’s health. According to a March internal USAID memo, the agency’s closure will stop services for 16.8 million pregnant women annually, for example.
• Follow the leaders: With such a large commitment to research and development for women’s health, others may follow, said Katy Brodsky Falco, founder of the Foundation for Women’s Health, which plans to make $5 million in research grants this year. “Hopefully it will bring the issue to the top of the conversation among private donors and family foundations, even if they otherwise haven’t supported this type of work,” she said.

• The DAF wrinkle: The tax bill included a big win for nonprofits: a charitable deduction for everyday Americans who don’t itemize — $1,000 for single people and $2,000 for married couples. But the charitable deduction for non-itemizers is not available if the gift goes to a donor-advised fund. That wrinkle muddies the impact on small-dollar donors, reports the Chronicle’s Rasheeda Childress.
• Flip-flopping effect: Excluding DAFs from the tax benefit could reduce the likelihood that everyday donors will give to them and potentially codify “DAFs as a tool of elite donors,” says Laura MacDonald, founder of the Benefactor Group, a fundraising consulting firm. It could also lead the savviest taxpayers to alternate between itemization to donate to DAFs one year and taking the standard deduction and giving directly to charity other years.
• A 2025 boon? Because the tax law doesn’t take effect until 2026, many who want to take advantage of this year’s itemizing rules are expected to give big this year. And a significant share of that giving could go to DAFs. Says Jeff Williams, a co-founder of the DAF Research Collaborative: “There could be a bump in the same way that we saw a bump at the end of 2017 before the Tax Cut and Jobs Act took effect in 2018.”

• A grand for every baby: In the new tax bill, Congress included a plan to put $1,000 into an investment account for every baby born in the next four years. Ford, Mott, and other foundations have tested similar ideas, but there are concerns from some philanthropic leaders and researchers that without careful execution, the program could accelerate wealth inequality, reports the Chronicle’s Eden Stiffman.
• Tipping the scales? The accounts offer an opportunity for donors to direct cash to children, and there is no cap on philanthropic contributions. Money in the accounts must be invested in stock funds that track a U.S. index like the S&P 500. Darrick Hamilton, the economist who, at the invitation of the Ford Foundation, came up with the idea of baby bonds as a way to address the racial wealth gap, notes that affluent families have additional money to invest in the “Trump Accounts” compared with people who are less well off.
• Execution is key: Benita Melton, director of the education program at the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, says there’s a lot the new policy got right — and plenty of room for improvement. “Policy is just the beginning. Implementation is everything,” she said. Grant makers have been meeting to discuss how they can maximize the benefits of the Trump Accounts to meet philanthropy’s goals of expanding wealth and access.

• CGI event reboot: Former President Bill Clinton foreshadowed big changes for this year’s annual meeting, reports the Associated Press. “We need to redefine how we show up, how we work, and how we find ways to honor our common humanity,” Clinton wrote in a letter to the Clinton Global Initiative community. A series of “Leaders Stage Sessions” aims to bring together leaders from a range of organizations — including GoFundMe CEO Tim Cadogan and Center for Disaster Philanthropy CEO Patricia McIlreavy — to build new programs.
• Standing up: Lee Pelton of the Boston Foundation has been outspoken in addressing federal funding cuts, reports the Boston Globe. “I’m appalled at this mean-spirited federal administration that would deprive hungry people of food by cutting their access or diminishing their access,” Pelton said. Within weeks of Trump’s inauguration, the community foundation created a special round of “safety net” grants of $25,000 to $75,000 and has now distributed over $2.6 million to more than 75 local organizations.
• Group effort: A collective of philanthropies announced a $50 million “Adaptation and Resilience” fund that supports communities facing higher risks due to climate change. The partnership includes the ClimateWorks Foundation, Howden Foundation, Laudes Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. The announcement comes at a time when the Environmental Protection Agency is looking to cancel $7 billion in grants for solar energy projects, according to the New York Times.

“In fundraising and nonprofit work, AI won’t take your job, but somebody who knows how to use AI might. … To stay competitive, this is a skill we need to develop and refine.”

— Josie White, philanthropic officer, Shelter the Homeless during the Chronicle’s recent online forum, How to Use AI Without Breaking Donors’ Trust

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