Good afternoon,

What you need to know this week: Nonprofits prepare for National Guard troops beyond D.C., a female jobs exodus, foundation assets at a record high, and more.

—Tamara Straus, senior editor

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

• Chicago, Baltimore: 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 to boost social services to affected communities, reports Stephanie Beasley in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
• Affected groups: 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 federal forces arrive in their cities to crack down on what President Trump has characterized as rampant crime, D.C. nonprofit leaders said.
• Crime and punishment: “The president believes that arming troops, bulldozing tents, and making arrests will solve societal ills,” said Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which has provided $86 million in health-related funding to D.C. nonprofits since January. “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.”

• $1.68 trillion: Foundation assets reached a new peak as grant makers heed calls to increase payout rates and staunch the bleeding from federal funding cuts, reports the Chronicle’s Drew Lindsay. FoundationMark, which analyzes foundation investments, estimates that assets stand at $1.68 trillion, topping the $1.62 trillion recorded at the end of 2024. That’s also 15 percent higher than the $1.46 trillion in endowments at the close of 2023.
• More grant making: The stock market’s strong run over the past two years has ramped up grant-maker assets. The result: Even if foundations do nothing more than meet the legally mandated 5 percent payout, giving will increase.
• Call for increased giving: A coalition of philanthropy-service organizations led by the Trust-Based Philanthropy Project is calling on funders to increase their grant making over the next four years, urging them to give at the same rates as their growing endowments, whether that’s 10 percent or more.

• Strong signals: More than 212,000 women have left the work force since January, even as men have gained jobs, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s unclear exactly how many of those women worked at nonprofits, reports Eden Stiffman of the Chronicle. But because women make up more than two-thirds of the sector’s work force and are overrepresented in fields like health care, social services, and education, which have been hit hardest by federal budget cuts and layoffs, the jobs exodus among women is expected to be large when the BLS finally tallies the nonprofit data in 2029.
• Peak no more: Women’s work force participation climbed to a historic high in 2023, aided by pandemic-era flexible work policies. Nearly 78 percent of women ages 25 to 54 were employed in May 2023, up from 75 percent in the same month of 2018. But those gains are slipping as more employers call employees back to the office, increasing the care costs that largely fall on women.
• Not by choice: “This is an alarm signal,” said Tara Van Bommel, head of research at Catalyst, a nonprofit focused on gender equity and workplace inclusion. Women are being “forced out” for a variety of reasons — layoffs, fewer job opportunities, and the loss of workplace flexibility. “Very few are truly choosing to opt out,” she said.

• Full stop: America’s largest charitable foundation decided in late June to halt grants to nonprofit funds administered by Arabella Advisors, a consulting firm and nonprofit network closely associated with the Democratic Party and criticized by conservatives, the New York Times reports.
• 16-year relationship: The Gates Foundation has disbursed or pledged about $450 million to nonprofit funds administered by Arabella over the past 16 years and is one of the earliest and largest backers of nonprofit funds managed by Arabella. The firm also manages several “dark money” funds that support Democrats and the progressive movement.
• Dark philanthropy: Last year in an interview with the Chronicle, Arabella founder Eric Kessler blamed the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling for injecting billions of dollars into the political process. At the time of the interview, he said he supports the Disclose Act, a measure pushed by Democrats that would require so-called dark money 501(c)(4) nonprofits to disclose their donors.

• Stark new rules for aid: The Department of Homeland Security is barring states and volunteer groups that receive government funds from helping undocumented immigrants, the Washington Post reports. Disaster-aid groups said the new contracts would make it harder for nonprofits to help the most vulnerable people in the aftermath of a disaster.
• Art vetting: The White House published a list of Smithsonian exhibits, programming, and artwork it considered objectionable a week after announcing that eight of the institution’s museums must submit their current wall text and future exhibition plans for a comprehensive review, the New York Times reports.
• DEI data protection: A federal judge rejected a bid by the Trump administration and Edward Blum’s anti-affirmative action group to block enforcement of a new Illinois law that requires nonprofits to publicly report data they collect on the race, gender, and sexual orientation of their governing bodies, Reuters reports.
• OSF heads attacked: President Trump said Open Society Foundations leaders and major Democratic donors George Soros and his son, Alex Soros, should be charged under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, but offered no evidence to support the allegations, Reuters reports.

“Too many people in our communities, too many police officers, too many community violence intervention workers, and folks have put their lives on the line each and every day to make the city a safer place. As safe as it’s been in my lifetime.”

— Maryland Governor Wes Moore in reaction to President Trump’s statements regarding “out of control, crime ridden, Baltimore

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