Good afternoon,

What you need to know this week: White House weighs executive actions against liberal nonprofits, 100-plus foundations sign letter condemning political violence and defending their free speech, $56 million for civics, and more

—Tamara Straus, senior editor

Alex Brandon, AP

• ‘Political momentum’: President Trump’s advisers are weighing “a slate of executive actions targeting liberal organizations,” reports the Wall Street Journal (subscription), while seeking to channel an “outpouring of support for slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk into political momentum.”
• Targeting strategies: Trump administration actions could include reviewing the tax-exempt status of left-leaning nonprofit groups and targeting them under anti-corruption laws. Revoking 501(c)(3) status is not simple, however, as the tax code prohibits senior officials from directing an IRS audit or investigation against a nonprofit — unless the nonprofit is designated as a terrorist organization.
• Open Society, Ford Foundation named: Trump said Monday that he might investigate Open Society Foundations’ George Soros and others under RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Vice President Vance, on Kirk’s podcast, said he would “go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates, and engages in violence” and suggested the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Foundations would be among the targeted nonprofits. (The Ford Foundation is a financial supporter of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.)

• Free speech focus: After Trump and Vance vowed to dismantle networks of liberal activists and their funders that they say bear responsibility for the shooting, more than 100 foundations banded together to issue an open letter Wednesday defending their freedom of speech, reports Alex Daniels in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
• Large foundations: The signatories to the letter include many of the largest progressive grant makers, including the Ford, Freedom Together, Knight, MacArthur, and Robert Wood Johnson foundations, as well as a handful of regional grant makers, such as the Silicon Valley and Marin County community foundations.
• Affront to democracy: The foundations’ letter said acts of political violence “have no place in our democracy.” Without directly referencing the Trump administration, the letter said: “We reject attempts to exploit political violence to mischaracterize our good work or restrict our fundamental freedoms, like freedom of speech and the freedom to give. Attempts to silence speech, criminalize opposing viewpoints, and misrepresent and limit charitable giving undermine our democracy and harm all Americans.”

• Increased protections: Following the killing of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, nonprofits are assessing their vulnerabilities and taking steps to protect staff, buildings, and events, reports Ben Gose in the Chronicle.
• Fear of outdoor events: Outdoor speeches may be less common following Kirk’s murder. Ben Shapiro, a conservative and often controversial speaker on college campuses, said after the Kirk shooting that he would “never again do an outdoor event.”
• Personal security concerns: The Ford Foundation recently removed the names of its board members and employees from its website; and the University of Michigan began providing 24/7 security for its regents this summer, following vandalism of some regents’ homes by anti-Israel protesters.
• Security spending rises: Some nonprofits are spending more to protect their people and property. The federal government’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program is slated to spend nearly $275 million this year for measures such as cameras, bulletproof glass, and guards. And California doubled its spending this year, to $76 million, to help nonprofits and faith-based organizations with security.

• Strengthening democracy: Months ahead of the nation’s 250th birthday, major funders, including the Bezos Family Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Stand Together, pledged $56 million to expand civic learning and service opportunities and to engage young people in community and government work, reports Drew Lindsay in the Chronicle.
• Exercising ‘civic muscles’: “If Americans don’t understand democratic norms, values, and institutions, you can’t have a democracy, which is a demanding form of government,” said John Bridgeland, CEO of More Perfect, the civics alliance that will be distributing many of the grants. “But you also need opportunities to exercise your civic muscles.”
• Bipartisan cause? The new effort is billed as “cross-ideological.” Stand Together is a philanthropy of the libertarian billionaire Charles Koch; Carnegie is generally considered a left-of-center grant maker; and the Bezos Family Foundation focuses on children and youths.

• TRIO grants in limbo: The Trump administration has frozen hundreds of millions of dollars in TRIO grants, the federal educational opportunity outreach programs designed to motivate and support students from disadvantaged backgrounds, reports Inside Higher Education. The Council for Opportunity in Education estimates $660 million worth of aid has been withheld for more than 2,000 TRIO programs. Most are in limbo; some have ground to a halt.
• Windfall for HBCUs: The Trump administration has announced $500 million in federal support to historically Black colleges and tribal universities, a windfall funded largely by cuts to other programs for minority students, reports the New York Times.
• ‘Discriminatory’ vs. successful: In a statement announcing the new funding for Trump’s political priorities, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said that the department was “redirecting financial support away from ineffective and discriminatory programs toward those which support student success.”

• Children’s Trust lawsuit: Young climate activists backed by the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust are asking a federal court to block three White House executive orders aimed at “unleashing” American energy, reports the New York Times.
• Largest NEH grant: The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded $10.4 million to Jewish nonprofit Tikvah to combat antisemitism — the largest grant in the federal agency’s history, reports the Washington Post.
• Federal cancer research shutdown: Since January, the Trump administration has canceled hundreds of millions of dollars in cancer-related research grants and contracts, “arguing that they were part of politically driven DEI initiatives,“ reports the New York Times.
• OpenAI’s $100 billion philanthropy: OpenAI announced a new structure: a nonprofit that controls a public benefit corporation that houses its for-profit operations, like ChatGPT, which has 750 million active users. The nonprofit gets control of an equity stake worth more than $100 billion, reports Business Insider (subscription).

“While the media uplifts the loudest voices from the most temperamentally extreme perspectives, the majority of young people are seeking constructive dialogue. Students are delivering a unifying and resounding message about political violence: This has to stop.”

— Manu Meel in his Chronicle opinion piece “The Counterculture That Could Stop Political Violence”

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