Philanthropy This Week

The White House

Good morning.

President Trump’s two-paragraph memo last week claiming the work of some “nongovernmental organizations” undermines “the security, prosperity, and safety of the American people” got immediate pushback from First Amendment advocates — and rattled many nonprofit leaders. Trump ordered federal department heads to review their budgets and assure that future funding is aligned with his administration’s goals and priorities, reports Alex Daniels.

Many other orders and directives in the memo are under review in the courts.

Cole Leiter of Americans Against Government Censorship called on Trump to rescind the order. Leiter told Alex: “Charitable organizations that receive federal funds, be they houses of worship that serve the poor, schools that educate our children, or hospitals that care for veterans, should never have to pass a politician’s loyalty test to do the important work of serving our communities.”

In an opinion piece, Kellea Miller of the Human Rights Funders Network has some advice for funders as President Trump and Elon Musk try to gut USAID and many foundations cut back on direct support for human rights and democracy. For example: Develop new approaches to collaboration, she says, and she suggests tools to help. “Funders should spread the risk,” she writes, “and increase their impact by working together on shared strategies.”

For more articles and opinion pieces about the administration, see Nonprofits and the Trump Agenda, which we continually update.

Other highlights from this week:

To many nonprofits, getting gifts from donor-advised funds is an elusive goal, but not to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. That fundraising powerhouse never misses a chance to let people know it accepts DAFs, and it’s diligent about tracking data and making tailored appeals, reports Rasheeda Childress. “We’re shifting our strategy more and more to make sure that we meet people where they are,” CEO Richard Shadyac told Rasheeda. “Donor-advised funds are incredibly popular. People have already decided that they want to have a donor-advised fund. So you want to meet them there.”

Being a first-time nonprofit CEO can be daunting any time, but especially during periods of change. Few emerging leaders get direct support in their early months on the job, writes Nick Grono, CEO of the Freedom Fund, even though it would increase their chances of success and help stabilize their organizations. Grono lays out several tips for how foundations can help. “Grant makers have the clout to encourage nonprofits and their boards to better support new leaders,” he writes, “and to provide resources to help them do so.”

In the early days of artificial intelligence, academia was at the forefront of A.I. research. Then costs soared and corporations took over, leaving nonprofits trying to figure out how to stay relevant, reports Sara Herschander. Now grant makers like Open Philanthropy and Omidyar Network and others are helping nonprofits carve out their own A.I. niche. “We need there to be people who are experts in the development of this technology,” Stella Biderman of EleutherAI, told Sara, “who do research on it and promote access to it but who don’t have a vested financial interest in its commercial success.”

— Marilyn Dickey, Senior Editor, Copy

The Trump administration aims to cut funding for university research in a multipronged attack on the culture and finances of higher education. The National Institutes of Health says it will cut billions of dollars in indirect costs for research, “such as facilities and administration, construction, maintenance, energy, and compliance,” including for projects already approved. As institutions scramble to see what work they can afford to continue, one association executive said university labs have already shut down and will continue to shut down. The administration said it is cutting waste and bloat. (Washington Post)

Some nonprofits, local governments, and others are still waiting for federal payments that were supposed to restart after two courts ordered the Trump administration to lift an across-the-board freeze on grants. Among the previously approved projects in limbo are an emergency shelter in Mississippi, wildfire prevention in Montana, and a fleet of electric school buses in Illinois. The grantees say they have received no explanation for the stoppage, but administration officials now say they are blocking payments on a grant-by-grant basis, pending reviews for irregularities. That approach has been permitted by a federal judge. (New York Times)

Schools around the country are figuring out how to respond to the administration’s orders to end their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. “More than 240 colleges … have eliminated some aspects of their programming, including diversity offices or race-based affinity groups,” by one count. The University of Akron has stopped funding an annual forum on race, although administrators also cited falling attendance in that decision, and the University of North Carolina at Asheville will no longer make a suite of diversity-focused classes a graduation requirement. Some higher-education institutions are laying low, waiting for the outcome of litigation over the orders, while some K-12 school systems, which are less reliant on federal funds, are openly defiant. (New York Times)

The Trump administration and its allies have levelled attacks on religious groups for helping migrants, reflecting an escalating attack from the White House on the role of nonprofits. Vice President JD Vance accused the Catholic Church of helping “illegal immigrants” in order to collect government grants, while right-wing provocateur Michael Flynn’s accusations of money laundering against Lutheran nonprofits was amplified by Elon Musk on X. Experts said it is a turnaround from decades of cooperation between the government and religious nonprofits that help the needy, including immigrants. They also said this new posture, combined with international-aid cutoffs, could imperil the human rights of religious minorities around the world that the United States has sought to protect. (Washington Post)

Most of the billionaire philanthropists who launched highly visible climate-related campaigns in the past few years have been quiet about the Trump administration’s work to gut environmental measures and promote fossil fuels. While Michael Bloomberg pledged to make up the United States’s contribution to the UN’s climate body after Trump pulled out of the Paris climate accord, Jeff Bezos, founder of the $10 billion Bezos Earth Fund, has made no public statement on Trump’s environmental policies. Neither has Bill Gates, Laurene Powell Jobs, or Marc Benioff. Some billionaire-funded foundations and tech companies reached for comment, however, said they were sticking with their plans to reduce their own emissions and support climate solutions. (New York Times)

In a first, President Donald Trump has removed all the members of the Kennedy Center’s board appointed by his predecessor and installed himself as chairman. The new board of Trump loyalists, in turn, has fired the federally funded nonprofit center’s president, Deborah Rutter, and named Richard Grenell as her interim replacement. Grenell served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany during the first Trump administration and has been a Fox News contributor. Of the takeover, Trump told reporters, “We’re going to make sure that it’s good and it’s not going to be woke.” (Washington Post)

A group of governments, philanthropies, and tech companies is launching an effort to harness artificial intelligence for the public good. The Current AI Foundation is being spearheaded by France, in collaboration with billionaire philanthropist Pierre Omidyar’s AI Collaborative, along with other donors, countries, and tech companies. It will seek to build A.I. models using public datasets currently held by governments, and ultimately to ensure that the technology is widely available and does not become a tool for a powerful few. The foundation, whose other backers include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, Patrick J. McGovern, and Ford foundations, starts with a $400 million endowment, and aims to raise $2.5 billion over five years. (Fortune— subscription)

Billionaire philanthropist Wendy Schmidt has bought a majority stake in one of the country’s premier documentary studios. Filmmaker Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions, whose subjects have included Enron, Scientology, and state-sanctioned torture in the war on terror, will “broaden its editorial focus to include more stories on climate change and ocean health, topics that have been central” to Schmidt’s philanthropy. Gibney will continue to run the company, which has produced dozens of documentaries. Financial terms were not disclosed. (New York Times)

Charities and civic leaders in Los Angeles are mulling how best to spend the record $650 million-plus raised for wildfire recovery. Millions have already been spent, but many funders still do not have a clear idea of the most pressing needs. And once the emergency phase is over, foundations will need to parcel out the money over several years. One adviser with experience in fire recovery “encouraged foundations to see recovery as ‘a marathon of sprints’ and to hold on to enough money to help long term.” (Los Angeles Times)

Your Chronicle subscription includes free access to GrantStation’s database of grant opportunities.

Education: The Aim High grant competition, funded by New York Life Foundation and administered by the Afterschool Alliance, supports out-of-school time programs across the United States that prepare middle school students for success. In 2025, a total of 30 grants worth $1.8 million will be awarded to after-school, summer, or expanded learning programs serving middle school youth living in under-resourced communities. Grants of $20,000 or $100,000; application deadline March 7.

Financial Planning: The Foundation for Financial Planning provides annual grants to community-based and national nonprofit organizations for programs linking volunteer financial planners to people in need. Eligible programs must engage Certified Financial Planner professionals as volunteers, include one-on-one engagements between financial planner volunteers and pro bono clients, and help people in need of financial guidance or in a financial crisis who are underserved by the market and couldn’t ordinarily access quality, ethical advice. Grants range from $5,000 to $40,000; application deadline April 30.