WHAT WE’RE READING ELSEWHERE
The Trump Administration and Nonprofits
Employees of Elon Musk’s DOGE project have taken over an online clearinghouse for federal grant opportunities, according to sources for the Washington Post. After a DOGE engineer deleted many officials’ permissions to post grants to the grants.gov site, officials must email their notices to an inbox at the Department of Health and Human Services, where someone at DOGE will review them. The website posts about 5,000 notices of grant opportunities, worth more than $500 billion, annually for nonprofits, universities, and local governments “for activities that include cancer research, cybersecurity, highway construction, and wastewater management.” (Washington Post)
Representatives of Elon Musk’s DOGE team told attorneys for a nonprofit that they plan to embed themselves in all institutes or agencies that receive federal funds, according to a transcript of the conversation. On a phone call to discuss placement of a DOGE representative with the Vera Institute of Justice, one DOGE member said that DOGE wants to have teams assigned to every institute and agency that receives federal funds through the congressional appropriations process. A DOGE spokesman said the meeting was in keeping with the executive order establishing the group. They backed off upon learning that Vera had just lost $5 million in federal grants. In a statement, Vera Institute president Nick Turner said, “This administration has systematically attacked every aspect of civil society, from academia to law firms and the media, and is now coming after the nonprofit sector.” (Washington Post)
A legal nonprofit backed by major conservative donors is challenging the Trump administration’s new tariffs against China in a federal lawsuit. Lawyers for the libertarian-leaning New Civil Liberties Alliance are representing a Florida business owner who argues that her business has been harmed by the tariffs and that the president overstepped his authority in imposing them. The alliance has received millions from powerful conservative groups including the Charles Koch Foundation and Donors Trust, which has financial ties to Leonard Leo, who advised Trump on appointing the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority. A spokesman for Stand Together, the umbrella group for Charles Koch’s philanthropies, said it is “not involved in this case.” (New York Times)
The Trump administration is planning to ask Congress to rescind $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, sources told the New York Times. That amounts to two years of funding, most of which goes to local member stations of NPR and PBS. Another $100 million for emergency communications would be left intact. Given perennial attempts by Republicans in the White House and Congress to defund it, NPR produced a report in 2011 that concluded that “up to 18 percent of roughly 1,000 member stations across the United States would close,” if government funding dried up, with the Midwest, South, and West most affected. (New York Times)
One of the country’s oldest and largest criminal justice nonprofits has had federal grants canceled, in what the organization’s vice president is calling “an opening salvo” in the Trump administration’s campaign against criminal justice reform. The Vera Institute of Justice is appealing the decision, which imperils about $5 million worth of funding for “programs to improve prison conditions and mental health crisis response, as well as training law enforcement to better serve deaf survivors of domestic violence.” Vice President Insha Rahman said the Vera Institute was the first criminal justice nonprofit to be targeted, via a form letter, likely for its vocal criticism of the Trump administration. The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In fiscal 2023, the organization had revenue of $263 million, according to tax filings. (Mother Jones)
The Justice Department can temporarily cut funding for legal guidance for people facing deportation, a federal judge has ruled, while he hears litigation brought by groups that would receive those grants. The ruling means that a coalition of nonprofits that offer education programs, including counsel for children and a help desk for immigration court appearances, lost their funding as of midnight April 16. The Justice Department has been attempting to end its contracts with the groups since January 22. The judge said he hopes to rule on the case in a month. (Associated Press)
The Justice Department has cancelled hundreds of grants that support violence-prevention and victim-advocacy efforts, among other things. The cancellations, which come mid-funding cycle for many organizations, affect at least $180 million worth of grants. The leader of a nonprofit set to lose funding said she was baffled that support of crime victims has been deemed at odds with the administration’s priorities, while a former Biden official noted that most of the targeted organizations serve isolated or marginalized communities. A Justice Department official said that the money would be reallocated to better support Trump administration priorities, including combating violent crime, protecting victims of trafficking and sexual assault, and ‘protecting American children.’ (Washington Post)
Harvard saw a surge in online donations in the 24 hours after its president announced the university would not comply with Trump administration demands to make big changes at the institution. The institution received more than 3,800 online donations totaling more than $1 million, more than 40 times the average intake of other April days. Laurence H. Tribe, a professor emeritus, says he has heard from many people who want to give. “I’m getting a huge, huge response from people,” he said, “not only alumni and not only former students of mine — of whom there are thousands — but also from people who never had a thought about Harvard that was positive in their lives.” (Harvard Crimson)
Harvard University is looking to its major donors to help make up the billions in federal dollars it stands to lose after rejecting the Trump administration’s demands to change its culture and operations. The school’s leaders are reaching out to the likes of Michael Bloomberg, David Rubenstein, and John Paulson, sources told the Wall Street Journal. They will also need to woo donors who walked away over concerns about the climate on campus for Jewish students during the war in Gaza. Major contributor Peter Malkin, a lawyer and real-estate investor, has stepped up his giving, saying, “The shame of all of this is that what is being damaged is science and medical research, which has really nothing to do with antisemitism.” (Wall Street Journal — subscription)
Harvard University is suing the Trump administration over the administration’s demands to police the school’s culture and operations. In a federal lawsuit, the university argues that the government’s freeze on billions of dollars in grants, ostensibly over Harvard’s failure to address campus antisemitism, is an unconstitutional infringement on the school’s academic freedom. It also argues that the government, which has accused Harvard of violating its Jewish students’ civil rights, has bypassed the proper procedures for addressing potential civil rights abuses. The administration’s antisemitism task force, which made the demands, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Boston Globe)
Some major donors have quietly urged Harvard University’s leaders to try to defuse the school’s feud with the Trump administration and re-engage in talks. Among those pushing for a softer approach are financiers John Paulson and William Ackman. Instead, the university is suing the administration over demands a White House antisemitism task force made related to Harvard’s culture and operations and requiring government audits. Those demands came in an April 12 letter that an administration lawyer reportedly said had been sent by mistake, scuttling behind-the-scenes negotiations that had been going on since late March. (New York Times)
The Trump administration says it is not preparing an executive order targeting progressive nonprofits, some of which had feared the president would attempt to revoke their tax-exempt status. Just as President Trump was asking the Internal Revenue Service to end Harvard University’s tax exemption, rumors started flying that certain groups could be singled out for the same treatment. In response to a reporter’s question, Trump himself “said the targets ‘could be’ immigrant-rights or environmental groups, and voluntarily name-checked the watchdog group CREW.” Those groups have been under close scrutiny in the White House, sources told the New York Times. (New York Times)
If J.B. Pritzker, Illinois’s billionaire governor, runs for president as widely expected, among the arrows in his quiver will be the philanthropy work he and his extended family have done for decades. Pritzker and his wife, Mary Kathryn, have given away hundreds of millions of dollars through the foundation they launched in 2001, and in 2023 Pritzker started Think Big America, a social-welfare nonprofit that defends abortion rights across the country. In addition, major giving by the governor’s siblings and cousins, heirs to the Hyatt hotel fortune, “means the Pritzker name is on many things in the Chicago area.” (Wall Street Journal — subscription)
Food and consumer goods giant Unilever is looking into grants made by the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation to a nonprofit that has been critical of the World Bank and Israel. At issue are grants the philanthropy has made to the Oakland Institute, an employee and founder of which serve as a foundation trustee. Unilever, which bought the ice cream maker in 2000, has given between $1 million and $6 million annually to the foundation, which was to maintain its independence under the terms of the deal. Founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield reportedly have been seeking investors to help repurchase the company from Unilever. (Semafor)
Some California nonprofits are mounting a fight against the Trump administration’s agenda even as many of their counterparts avoid the conflict in order to survive. St. John’s Community Health, a major provider of care for the state’s working class and immigrants, is leading a coalition to save Medicaid from GOP cuts via a campaign in the districts of vulnerable Republican lawmakers. The Public Counsel nonprofit law firm is seeking to intervene in court on behalf of sanctuary cities threatened with the loss of federal funding, and the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust continues to push for equitable redevelopment, even at the risk of a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. (Los Angeles Times)
Foundations that have long supported New York City’s emerging artists, venues, and troupes are rejiggering their grant-making, creating tumult in the city’s nonprofits arts scene. The Doris Duke Foundation is narrowing its focus; the Ford Foundation is looking to spread its largesse more equitably across the country; and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation seems to be making fewer, but larger, gifts, with an emphasis on recipients who have not received grants in the past. As a result, some arts residency and support programs have closed or pared back their offerings. (New Yorker)
Your Chronicle subscription includes free access to GrantStation’s database of grant opportunities.
Performing Arts: Venturous Theater Fund’s Venturous Capital Grants support productions of new plays perceived as especially challenging at nonprofit theaters across the U.S. Support is provided for productions of text-based, author-driven new plays that are ambitious in scale, epic in scope, challenging in form, controversial in subject matter, experimental in concept, or unabashed in their theatricality. Grants primarily range from $5,000 to $30,000; letters of inquiry accepted May 1 to June 2.
Civics: The Herb Block Foundation’s Encouraging Citizen Involvement grant program seeks to help ensure a responsible, responsive democratic government through citizen involvement. Support is provided nationally. Proposals may focus on citizen education and greater voter participation in the electoral process. (All projects must be nonpartisan and may not involve lobbying for specific legislation or candidates.) Grants range from $5,000 to $25,000; letters of inquiry due June 4.
