Philanthropy Today

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)

• Plus: Trump Administration Irate at Harvard, Plans to Pull Additional $1 Billion in Funding (Wall Street Journal — subscription)

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)

• Background from the Chronicle: Fatherhood Sparked J.B. Pritzker’s Crusade for Kids

Trump Targets Cultural Institutions

• She told Trump the Smithsonian needs changing. He’s ordered her to do it. (Washington Post)
  
  • Plus: What It Means to Tell the Truth About America (Atlantic — subscription)
• ‘It’s Brutal’: Sudden Grants Cuts Devastate Iowa Museums, Libraries, and Cultural Nonprofits (Des Moines Register)
• Trump Axes Funding for SF’s Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco Standard)
• Pa. Libraries, Museums Brace for ‘Devastating Impact’ of Trump Cuts (PennLive)
  
  • Background from the Chronicle: Nonprofits and the Trump Agenda

More News

• Nonprofits Discuss How to Handle Potential Backlash From the Trump Administration (NPR)
• An NIH Stop-Work Order Threatened the Lives of Monkeys Involved In a Harvard-Led Study. Then Came a $500,000 Donation. (Boston Globe)
• Here Are the Steps This Detroit Nonprofit Exec Allegedly Took to Steal $40 Million (Root)
• The Drama Between the Archewell Foundation and the Muslim Women’s Coalition, Explained (Town & Country)

Opinion

• Nonprofits Are the Backbone of Our Community — and They’re Under Threat (Chicago Tribune)
• PBS Brings the Arts to American Living Rooms; Funding Cuts Could Change That (Los Angeles Times)

Note: In the links in this section, we flag articles that only subscribers can access. But because some journalism outlets offer a limited number of free articles, readers may encounter barriers with other articles we highlight in this roundup.