Taking a Stand on Israel-Hamas Can Prove Risky for Nonprofits
Marilyn Dickey
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 Good morning. Many charities that take a stance on the Israel-Hamas War are facing funding cuts and demands that they scrub terms like “ceasefire” from their websites. Some organizations are having to cut staff and programming, especially at small social-justice groups, many BIPIC-led, reports Sara Herschander. One nonprofit lost $30,000 in funding from a longtime grant maker after posting a graphic on social media about the large numbers of Palestinian casualties. “They’re taking money away from organizations that are doing really important work for us to survive on this planet,” the group’s leader told Sara. Rising Majority, a group of progressive nonprofits founded by the Movement for Black Lives, drafted a letter for its members to sign calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Some chose not to sign for fear of losing funding; others did sign but were asked to justify doing so by funders or partners. Many of the groups calling for a ceasefire are fighting authoritarianism, the Rising Majority national director Loan Tran told Sara, adding: “In our fight against authoritarianism, in our fight for a functional democracy, we have to find ways to stay together, and I include funding partners in that.” ADVERTISEMENT  Here’s what else you need to know:  A coalition of 15 large grant makers is pouring $50 million over five years into rural America and other parts of the country that philanthropy tends to overlook. The Trust for Civic Life, which spans the ideological spectrum from the liberal Ford and MacArthur foundations to the conservative Koch philanthropy, wants to reinvigorate high-poverty towns, regions, and tribal areas, reports Drew Lindsay. Grantees in the first-round funding of $8 million include a group helping revive a town that has lost schools, grocery stores, and factories. Other grants are going to nonprofits focused on restoring a dilapidated park or improving access to health care. The trust says the recipients exemplify “everyday democracy,” though their mission doesn’t have to be specifically about democracy, Sarah Cross, a vice president with Stand Together, a trust partner, told Drew. But they have one thing in common: “They care about the issues that are keeping them from being able to feed their families and educate their kids and have safe and strong communities.”  A $1 billion gift to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine boosted overall giving by big donors 6 percent in the first five months of this year over the same period last year. If not for that contribution, giving would have dropped 14 percent, reports Maria Di Mento about a Chronicle tally. Nevertheless, fundraisers are optimistic about 2024. “Over the last 18 months, we’ve seen organizations kind of reset their fundraising amounts to pre-pandemic levels,” Meredith Schneider, a fundraising consultant, told Maria. “And then if you look at the first five months of this year, major gift officers who are making bold solicitations are hearing donors say yes to that and rising to the occasion to pledge their support.” Universities and colleges led the way, followed by medical centers and health care systems. Human service groups came in third with 13 gifts totaling nearly $47 million.  Kessler blames the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling for injecting billions of dollars into the political process and says it has benefited both left-leaning and the right-leaning organizations, reports Alex Daniels. “The people who suggest Arabella has political sway misunderstand the nature of the business,” he told Alex in a Q&A. “Arabella is an analyst. We are an operations provider. We provide compliance services to donors, including fiscal sponsor entities. Arabella has never sought to have political sway, and I don’t believe that we do.” Besides opposing Citizens United, he also supports the Disclose Act, which would be a first step in overturning that decision, and he’s in favor of campaign finance reform. “I think that we should have a new playbook and a new set of rules for everybody.” — Marilyn Dickey, senior editor for copy
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More News, Advice, and Opinion OPINION By Eboo Patel  The regular people who worked at my local Y showed me how everyday institutions can bridge divides and level the playing field. OPINION By Ryan Merkley  Data on the communities grantees serve should be accurate, accessible, and used for their benefit. Grant makers can ensure this happens. DEMOCRACY By Drew Lindsay  The nonprofit Big Sunday is defying the downturn in volunteerism as it pursues founder David Levinson’s dual mission: community service that builds community. LOGISTICS By Gabriela Aoun Angueira, Associated Press  Unreliable power is a widespread problem for community health centers, which serve more than 30 million patients at 14,000 locations. ENVIRONMENT By Matthew Leonard, Honolulu Civil Beat  Help Maui Rise fund has drawn praise for its transparency and a commitment to disbursing donations more equitably by using data. By Maria Di Mento  Plus, Rochester, N.Y. area billionaire Tom Golisano gave $50 million to build a center to help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and University of South Carolina lands $30 million for engineering and computing. GRANTS ROUNDUP By M.J. Prest  Plus, the Shubert Foundation awarded $40 million in unrestricted grants to 653 nonprofit arts and culture organizations, and the Helmsley Charitable Trust gave $15 million to remove 15 million pounds of floating plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. TRANSITIONS By M.J. Prest  Also, GivingTuesday has named two new executives, and the Fred L. Emerson Foundation has appointed its next president. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Bothwell regularly argued that nontraditional charities deserved respect, recognition — and inclusion in workplace giving campaigns. WHAT WE’RE READING ELSEWHEREDiscussion groups, lectures, civic projects, and retreats are part of a growing movement across the country to bring together people of different ideologies and backgrounds and mend the deep rifts in American public life. Members of groups such as the Kentucky Rural-Urban Exchange and the Kalamazoo Lyceum leave politics at the door, as they seek to fill in for some of the civic institutions, such as local newspapers, Little Leagues, and community associations, which have withered in an era of animosity and isolation. (New York Times) A spectrum of groups, from progressive watchdogs to anti-Trump conservatives, has been mapping scenarios and making contingency plans to respond to a potential second Trump administration. Immigration-rights groups are setting up rapid-response teams to deal with stepped-up immigration raids and deportations, for example, while the ACLU is drafting legal filings on issues most likely to be targeted by a Trump White House. Many organizations are meeting to devise coordinated responses as they try to “democracy-proof our actual institutions and the values that we share,” said Patrick Gaspard, CEO of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. (New York Times) To many people living on the street, the relatively cheap tiny-home communities that cities across the country are building offer more dignity, and often more safety, than shelters. But their shortcomings are becoming clearer as they proliferate, such as in Los Angeles’s Branford Village, where floodwaters seep in and some residents have been forced to double up with strangers in a space the size of a garden shed. (New York Times and Associated Press) OpenAI, along with at least two other nonprofits linked to its CEO, Sam Altman, have backtracked on commitments to public transparency. The two other organizations, UBI Charitable and OpenResearch, study and seek to mitigate the economic dislocation that widespread artificial intelligence is likely to cause. In tax filings, they have reported that a wide range of documents is publicly available, but now say their policies have changed and refuse to disclose them. They said the previous vow of transparency referred only to tax filings and their applications for tax-exempt status, which must be legally disclosed. (Wired) So far, Melinda French Gates’s approach to philanthropy is embracing neither the intense oversight and rigorous political neutrality of the eponymous foundation she started with ex-husband Bill Gates, nor the invisibility of major donor MacKenzie Scott, to whom she has been compared and whom she calls “extraordinarily hands off.” Instead, French Gates is using her fortune, which reportedly totals nearly$34 billion, to back pro-choice organizations and support centrist political candidates, to enlist others she admires in seeking out worthy recipients, and to build coalitions on issues she cares about, primarily women’s rights and well-being. (Time) A central figure in a 2020 federal probe of deceptive charitable fundraising, which resulted in a settlement of more than $58 million, is now working with a network of at least 10 political organizations using similar practices, according to a ProPublica investigation. Thomas Berkenbush, a co-manager of a company at the heart of that scandal, has since launched another firm that raises money for groups purporting to advocate on behalf of worthy causes but that, according to tax filings, have spent more than 90 percent of those revenues on fundraising. Berkenbush and others involved did not respond to requests for comment, but another fundraiser for the network said those expenses “support a broad range of outreach efforts, including phone calls and direct mail campaigns that are designed to inform the public about the PAC’s goals and initiatives.” (ProPublica) While 90 percent of multimillionaires gave to charity last year, people with inherited wealth were somewhat less likely to give directly than their self-made counterparts, preferring instead to get involved via fundraising or mentoring, according to a recent survey of 1,007 people. But starker differences among wealthy donors were linked to age, with older donors more than twice as likely to give directly than their younger counterparts and younger donors more likely to fundraise or serve as mentors (25 percent) than older givers (6 percent). (Quartz) Art Bridges, a program sponsored by Walmart heir Alice Walton, aims to help museums across the country launch more expansive and compelling exhibitions while attracting a broader swath of visitors. The program’s network of 220 museums, so far, are pulling their holdings out of storage and loaning among themselves, giving some museums enough works to mount exhibitions they have long dreamed of or to create more well-rounded shows. At the same time, Art Bridges is supporting free admissions and community-focused programming. (Barron’s) NEW GRANT OPPORTUNITIESYour Chronicle subscription includes free access to GrantStation’s database of grant opportunities. Opioid Epidemic: The Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) aims to find and foster innovative solutions to ending the nation’s opioid and drug overdose crisis. FORE’s Opioid Crisis Innovation Challenge 2024 will provide grants for innovative projects that explore or evaluate new “outside-the-box” ideas, bring together approaches from several diverse fields, and engage multi-disciplinary, cross-sector teams to solve some of the crisis’ most intractable problems. Concept notes due August 8; grants up to $300,000 for up to two years. Japanese American Community: The JA Community Foundation supports nonprofit organizations in the United States serving the Japanese American and greater Asian American communities. The Foundation is currently focusing funding on the Japanese American community. Support is provided for programs and projects that focus on senior health and services, history, arts and culture, and youth. Grants support new projects and improvements to existing programs. Letters of inquiry accepted from July 1 to July 31; grants range from $2,500 to $50,000.
RECOMMENDED WEBINAR  Join our webinar —It isn’t easy to create a campaign that captures donors’ attention — and gets them to give — during the most competitive fundraising time of the year. And 2024’s giving season presents even more challenges, including wars, economic worries, and a politically charged presidential election. To learn how to build a smart strategy despite the tricky climate, join the Chronicle on Thursday, July 18 at 2 p.m. ET for a 75-minute webinar and get a jump on your planning. Our expert guests will share tips for creating a timeline that can be adapted if needed, ways to engage everyone at your organization in fundraising to boost results, and real-world examples of approaches that are working — and which to avoid. Register now.
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