J.D. Vance’s Radical Views on Philanthropy; and the Nonprofit World’s Reactions to the Trump Assassination Attempt
Marilyn Dickey
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 Good morning. As a Republican U.S. senator from Ohio, J.D. Vance has made no secret of his opposition to progressive foundations with large endowments, calling them “social justice hedge funds” and the Ford and Gates foundations in particular “cancers on American society.” In 2023, he sponsored legislation to raise the tax on the net investment gains on the endowments of the wealthiest colleges from 1.4 percent to a whopping 35 percent, reports Alex Daniels. And he would like to increase annual foundation payouts from 5 percent of assets to 20 percent. “We are actively subsidizing the people who are destroying this country, and they call it a charity,” Vance said on Fox News in 2021. Now that he’s the GOP nominee for vice president, it’s unclear whether these issues will be raised on the campaign trail — or in the White House if former President Donald Trump wins. But if Trump were to retake the presidency and charitable endowments became an issue, Vance’s efforts to require higher payouts from foundations and tax endowments could help push policy related to philanthropy front and center in Washington. “Every policymaker should consider the implications of restricting generosity and charitable giving vehicles,” Elizabeth McGuigan, a senior vice president at the conservative think tank Philanthropy Roundtable, said in a statement. “Any policy prescription aimed at charitable giving must use a scalpel and not a sledgehammer or we risk hurting millions of Americans who rely on charities.” Vance’s views are a cause for concern for many in the nonprofit world. “There hasn’t been anyone at this height of American politics and policymaking who has thought as seriously about these things for more than half a century,” Michael Hartmann, senior fellow at the Capital Research Center, a conservative group that monitors philanthropy and political giving, told Alex. “Establishment philanthropy and its lobbyists should have at least a little concern now that he’s the vice presidential nominee.” ADVERTISEMENT  Here’s what else you need to know:  Brian Hooks, the CEO of conservative billionaire Charles Koch’s philanthropy Stand Together, wrote a statement on the group’s site about a conversation he had with his 10-year-old daughter, reports Drew Lindsay. “[Saturday] can be a wake-up call and mark the moment when we decide to build toward a better future together, or it can be a battle cry to double down on our divisions,” Hooks wrote. Drew spoke with nonprofit and foundation leaders and collected statements from others, compiling more than two dozen quotes about their reactions to the incident. Among those leaders, Timothy Shriver, founder of Unite, said in a statement: “Sudden and violent attacks shake my sense of safety and remind me of some of the most terrifying experiences of my life. I grieve for the lost and grieve, too, for those who survive. A bullet can pierce a body but also pierce the peace in our hearts.” Meantime, in a Chronicle opinion piece, Joe Goldman, president of the Democracy Fund, writes that political leaders and media figures aren’t the only ones at risk of such violence. So, too, are pro-democracy movement leaders — people working on voting rights or civil rights, for example. The dangers can be physical, legal, or digital, and grant makers should support measures to protect them and encourage them to be open about the threats they feel.  After a yearlong pause in grant making, the Open Society Foundations has announced its first major commitment — $400 million for green economic development, reports Thalia Beaty for our partner the Associated Press. The goal is to produce sustainable jobs in clean energy in Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Senegal, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Last year, the OSF announced it would lay off about 40 percent of its work force of 800 people and informed many of its grantees that they were being cut off. The organization has now distributed the final $300 million to those groups. In making this first new round of pledges, the OSF considered a number of questions, said the organization’s president, Binaifer Nowrojee: “How do you improve regulations so that pollution comes down? How do you create tax breaks for businesses that adopt green technologies? How do you help governments with building up green infrastructure — solar, wind, hydropower? … And then with the nature of work changing, how do you upskill work forces?”  Artificial intelligence seems like a very recent innovation for nonprofits, but some savvy groups have been using it for years, reports Sara Herschander. The nonprofit Fast Forward has identified four ways it’s being used: to provide personalized advice, to make sense of troves of data and identify patterns and insights, as a translation tool, and to build more artificial intelligence tools. The result has been successes as well as cautionary tales. The mental health nonprofit Koko has used A.I. to monitor and identify potentially dangerous search queries about self-harm on social media, but it also came under fire for using A.I. to write mental-health support messages on its peer-to-peer platform. As Fast Forward’s Kevin Barenblat told Sara, technology, sometimes including A.I., can help find solutions to issues like homelessness, educational inequity, or climate change. “But for nonprofits, it needs to stay impact- first.” — Marilyn Dickey, senior editor for copy
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More News, Advice, and Opinion OPINION By Benjamin Soskis  The right’s politicized calls to “follow the money” speak to a very real need for donor transparency and nonprofit oversight. OPINION | GOOD GIFT-BAD GIFT? By Amy Schiller  While making medical school free is a worthy endeavor, to truly transform health care, Bloomberg needs to think bigger. FUNDRAISING By Ben Gose  The groups’ strategies include appealing to volunteers, adding humor to appeals, and surveying supporters to find messages that resonate. DISASTER RELIEF By James Pollard, Associated Press  While nonprofit and mutual aid organizations have honed their disaster services in a city frequently battered by severe weather, some now find themselves drained by repeat deadly events. TRANSITIONS By M.J. Prest  Plus, the former longtime CEO of the Weingart Foundation will now lead Covenant House California, and LISC has named its new executive vice president of programs. THE FACE OF PHILANTHROPY By Nicole Wallace  Honorees each receive a $100,000 unrestricted award. “We trust that people know what they need,” says Rebekah Frank, program officer at the foundation that sponsors the awards. GRANTS ROUNDUP By M.J. Prest  Also, the Open Society Foundations committed $400 million through its new Economic and Climate Prosperity program, and the George Gund Foundation gave $12.5 million to strengthen democracy through nonpartisan groups. GIFTS ROUNDUP By M.J. Prest  Plus, Eric and Wendy Schmidt pledged $5.5 million to NPR to bolster collaborative journalism nationwide, and a couple gave $4 million to expand the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. TRANSITIONS By M.J. Prest  Also, the Trevor Project has tapped its first Black and nonbinary CEO, and the League of Women Voters has promoted its next leader from within. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The piece failed to acknowledge funders’ justifiable objections to language they view as antisemitic, readers say. WHAT WE’RE READING ELSEWHEREA group funded by wealthy Christians that aims to mobilize Republican voters and defeat Joe Biden this year has nonprofit experts questioning its status as a tax-exempt charity. According to thousands of documents, videos, and emails, Ziklag is focusing on voter rolls — including using an A.I.-based system “to mount mass challenges to the eligibility of hundreds of thousands of voters in competitive states” — turning out Christian voters, and using the issue of transgender rights to get people to the polls. The ultimate vision of the group, whose donors include office supply billionaire Uihlein family, the Greens, who run Hobby Lobby, and the Wallers, who own the Jockey apparel corporation, is Christian dominion over seven key areas of American life, the documents say. An attorney for Ziklag said the group does not endorse political candidates, but several experts said its activities test or violate the bounds of legality for 501(c)(3) organizations. (ProPublica and Documented) The president of Florida A&M University has resigned as part of the fallout from a $237 million donation that never materialized. Larry Robinson led the historically black school for seven years, during which its enrollment broke records and its graduate engineering program won national plaudits. But he has acknowledged ignoring “warning signs” about the massive gift, which was announced at this year’s commencement ceremony and whose donor had made grandiose pledges to other colleges and universities that did not pan out. The Board of Governors for the state’s university system is looking into the circumstances leading to the gift. (Chronicle of Higher Education) Although the spotlight has turned to Warren Buffett’s three children with the news that he will leave his $130 billion fortune to them to give away, they are already, quietly, among the country’s top philanthropists. From 2001 to 2023, they received nearly $7.9 billion in Berkshire Hathaway shares and gave away at least $7.4 billion, recently distributing between 28 percent and 94 percent of their foundations’ assets. Their philanthropies tend to attract less attention than others because with all that giving — made possible by annual gifts from their father — their foundations’ assets under management have amounted to less than $760 million each in the latest tax filings. (Forbes — subscription) The chief litigator of the American Civil Liberties Union is stepping down after a grueling eight-year tenure that saw more wins than losses before an increasingly conservative Supreme Court. When David D. Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University, became the ACLU’s legal director in 2016, he expected Hillary Clinton to win the presidency and appoint liberal justices. Donald J. Trump’s election made the job more challenging, but it also supercharged donations and helped the organization nearly double its membership. No successor has been named. (New York Times) In a few days, researchers will release the results of a three-year study of universal basic income, amid a debate over what responsibility tech moguls have to those who stand to lose from the innovations that have made them rich. The study, which tracked 3,000 people in Illinois and Texas, was backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, along with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, and others. Altman has said direct payments will be necessary as artificial intelligence takes over many functions now performed by humans. Some outside Silicon Valley are urging tech billionaires to use their clout to lobby for federal basic income programs. A scholar of universal basic income said the tech community has a particular obligation to help. “They’re using our data to create their products and haven’t paid us back. And they’re the ones saying they’ll disrupt the economy and put people out of work.” (New York Times) California Gov. Gavin Newsom has pulled a $10 million state homelessness grant from San Diego County, which he said moved too slowly to build the tiny homes it was meant to fund. Residents near a site in San Diego had objected, and county officials had not yet found an alternative. Meanwhile, Newsom has complained of local foot-dragging around the state on the issue of homelessness as the numbers of people on the street continue to climb. The state will transfer the grant to San Jose to build interim housing. (Politico) The Justice Department is accusing employees of the country’s largest provider of shelter for unaccompanied migrant children of sexually abusing and harassing minors in their care over several years. In a lawsuit, the department says employees at Southwest Key, a nonprofit based in Austin, Texas, that has received nearly $6 billion in federal funds since 2007, raped children, badgered them for nude photos, and threatened them with violence if they reported the abuse. The department is seeking compensation for the children. Workers for Southwest Key were charged with sexually assaulting minors at one facility in 2018 and the nonprofit paid a fine and lost two shelter licenses after videos surfaced of physical abuse at facilities in Arizona. A spokeswoman for Southwest Key said the complaint “does not present the accurate picture of the care and commitment our employees provide to the youth and children.” (New York Times) In November, voters in California will consider a ballot question backed by landlords that would stymie the efforts of one man, who runs the country’s largest AIDS organization, to champion rent control. Michael Weinstein is a wealthy health-care executive who runs the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and owns low-income housing that has drawn a slew of lawsuits over allegedly poor conditions. He has also tried repeatedly to chip away at or repeal a state anti-rent-control measure. This year’s initiative, sponsored by the California Apartment Association and allied groups, would restrict the financial activities of health-care organizations that meet specific conditions, “which, by all indications, are met only by Weinstein’s foundation.” (San Francisco Chronicle) Musicians, artists, journalists, and drag performers are among the final cohort of the Ford and Andrew W. Mellon foundations’ Disability Futures Fellows. The 20 honorees will each receive an unrestricted $50,000 grant. They include a deaf rapper and actor who performed in sign language at the 2022 Super Bowl and an actress and writer who in 2020 became one of the first Black deaf actors to portray a video game character. Begun in 2020, the program aims to boost the visibility of creators with disabilities. (New York Times) Boston is handing out more than 25 grants to fund temporary works of art commemorating those whose historical contributions to the city have long been overlooked. The “Un-monument | Re-monument | De-Monument: Transforming Boston” program is funded by the Mellon Foundation’s nationwide effort to balance the scales in public memory, given that the overwhelming majority of public monuments are to white men. Recipients in Boston plan to create temporary sculptures and murals, and theater and new media pieces, among other types of work. One project will allow visitors to use their phones to learn about a thriving Black community that existed in the 1700s. (Boston Globe) NEW GRANT OPPORTUNITIESYour Chronicle subscription includes free access to GrantStation’s database of grant opportunities. Public Spaces: Through the Hometown Grants Program, T-Mobile is investing $25 million over five years, through 2026, to fund community projects in small towns across the United States. Each quarter, 25 grants of up to $50,000 are provided for shovel-ready projects to build, rebuild, or refresh community spaces that help foster local connections in small towns. Next deadline is Sept. 30. Youth and Technology: The Responsible Technology Youth Power Fund aims to support youth and intergenerationally led organizations shaping the responsible technology movement. Grants are available to youth and intergenerationally led organizations working in the responsible tech space on topics like artificial intelligence (AI), mental health and well-being, and climate change. Grants range from $25,000 to $150,000; application deadline August 9.
RECOMMENDED WEBINAR  Join our webinar —Sound budgets demonstrate to grant makers your nonprofit’s financial health, show how your spending aligns with your mission and goals, and instill trust. Yet some grant seekers focus on perfecting the narrative elements of proposals while overlooking errors, gaps, and other problems in their budgets. This is an expensive mistake: Weak budgets can break a strong proposal — and cost your nonprofit a grant. How can you build proposal budgets that assure grant makers and improve your odds of securing support? Join us for a 75-minute webinar on Thursday, August 15 at 2 PM ET to learn from our expert guests. Register now.
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