Charitable organizations that relied on U.S. foreign assistance are looking to different private and public donors now that the Trump administration suspended nearly all foreign aid contracts.

Trump Administration Freezes Foreign Aid

The Trump administration initially froze foreign aid, but has since laid off most USAID employees while ending more aid contracts and grants. Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk, who is overseeing the administration’s work to cut government spending and downside the federal workforce, has called USAID a criminal organization.

The Impact of Shutting Down International Humanitarian Assistance

Experts agree the international humanitarian assistance system has essentially operated on the back of U.S. benevolence. What seems like the sudden end of that era has shut down life-saving programs around the world and triggered an existential crisis for the international development sector.

Could private donors fill the gap?

No, the numbers do not add up.

The U.S. accounted for $64 billion, or 28% of the $223 billion in official development assistance that governments provided in 2023, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Also known as overseas aid, those funds could go directly to other countries, to humanitarian aid, to fund the work of the United Nations or to help refugees.

Private organizations and individuals would essentially need to double their gifts to make up for USAID cuts: private donations that crossed borders totaled $70 billion in 2020, the most recent year of available data in the Global Philanthropy Tracker from Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Even if all private donors gave twice as much, coordinating their activities would be a major task, and it’s unclear what organization would take that on.

Rob Nabors, the North America director for the Gates Foundation, described the scale of the challenges facing nonprofit groups that focus on global health.

“There is no foundation — or group of foundations — that can provide the funding, workforce capacity, expertise, or leadership that the United States has historically provided to combat and control deadly diseases and address hunger and poverty around the world,” Nabors said in a statement.

Read the full article about filling USAID funding gaps by Thalia Beaty at Associated Press.