I don’t need to tell you that 2025 has been an extremely challenging year. Let me offer up an incomplete list of actions of the current presidential administration that should alarm every foundation and donor, across the ideological spectrum and regardless of personal party affiliation, and highlight what nonprofits need most at this critical juncture.

  • The dismantling of international aid, the dismantling of vital health-related research, and the gutting of key aspects of our domestic social safety net — which is already increasing the suffering of the most vulnerable
  • Federal funding cuts of duly congressionally allocated funds that are threatening (or in some cases have already damaged) the ability of nonprofits to do their crucial work helping people and communities
  • The detention and imprisonment of people legally in this country and censorship and retaliatory investigations that seek to put political opponents behind bars
  • An assault on objective data, including the dismantling of vital data systems and the firing of those who dare to report out bad news or inconvenient facts
  • The deployment of U.S. military forces in American cities under false pretenses about crime levels

And, of course, we see horrific, totally unjustifiable and deplorable political violence — from the assassination of Minnesota legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband in June to the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah in September. We’ve also seen attempts by the current administration to use that violence — the assassination of Kirk in particular — as a pretext to go after nonprofits and foundations.

This is where we are; America in 2025.

As Nonprofits Are Reeling, Here's What They Need Most

Nonprofits, big and little, national and local, they’re all affected. And, of course, most nonprofits are small and local — they are the community organizations which President George H.W. Bush spoke of powerfully in his 1988 Republican National Committee speech as “a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.”

Right now, the current federal government seems intent on dimming those lights. On February 6, a White House memo referenced “NGOs, many of which are engaged in actions that actively undermine the security, prosperity, and safety of the American people.” Around that same time, we surveyed our representative panel of U.S. nonprofits. At that time, we saw that fully 70 percent of respondents saw the political climate as negative for their work. Overwhelmingly, leaders worried about funding — but 40 percent also cited safety and security (of staff and those served) as a concern.

Read the full article about what nonprofits need most right now by Phil Buchanan at The Center for Effective Philanthropy.